Christians guilty of 'brainwashing' kids? Answers in Genesis explains why this misconception doesn't stand up

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Christians are often accused of brainwashing children who are made to believe in miraculous stories from the Bible that critics say prevents them from understanding "real" science.

In an article from the website of the apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis, Dr. Tommy Mitchell says scientific experts have claimed that children who reject the evolutionary worldview will never truly understand the world around them and thus eventually become academic failures. Moreover, these children who refuse to accept "molecules-to-man evolution" will grow up to become unproductive citizens of the modern world, the so-called experts claim.

Mitchell says it is unfair to accuse Christians of brainwashing children because they are responsible for bringing up their children in the truth and "in the training and admonition of the Lord," according to Ephesians 6:4.

"Clearly we see that God wants children taught to believe and understand His Word. When a person — child or adult — believes that the Bible is true from the very first verse, he or she has a framework from which to understand and evaluate the claims of scientists, philosophers, theologians, and teachers of all sorts," says Mitchell. "Teaching a child to trust God's Word is a righteous action and, above all, is not brainwashing. Instead, it is equipping him or her with completely reliable biblical truth by which all other claims are to be evaluated."

On the other hand, secular society wants to teach children about the religion of humanism, together with its many tenets such as materialism, atheism, evolution, and the big bang. Mitchell finds it ironic that secular society is imposing its views on people, and those who argue with their beliefs are accused of being unscientific, unlearned and even brainwashers.

Mitchell says secularists are so afraid that people will find out about the fallacy of evolution that they "vigorously attack those who question them."

"Giving children biblical answers is not brainwashing — it is far from it," asserts Mitchell. "Biblical answers equip them with the tools to understand the world and the God who made it."