Here's a thought experiment I often wonder about. In all religions, parents feel it is their right and duty to educate students in their own religion. Similarly, atheists feel that they should shelter their children from religion. This however leads to claims of brain washing, i.e. , the children have been so brainwashed into their parents beliefs that it is hard for them to break out of that mold when they become adults.  So here's the idea: what if a long term study was conducted on a sample of children with parents from different religions where the parents were asked not to educate their kids about their (the parents') religion? The children would still be allowed to observe the religion in their society as a cultural thing. For example, in a Christian household, the children would be able to see other people in the community going to church etc. The children would also be allowed to read books and use other non-parent sources to investigate about religion. When the children approach and age of 'reason', previously agreed upon, the children would be presented with primary sources of different religions and books on atheism. After that, the researchers would study and record the patterns and road the religious beliefs of theses children take.

This study would allow us to understand the extent of parent's beliefs influencing their children's beliefs. It would also hopefully allow us to study how much the society affected the children's beliefs. Mostly, it would be kind of interesting to see which religion (or form of atheism)the children pick when they are adults.

My musings were about this: all religions and atheism claim that their beliefs can be at least supported  by reason. Very few religions would claim that their beliefs are completely irrational. This study would in a way put those claims up to test, and hopefully allow a measure of which beliefs can be somewhat arrived at through logic and reason.

I am also partly concerned with Islamic views about freedom of children to choose their religion upon reaching adulthood. There is the idea that Muslim parents have a duty to educate their children about Islam from a very young age. Thus, Muslim children would grow up with knowing about only Islam as a way to answer the question about existence. Let's assume that the moment the child reaches the age of reason, he starts studying about other religions and atheism, and decides to change his religion. The formal punishment in Islamic law in an Islam country for apostasy is death. This means that Muslim children are essentially very limited in freedom of choosing their religion: when infants, they only know of Islam, and when they reach the age where they can reason and think on their own about their beliefs, they have the threat of a death penalty. Maybe I'm missing something in my line of reasoning here, but if so, I would love to know what the Islamic idea of children education is.