Lecture XXXVIII (Nr. 0508)

[503] PT: It ALWAYS falls apart, in the view of every fundamentalist. [laughter] That is the presupposition which I accept immediately. But this presupposition doesn't prevent me from giving my point of view, and you will not deny one thing which perhaps explains WHY I speak as I did about religious education, because I have experienced what it means, in myself and in many others, when, after the literalistic period in the child's mind, the question "Is that true?" starts, and then the answer of many: "It is really true, and you must believe it." Now that is what innumerable statements do.

I am always again horrified how even Sunday School teachers say to children, "You must believe that." I think such a Sunday School teacher is a murderer of the soul of a child! So the question is: "What can you answer if a child ASKS that question?" Will you REALLY take the responsibility of answering "You must believe that!"---which I think is, in ANY case, destructive. If he then believes it, he has suppressed his honesty. If he doesn't believe it, then he will run against everything religious more and more, and will become empty. So by such a method, you put the child into the alternative between emptiness and dishonesty. Now dishonesty, not in the conscious way, but in the very refined [?] way of unconscious repression, mostly at least. If it is conscious, then it is perhaps not so dangerous; then it is simply the answer against a dictatorial demand, which always provokes

such reactions. But if it is done unconsciously, then it is very dangerous, because then, out of repression comes fanaticism, etc. Another question. --- You see, these things are very . . [?] for also the university situation here: there is so much in the many little newspapers which are edited, published and discussed and buried [much laughter] ---