Religious indoctrination, the original sense of indoctrination, refers to a process of imparting doctrine in an authoritative way, as in catechism. Most religious groups among the revealed religions instruct new members in the principles of the religion; this is now not usually referred to as indoctrination by the religions themselves, in part because of the negative connotations the word has acquired. Mystery religions require a period of indoctrination before granting access to esoteric knowledge. (cf. Information security)
As a pejorative term, indoctrination implies forcibly or coercively causing people to act and think on the basis of a certain ideology. Some secular critics[who?] believe that all religions indoctrinate their adherents, as children, and the accusation is made in the case of religious extremism. Sects such as Scientology use personality tests and peer pressures to indoctrinate new members. Some religions have commitment ceremonies for children 13 years and younger, such as Bar Mitzvah, Confirmation, and Shichi-Go-San. In Buddhism, temple boys are encouraged to follow the faith while young. Critics of religion, such as Richard Dawkins, maintain that the children of religious parents are often unfairly indoctrinated.
However, due to the policy of state atheism in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and the USSR in the 20th century, many citizens in those countries were subject to a government-sponsored program of atheistic indoctrination, specifically Marxist-Leninist atheism.Sabrina P. Ramet, a professor of political science, documented that "from kindergarten onward children are indoctrinated with an aggressive form of atheism" and "to denounce parents who follow religious practices at home." Similarly, in the former Soviet Union, the period of "science education Soviet schools is used as a vehicle for atheistic indoctrination", with teachers having instructions to prepare their course "so as to conduct anti-religious educations at all times" since officials felt that little Marxist-Leninist atheistic indoctrination was done by "even the most atheistic parents." To this end, "to promote anti-religious propaganda, some Soviet universities (Kiev, for example) have opened permanent departments on the history and theory of atheism", which served to "prepare and distribute antireligious pamphlets and present public lectures". In 1964, the Soviet Union made the class Osnovy nauchnogo ateizma (Fundamentals of Scientific Atheism) mandatory for for all university students.
Noam Chomsky remarks, "For those who stubbornly seek freedom around the world, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the propaganda system to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling or unwitting instruments."
^Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. New York: Bantam Books, 2006. Print. Pp. 25, 28, 206, 367.
^Jacques, Edwin E. (1995). The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present. McFarland. p. 447. ISBN0899509320. "This Marxist-Leninist class revolution, therefore, demanded an atheistic indoctrination of the working masses and the elimination of all religious convictions."|accessdate= requires |url= (help)
^Franzmann, Manuel (2006). Religiosität in der säkularisierten Welt. Springer-Verlag. p. 89. "However, another conspicuous result of our comparison is that some Eastern European countries, in spite of decades of atheist indoctrination, have a considerable percentage of believers in God - Albania for instance, whose Communist rulers once claimed it was the world's first totally atheist country, or Russia, where the percentage of believers surged in the late eighties and rose dramatically once again in the course of the nineties."|accessdate= requires |url= (help)
^Ramet, Sabrina P. (1990). Catholicism and Politics in Communist Societies. Duke University Press. pp. 232–233. ISBN0822310473. "From kindergarten onward children are indoctrinated with an aggressive form of atheism and trained to hate and distrust foreigners and to denounce parents who follow religious practices at home."|accessdate= requires |url= (help)
^ abWitt, Nicholas De (1961). Education and Professional Employment in the U.S.S.R. National Academies. p. 121.|accessdate= requires |url= (help)
^Thrower, James (1983). Marxist-Leninist "scientific Atheism" and the Study of Religion and Atheism in the USSR. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 143–144. ISBN9027930600. "In 1959, a new course, entited Osnovy nauchnogo ateizma (Fundamentals of Scientific Atheism) was introduced into the curriculum of all higher educational institutions, including the universities."|accessdate= requires |url= (help)