[Coffee.]

Originally Posted by Megan1

That may be the case for you, but that's not the case for everybody. I teach children's church and I've seen all kinds of different children: ones who were told that God wasn't real and still believed in Him, ones who were told God wasn't real and so didn't believe in Him, ones who were told that God was real and never questioned it, and ones who were told that God was real and still didn't believe in Him. There are also the ones who were never told either way, and some of them end up believing and some don't. So my point is, God can work in a child's heart no matter what they are taught- but it of course does make it even easier if they are already told that God is real.

And I meant research to make sure that the bible really says that before I keep preaching it. I didn't mean research to prove that it was true, but just that the bible says that.

So does God just randomly choose children to work with their heart? It seems improbable that faith is something that God implants in us or something. From your exact argument, faith seems to be something we choose to engage in, from what you're saying of children growing up in many different situations and choosing completely different paths. It seems much more likely that what we're taught growing up influences our decision on religion, from following our parents to questioning our parents, rather than god actually blessing us with faith or something of the sort.

Honestly, if a child was taught that fairytales were real, I don't see why they wouldn't believe in them. If somehow we could do an experiment telling people that fairytales were true, with the majority of people pretending to believe in them as well, there's no telling what would happen. But I think, as Megan was sort of saying (either on purpose or what I got out of it) that not just what you learn at home influences your religious choices. For me pesronally, I was told God didn't exist. Sort of. My parents are fairly spiritual agnostic/atheists, more like humanists or whatever I guess, and funny enough they both GREW UP Christian/Catholic.. My mom believed that Earth was god, or something of the sort, god more being within yourself and your relationship with yourself, your body, and the earth and people around you, also known as to many Christians as "Hippie shit." Personally, I did question my parents growing up, considering god may exist, and that other religions might be true, however, I came to my own conclusion that ended up correlating pretty closely with my parents.