First, it baffles me you say, "rather than teach children the religion of our choice," when so many religions assert absolute truth while there is a direct correlation with the religion you "choose" with the country you live in. It is rather absurd you can get past this premise to "choose" a religion. But lets be real here, the authority of most religions are so anxious in preserving the purity in their children, that they are intent on keeping them ignorant from other religions in the first place.
So, let me get this straight. Because I live in the United States, which has somewhere on the order of six thousand Christian denominations, that means there was somehow an effect on my choice to be Jewish? Ridiculous. And furthermore, I know plenty of people who began with some other religion, including non-Western religions, or with no religion at all, who chose to convert to Judaism. I know them because I helped them study for conversion, and in some cases, sat on their Bet Din (rabbinical court, to oversee proper conversion). Some of them came from countries with no Jews, some from places without much Western religion at all. Others were Americans or Canadians or Europeans. None of them really chose to be Jewish? That seems pretty hard to believe. Were they brainwashed? Or perhaps it's some sort of strange conspiracy?
In any case, I have also taught at many Jewish schools, and they all have a World Religions class or something similar, so the kids can learn about other religions; they read selections from the Christian Bible, the Quran, various Buddhist sutras, and suchlike. Numerous times I have guest-lectured at Christian schools (of several denominations) to teach their students about Judaism. One of my good friends in college was a Muslim, and he told me that his home mosque had relationships with nearby churches and synagogues to do interfaith dialogue and mutual education about each other's religions, which is where he learned about Judaism. He said he knew of many such programs among mosques. Were all those Jews and Christians and Muslims somehow exceptions to the authorities of their religion that wanted to keep them ignorant? They all seemed fairly tolerant as well. Did I miss something?
Furthermore, during my years of engagement in interfaith dialogue, I have run into quite a number of Christians who say that their understanding of their religion is that it does not have a monopoly on truth, and both they and their children are quite well-educated about other faiths. Many of these Christians have been ministers and pastors. Are they also "vile, depraved, and inhuman?" Or are they somehow an exception to the rule? What about the many hundreds of thousands of pluralistic and tolerant Jews and Muslims out there? Do they get a pass, or must they be lumped in with the overzealous fanatics and fundamentalists?
In one sense Christianity is wrong for moral reasons and it's impact on society, in another sense the absolute truth it asserts to the world isn't true.
Yes, so you have said. But it seems quite clear that you are universalizing one particular Christian viewpoint into a presumption that all theistic religions are absolute fundamentalists. But that is not even true of all Christians. Statistically speaking, the majority of Christians in the world (or even in the United States) do not describe themselves as fundamentalist, nor do they insist on exclusively literal readings of Scripture.
As for other religions, do you even know anything about Judaism? Or Islam? Both of those religions have a multitude of different interpretations, many of which are not fundamentalist, and are quite tolerant.
You seem to have an all-too-common Euro-American view that all religions are like Christianity, and most Christians are fundamentalists. But this is simply false.
I specificlly said "scociety's morality," not mine.
Ah. And who, precisely, determines what "society's morality" might be? Since the vast majority of people in the United States, statistically, are adherents of one sort of religion or another, doesn't it seem just a bit hypocritical to suggest that they ought to have no say whatsoever into what constitutes "society's morality?" "Society," I take it, in your view should be made up of the twelve or thirteen percent of Americans who are atheists and secular humanists, and nobody else? Yes, that seems quite likely to solve the problem of people's rights being infringed upon by others....
First of all I said theist, meaning a personal god that intervenes in a governing way on earth. I never said any individual was vile, depraved, and inhumane.
You know, many theists do not believe that God constantly intervenes on earth. You might wish to actually study some religion before you condemn it all for what you think it is. Just a suggestion.
And second of all, of course, you never said that any individual was vile, depraved, and inhumane. You merely said that the teachings they embrace, by which they try to live their lives, were vile, depraved and inhumane. Surely no one could infer anything about those people from the fact that they embrace those teachings that you condemn as vile, depraved, and inhumane. Good people so often embrace core philosophies that are vile, depraved, and inhumane. How could I make such an easy mistake?
Here's the thing. Intolerance is arrogant. It doesn't matter if it comes from religious fundamentalists who say that they have the only key to Truth and everyone else is going to hell in a handbasket, or from secularists and atheists who trumpet about how all religion or belief in God makes one into a zealous lunatic just waiting to go gay bashing or strap on a suicide bomb. It's all equally arrogant. Criticizing a specific religious interpretation may be deeply supportable. Criticizing a specific school of philosophical or theological thought may be quite correct. Criticizing fundamentalism is always worth while. But uniformly condemning all religions, or all belief in God, no matter what, is just ignorant and simplistic.
Religions are not monolithic: they are made up of individuals, and their traditions are made up of many extremely complex and highly interpretable texts. Some people are going to misuse, abuse, and pervert their religions in order to oppress others. Many more will not. Problems with fundamentalists are far more likely to be dealt with effectively by thoughtful alliance with progressive and flexible religious groups and leaders than by lumping everyone into one big group and just p****** off the non-fundamentalists who basically have the same issues with fundamentalism that you do. So if you really care about trying to effect some change, a little education would help you a lot, and a little humility would do even more.