This should be interesting....
Lorcan said:
That we would ban children from attending any church or receiving any religious education of any sort.
Against.
There is no set data which suggests that religious education will result in a negative effect on the child and society. If we take the view of Professor John Lennox, he advocates that his parents gave him a religious education, attended church etc., BUT, allowed him to rigorously question, investigate and explore religion so he would make an informed decision as to whether this was right for him. Even if you allow children to attend church or have a religious education, there's no reason why that child, once they are grown up, can't cease attending or stop educating.
Religious education is necessary for a child to understand whether they belong or not. If we banned religious education, and indoctrinate a child into an atheistic education, are we not doing the exact same thing? But the use of "education" instead of "indoctrination" is where the issue is. We are not indoctrinating a child, but rather allowing the child to receive an education; I might say learning Shakespeare has a negative impact on modern day language, or that watching the news about terrorism/rape/assault/drunkenness is equally a bad indoctrination of any person etc. You should not ban "education" because knowledge is essential in a modern day society as it removes (or equalises) misunderstandings and allows people to make an informed decision.
I'm not sure why there is a focus on the "church" - why not a mosque or a temple or some New Age arena etc. Anyway, when a child is too young to understand, it is not indecent or inappropriate to allow the child to follow the religion or indoctrination of their parents. It seems perfectly normal, and that it lies in chance of where their parents are from. However, attending a (normal) church doesn't really indoctrinate you into their beliefs. It allows you to discuss, understand and engage in activities which you may want to follow in the future, or want to stop following in the future. Unfortunately, when religion is coined negatively, it is when religion has become an indoctrination and the child has not been able to experience or understand a variety of religions. When there is a close focus on an ideology, the child is susceptible to negativity towards other ideologies which do not conform.
And to be fair, I have not seen a valid example of when "education" had turned on itself, especially in a religious sense. What needs to be considered is if the child has been able to freely explore other ideologies/religions and have been able to understand their religion holistically and in comparison to their knowledge of rights, freedoms and the core nature of human beings. When they are older, if they are able to freely discuss religion, then they become the informed and more educated being, as opposed to someone else who has been isolated by their political system and has only experienced one form of religion. This is when something needs to be done and rather than religion for children be banned, an action towards those who have restricted further education and knowledge needs to be removed from society.
