Argument

Raising children with religious beliefs is the process of inculcating beliefs and faith in god and religious dogmatism that is the fundamental seed for someone to be irrational and manipulated with “a fixed false belief” (Davis 2017). I do not want to raise my child in a religious tradition rather I wish to provide a deeper understanding of human existence to my children that can be derived from various works of Richard Dawkins. In his The Selfish Gene, Dawkins argued the existing altruism concept of human existence, suggesting that human beings live in groups to opt for mutual benefits (Davis 2017). I want to convey this rational mechanism of human altruism for developing my child without any biases formed by religious hegemony to look at one particular group or community supreme. Thus, The concept is evidence of human dependence on one another irrespective of community, ethnicity, race, gender, culture, and sex.

Moreover, the rational evolution of Dawkin about genes, organisms, evolution process of human beings makes my children understand the concept of memes that provide the concept of “cultural transmission” of existing beliefs within the society (McGrath 2014). It will be helpful for my children’s psychological development which nurtures rationality about different cultural norms and sets of beliefs among different people. My purpose in developing my child without the existing religious dogmatism is to transform the thought of god as a mystical being to judge people’s conduct. I prefer to allow my children to understand god as a scientific evaluation of the unrevealed mystery of this universe.

However, I support Dawkins’s argument that religion is the source of justification for false notions without any evidence along with conflict. In the view of Khan (2022), religion constitutes war, violence, and oppression that can be perceived throughout our history as well as modern society. Therefore, I have the justification to raise my children as atheists or agnostics rather than implementing certain sets of beliefs or norms that will be significant to allow a child’s independence with rational psychological nurturing. Moreover, it is also important for children’s developing sense of equality and communal harmony that is inevitable to mitigate the growing propaganda from different religious sects.

References

Davis, N., 2017. An Analysis of Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene. Macat Library.

Khan, R.M., 2022. Speaking “religion” through a gender code: The discursive power and gendered-racial implications of the religious label. Critical Research on Religion, 10(2), pp.153-169.

McGrath, A.E., 2014. Dawkins’ God: From the selfish gene to the God delusion. John Wiley & Sons.