Sociology

The minds of the young are like wet clay, they are malleable, easily formed into a desired shape and the longer you let it stay in the desired shape you want the more likely it wont ever change.

Teaching religion to children in schools indoctrinates them into a certain way of thinking. Religion with all its rules, doctrines precepts, commands, limitations and biases are imparted on to young impressionable minds thus creating a set of principals for them based on what they have learned. It is a well known fact that what a child learns in hisher formative years will directly translate into what sort of adult they will become. For example prohibitions of the religion of Islam against the consumption of pork will lead to an adult who wont eat pork. In the religion of Islam when it is taught that women are not the equal of men, that they are the source of sin, that they are mere properties and that their husbands are allowed to punish and abuse them now imagine saying this onto a young impressionable little girl. Instead of this individual growing up to become a strong independent women she will become a subservient wife who believes that she is the origin of sin and that its alright for her husband to abuse her. What religion does is that it sets the mind towards a certain way of thinking, that this way of thinking and acting is the best way for you to enter heaven. As adults we have a tendency to question and ask why we should do such things and make decisions for ourselves as to whether we should do them or not. This is not so for children who emulate actions rather easily and believe immediately what is said to them by adults. They dont usually question and rather assume what is said is the truth and the best for them and try to emulate it. This is technically not exactly a good thing, accepting everything as fact and emulating it immediately in your life without taking into consideration other potential avenues would result in that person growing up with a rather limited view of what the world really is. For example in the religion of Islam children are taught that women are not as good when it comes to men when it comes to professional jobs and that they should just stay at home and be homemakers and raise the children. We know this to be false since a vast majority of women are just as good or even better than most men when it comes to their professional careers however is due to perceptions taught to them early on during their formative years of education that a lot of people in the Arab world still discriminate against women in the work place even if that woman is far more capable than a man when it comes to doing that particular job.  Religion to an extent is a limiting factor for the social and emotional growth of individuals, while it may be true that religion does limit a persons tendencies toward criminal behavior teaching it early on may be more of hindrance than a boon. Children should be given the option as to what religion they would like to follow when they are mentally prepared to make that decision and not have that decision forced upon them.

Synthesis of Article
The article The impact of religion on childrens development by Azam Kamguian show what it is like to for a child to be educated in a restrictive religious context. Wherein young girls are taught early on that they are the origin of sin, that they should be humble before their husbands and that home abuse is perfectly fine. It relates to the course since it points out that being taught religion at an early time results in the indoctrination of an individual into a lifestyle that is neither of their choosing and is in fact detrimental towards their development as individuals as being reprehensively wrong and should be changed.  The main points of the article are that being taught religion early on sets limitations for how a person is able to think, that religious doctrines are being forced onto individuals who should be spending their formative years being children and having fun and that religion sets up how these individuals will grow up in the future and that sometimes the way in which they are taught to grow up isnt necessarily the best way of growing up.

Significance of the article
The article is significant in that shows the worst possible outcome of a religious education. In the U.S. religious doctrines are not enforced upon young minds rather the teacher has to be religiously neutral in all aspects of education. For me this is a good thing, allowing a student to see how other religions are and over the course of their life pick one which they believe is the most suitable for them. The article shows the effects of what would happen should religion be forcefully taught and indoctrinated onto children and how this would be detrimental towards a childs development as an individual.

 How has the article enlightened my perception.
For me the article clearly showed what it means to live an indoctrinated, religious lifestyle. To which I say I want nothing to do with it. Religion is suppose to be something which you keep close to your heart, something which you truly believe in due to your lifes experiences. Having something forced on you and having no other choice but to follow on through with it for me is  a very limiting life and is not conducive towards open mindedness.

Important questions raised by the author.
The author didnt raise any particular questions open ended or otherwise.