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"Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Keep,
If I Should Die Before I Wake,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Take"
"Jesus Loves Me This I Know,
For The Bible Tells Me So,
Little Ones To Him Belong,
I Am Weak But He Is Strong"
I ask you to do this for me. Examine carefully every aspect of those two children's memorizations and tell me they will not start out totally brainwashed. I believe they planned it that way.
"Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Keep,
If I Should Die Before I Wake,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Take"
"Jesus Loves Me This I Know,
For The Bible Tells Me So,
Little Ones To Him Belong,
I Am Weak But He Is Strong"
I ask you to do this for me. Examine carefully every aspect of those two children's memorizations and tell me they will not start out totally brainwashed. I believe they planned it that way.
That first (bedtime prayer) used to scare the crap out of me. What a hell of a thing to have a child say just before sleep...Normally a child does not think of death, but that prayer sure fixed that!
I was never made to memorize or say the second one, but I don't imagine it would do a child's self image much good.....Sort of a defeatist prayer.
"Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Keep,
If I Should Die Before I Wake,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Take"
"Jesus Loves Me This I Know,
For The Bible Tells Me So,
Little Ones To Him Belong,
I Am Weak But He Is Strong"
I ask you to do this for me. Examine carefully every aspect of those two children's memorizations and tell me they will not start out totally brainwashed. I believe they planned it that way.
The first one reeks of fear.
The second one reeks of low esteem.
Man, that is just so negative I can't believe that kids are taught this Moderator cut: edit . It's all so negative and corrupt. It's installing fear into innocent minds. Should be considered child abuse.
That first (bedtime prayer) used to scare the crap out of me. What a hell of a thing to have a child say just before sleep...Normally a child does not think of death, but that prayer sure fixed that!
Clearly that was the purpose, as religion has NO hold on a person without fear, so the fear must be instilled early and often to screw up the person for the rest of their life, sadly an effective method of brainwashing.
It takes a sick sick person to do this to children they are supposed to love and nurture, unless they are brainwashed puppets from the irrational fears instilled by their parents.
I'm glad I never took any of that stuff seriously as a kid. Looking at the words now and thinking about it, it is indeed disturbing.
Don't forget the ever popular Onward Christian Soldiers. I don't think most kids, at the time they're taught such things, think very deeply about them.
That first (bedtime prayer) used to scare the crap out of me. What a hell of a thing to have a child say just before sleep...Normally a child does not think of death, but that prayer sure fixed that!
I admit I always used to want to ask Protestants if they found that prayer "scary" as it always sounded a bit ominous to me.
The Catholic bedtime prayer is
"Angel of God,
my guardian dear,
to whom God's love commits me here,
ever this night,
be at my side
to light and guard,
to rule and guide."
Maybe I shouldn't put it out there here as it's just asking for critiques or mockery. I'm going to guess the "light and guard to rule and guide" part would be objectionable to those hear.
The only common Catholic prayer that sometimes unnerved me was
"Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen."
I think that's because anything that even mentioned the devil scared me as a kid. I was a child in the 1980s and, although I didn't watch those kinds of movies, there were all these movies or shows about devils back then. I remember one episode of the "New Twilight Zone" called "Gramma", which was written by Stephen King. At the end the boy had cat's eyes and was taken over by his demonic gramma or something. Scared the willies out of me, even adulthood I'd sometimes have nightmares of people's eyes turning catlike as a sign they turned evil. Maybe that was also in Jackson's "Thriller."
Note: As you know I'm not atheist, I just found this interesting and find atheists interesting.
Last edited by Thomas R.; 10-05-2009 at 10:04 PM..
"Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Keep,
If I Should Die Before I Wake,
I Pray The Lord My Soul To Take"
"Jesus Loves Me This I Know,
For The Bible Tells Me So,
Little Ones To Him Belong,
I Am Weak But He Is Strong"
I ask you to do this for me. Examine carefully every aspect of those two children's memorizations and tell me they will not start out totally brainwashed. I believe they planned it that way.
talk about brainwashing. yes sir!
i wash my own brain just as i wipe my own behind.
Phew. I was worried putting it out there would lead to a bunch of information why it's also terrible.
(Now I have seen Protestants say "it's terrible" but they don't mean scary, they mean you should never "pray to angels" or that it's unbiblical or whatever)
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