“I don’t think a child would believe, at least not until s/he ends up being exposed. S/he could go until preschool, around 4 maybe, hear about god from another kid, especially if it is a secular daycare or s/he might go until public school”
Actual evidence is to the contrary. Children , especially under the age of 7, are uncritical little sponges. They absorb their parent’s values and beliefs uncritically, almost as if by osmosis. With me, it was arguably the most pig ignorant, superstitious, bigoted and hateful form of a pernicious religion. I refer to Irish Catholicism
Here, first grade is at age 5. I was sent to a convent school, where the nuns began to immediately instil the party line of Catholicism, in a very structured, and efficient manner, beginning with rote learning of the Catechism. It mattered not that you had no idea what a ‘virgin’ might be.You only had to know that Jesus’ mum (“Our Lady”) was one.
Lessons began like Q; “Who made the world " A: God made the world”
Religious indoctrination begins very young, and is relentless, at every stage of our socialisation, and is permanent . I have been a ‘recovering catholic’ for over 50 years. Yet today, even though I am intellectually an atheist, cynic ,skeptic, and a bunch of other humanist labels, I remain a ‘cultural Catholic’. My gut ethical/moral values remain unchanged. On some ethical questions, my immediate feeling is the same pig ignorant Irish Catholic bigotry I was taught before the age of seven. I fight it, constantly. These days reason usually wins…
Aristotle said " Give me the child until he is 7 and I will show you the man"