Religion and brainwashing

[DPDarkPrimus]

Now all we need is some religious student to fail a quiz on Harry Potter because they refused to read it as Ratzinger said its bad.

When did this happen?

[Surlethe]

I have said before, in another thread, that children are taught religion before they have the ability to question it. Could this be a form of brainwashing?

I think just raising a child is brainwashing. You have to imprint your social patterns on your child's mind, which is, in essence, brainwashing. So, any way you imprint the child, you are brainwashing the child to have a predisposition toward that imprintation.

My $0.02, anyway.

[sketerpot]

Now all we need is some religious student to fail a quiz on Harry Potter because they refused to read it as Ratzinger said its bad.

When did this happen?

According to a few web sites, none of which are major news places, more than two years ago. Ratzinger was quoted as saying that the Harry Potter books were subtly undermining the soul of Christianity. Link 1 and link 2.

[Kuroneko]

In regards to the Catholic Church, there are many prominent books that are banned by it--one of the more ironic banned books being Descartes' Meditations, which is frequently standard in Philosophy 101 classes. One may wonder why, since Descartes himself was deeply religious and claimed to have probed the existence of God; the answer to that is simple: his work advocated removing oneself from all outside sources, doubting everything that can be doubted, and from this 'clean slate' proceed by reason alone. Even if his proof God's existence was successful, this would make the Church wholly optional, a fact which earned Descartes a place of the Catholic banned books list. As far as I know, it was still on the banned at least up to the late 20th century, possibly still (I haven't checked recently).

[DPDarkPrimus]

Now all we need is some religious student to fail a quiz on Harry Potter because they refused to read it as Ratzinger said its bad.

When did this happen?

According to a few web sites, none of which are major news places, more than two years ago. Ratzinger was quoted as saying that the Harry Potter books were subtly undermining the soul of Christianity. Link 1 and link 2.

Interesting, since the official word was that it was harmless fantasy.

[sketerpot]

According to a few web sites, none of which are major news places, more than two years ago. Ratzinger was quoted as saying that the Harry Potter books were subtly undermining the soul of Christianity. Link 1 and link 2.

Interesting, since the official word was that it was harmless fantasy.

That was from a spokesman for Pope John Paul II. Ratzinger was still just a very conservative cardinal back then, and it's certainly possible that he and the ex-Pope either didn't agree or didn't communicate on the issue.