11 replies to this topic

[lloyd lee]

Hello!

I am currently working on my TOK presentation and am looking for contra arguments in bringing a child up religiously in the modern society.

One of the arguments against for example would be the increased conflict between the religious groups.

Do you have more arguments against religious or for religious upbringing?


Best wishes!

[Sandwich]

Very interesting topic from a personal sense, but I don't see how you're relating it to Theory of Knowledge...?

[Award Winning Boss]

Against:

• The child has little to no ability to make the mind up for themselves as they are rarely exposed to different views. It's because their religion is thought of as fact.
  
• Instead of deriving morals from themselves they take it from a rule book.
  
• You could argue it's oppressive depending on how religious the parents are.

For:

• Well it gives them a set of morals. 10 commandments or the 613 in the Jewish religion ( I think that's the right number)
  
• The community in religion is usually great so it further promotes them to do good things

Can't think of anything else   but what does it have to do with tok? Remember Perception is sense perception

Edited by Award Winning Boss, Jan 29, 2012 - 16:24.

[lloyd lee]

The knowledge issue is essentially about the development of the sense of morality.

Religion relates to it, as a religious upbrining affects the sense of morality negatively and positively.

Do you see any way, how it relates to it?

[Award Winning Boss]

No I do not. That's ethics in philosophy not theory of knowledge.

http://www.ibsurviva...entation-guide/ - make that your tok bible.

[Sandwich]

lloyd lee, on Jan 29, 2012 - 17:04, said:

The knowledge issue is essentially about the development of the sense of morality.

Religion relates to it, as a religious upbrining affects the sense of morality negatively and positively.

Do you see any way, how it relates to it?

I see how you COULD relate it to TOK, but at the moment, you're not (and therefore won't score highly, either, despite having an interesting and thoughtful topic).

You need to change it to a "how do we know what we know?" type question. So you could well ask "how do we gain knowledge about religion from our upbringing?" and look at how emotion, perception, language and reason play a role - and then the issue (crux) of it is still roughly the same, but the focus is on TOK rather than on random stuff you've thought up.

Language - our parents, school etc. all tell us that religion is fab and wonderful.
Reason - are we actually capable of applying reason to religion when we're children? Questionable role of this.
Emotion - only people who believe in god will go to heaven, so if you die without believing in god you'll never see your family again... pretty strong emotional appeal (fear of being left alone, abandonment, punishment etc.), especially for a vulnerable child who can't yet use reason and other ways of knowing to dispute this.

And so on. But literally you absolutely MUST analyse it under the headings of Ways of Knowing. Or you're not doing "TOK" in the way the IBO want you do. Look at it from the perspective of multiple ways of knowing is my strong advice.

[marauder7]

Pro: It gives values and hope
Con: The child isn't able to choose what to believe in.
    I've believe that there are some extremist religions that make men think they are superior to women. You could research on this topic (maybe use extremist Talibans as example?) and argue that these extremist education can cause an individual to act negatively.

You could relate this to perception and compare how children from different religions behave due to their vision of the world.

[Sandwich]

marauder7, on Jan 29, 2012 - 18:39, said:

You could relate this to perception and compare how children from different religions behave due to their vision of the world.

Perception in the context of TOK doesn't mean viewpoint, it means literally physical sense perception - the 5 senses, touch/taste/hearing/smell/vision. So you wouldn't be relating it to TOK if you did this. Unless you argued that people from different parts of the world smell religion differently or something kinda crazy

[omri]

You're taking choice away from the child. Young children believe what they are told, and by only telling them one thing, you might be deciding what they will believe in.

Who are you to decide what your child should believe in? Just because you believe in it..

[marauder7]

Sandwich, on Jan 29, 2012 - 18:51, said:

marauder7, on Jan 29, 2012 - 18:39, said:

You could relate this to perception and compare how children from different religions behave due to their vision of the world.

Perception in the context of TOK doesn't mean viewpoint, it means literally physical sense perception - the 5 senses, touch/taste/hearing/smell/vision.

Really? Damn I guess my TOK essay has some mistakes then :/
Sometimes my TOK teacher isn't very good at explaning things
This is good to know anyways

[niggigreen]

Hey I am doing mine on a similar topic

my question is

Is a freer upbringing beneficial for the development of a growing individual‘s sense of morality?

What do you think?

[Positron]

Sandwich, on Jan 29, 2012 - 18:51, said:

marauder7, on Jan 29, 2012 - 18:39, said:

You could relate this to perception and compare how children from different religions behave due to their vision of the world.

Perception in the context of TOK doesn't mean viewpoint, it means literally physical sense perception - the 5 senses, touch/taste/hearing/smell/vision. So you wouldn't be relating it to TOK if you did this. Unless you argued that people from different parts of the world smell religion differently or something kinda crazy

Remember that "our physical senses" are not so "physical". What I mean by this, is that the feeling/hearing etc. are formed in the brain, based on the information that is being sent to the brain. That means that they could be (and probably are) effected by our preceptions/views. Of course, you still can't "smell" religion, but I just wanted to point out that what we see/hear/smell is not a direct response to a stimulus, only our brains interpretation of the situation. This could probably be used as an ToK presentation topic by itself. Like: "How do we know that we sense things the same way as others do?" or something like that. It's actually quite interesting, how do I know that the colour I think is red doesn't seem to be the colour I see as green to someone else?