At what age should a child be introduced to religion?

[arewethereyet]

My dad read me Aesop's Fables each night. So when I got read bible stories in the day I never saw the difference. Except that Aesop's were more fun and always had a clear moral to them.

Presumably, you saw similarities because the Bible gets presented as if it were an Aesop fable to children because they are children. I'm curious if you developed a different perspective of Scripture as you got older. Or if the colorful pictures in bed time stories and religious cartoons still filter the way in which you see the Bible?

My guess is that leaving religion when children stories was most of what you were exposed to has a similar effect to the way we all think of Renaissance paintings when we imagine angels and demons.

I didn't grow up in an atheist household (my family is Christian), but I also wasn't that exposed to that many religious ideas until I was in High School. Obviously, everyone saw the Prince of Egypt movie growing up, and maybe Veggie Tales, but I would say my first personal interaction with religious ideas was through a Biblical Commentary that I was given in High School. So I never got exposed to the children's stories.

My youngest was 20 when Veggie Tales came out so that didn't weigh in at all with me or mine.

The closest I was exposed to was 'Davey and Goliath' (Davey and Goliath (TV Series 1960–2004) - IMDb) which was shown on local programs that played a variety of kid stuff every afternoon.

[The Grand Nudger]

Prince of egypt and veggie tales......? That was your childhood experience of christianity coming from a christian home Breezy? I guess that's what all the witchdoctors have been pulling the fire alarm about.

In mere reality, people have noticed the similarities between christian myths and fables and legends and all the others since the very earliest christians. It's been a thing, especially for christians, the entire span of the last 2k years.

[Angrboda]

Portraying bible stories as children's stories has the advantage of a lower bar to clear for the suspension of disbelief. Nobody is looking for continuity gaps in Little Red Riding Hood. Plus, you're telling them to the most vulnerable of minds.

[John 6IX Breezy]

Prince of egypt and veggie tales......? That was your childhood experience of christianity coming from a christian home Breezy?

I grew up watching Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and Disney Channel. And I don't recall my parents reading any stories like Aesop's Fables to me as a kid. I think there is a sense in which many Christians, or at least Seventh-Day Adventists, are mildly biased against fiction. They are generally seen as a waste of time, or perhaps even corrupting the mind. So I mostly remember having a leapfrog, zoobooks, and other science books. And I think the only Bible book I had was more of an archeological book that had pictures of artifacts, history, and regions of Israel etc.

(Maybe it's also worth mentioning that I didn't grow up believing in Santa Claus either. That's not the way South American cultures celebrate Christmas. I always viewed that as an American tradition.)

I think at some point during Middle School my family went to a Prophecy Seminar, which is common in Adventist circles, and that's what sparked my personal interest in religion. I don't know if you've ever heard an SDA prophecy seminar before but they are very academic for lack of a better word. In other words, you are engaging with ideas and propositions, studying and dissecting them. And that was the tradition I followed. So even when I began to read the Bible alongside the Bible commentary in High School, I was engaging with the subject at the level of ideas rather than with the stories themselves.

[The Grand Nudger]

Might be an adventist thing. Or maybe generational. Those channels didn't exist when I was a kid growing up in southern christianity. I was introduced to christianity before I was introduced to kindergarten.

Then again, as I mentioned before, witchdoctors have been complaining these past few decades that supposed christians were not actually christian and not raising their children in christianity In fairness - the demographics of belief today suggest they were right, and still are. Just like I mention that it might be an adventist thing it would be forum malpractice if I didn't mention there are holly rollers in my family...so they way I was raised, may not be indicative of how -most- christians are raised.

The people who raised me, for example, stilly don't have cable, or internet...or....you get the picture.

[arewethereyet]

Might be an adventist thing.  Or maybe generational.  Those channels didn't exist when I was a kid growing up in southern christianity.

When I was a kid we had ABC, NBC, and CBS.  PBS wasn't even a thing.

And the TV turned off around midnight making late night baby feeding when I was in my early 20s pretty boring.  By the time I had number 3, cable was a thing.

[Ranjr]

Sunday school and "sunbeams" (the Wednesday night meeting) for children was held in the old, creaky wooden floor part of the First Baptist Church of Hope.  I enjoyed the activities and playing with friends.  Outside the classrooms, on the wall of a stairwell that I never dared ascend, hung a picture.  It was a depiction of Satan gesturing toward the expanse of territory Jesus would rule should he bow to the dark lord.

Satan, short horned and bat winged, hovered off the precipice where stood Jesus in his linen robe and long, wavy locks.  I remember staring at it and wondering how the artist knew what happened on that cliff.  How anyone knew.  Only Jesus and the devil could possibly know.  And then, I got scared.  It was a harsh contrast to "Jesus Loves the Little Children."  

Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.  Too bad they grow up.

[arewethereyet]

I had Saturday morning Catechism classes which still makes me angry due to all the good cartoons I missed.

What probably helped me not buy into what was being sold is that mom was very young and didn't give half a damn about Catholicism or any other religious teachings other than nighttime prayers. And dad was just making me go 'cause that's what you do. I didn't discuss religion with him till near the end of his life when he told me he had been atheist for decades.

[Angrboda]

I had Saturday morning Catechism classes which still makes me angry due to all the good cartoons I missed.

What probably helped me not buy into what was being sold is that mom was very young and didn't give half a damn about Catholicism or any other religious teachings other than nighttime prayers.  And dad was just making me go 'cause that's what you do.  I didn't discuss religion with him till near the end of his life when he told me he had been atheist for decades.

You had Davey & Goliath. That makes up for a lot.

[Ranjr]

A rocket that flies up and explodes, leaving stove carvings in the sky, which descend and form a disk encircling a cross.  Davey and Goliath was creepy AF.  Stop action noir.