Honestly? I don't think critical thinking is taught by the school or parents and not just today's parents but the previous generations as well. Personally I think critical thinking is the most important thing to teach someone. You teach them critical thinking I feel the rest will fall into place.
But that's just me and /end soapboxing
I think the reason why it's not taught is that any authority source if fallible, and anuthority sources hate when someone under them questions them. Be it parents, teachers, school administration, government officials, religious officials, whatever; if you use your critical thinking skills, and find any one of them wrong and tell them as such, they have a habit of becoming very pissed off at you.
Let's face it, the miniute you teach your kids critical thinking is the minute they second guess, question your authority, and talk back to you. Most parents can't handle that. The same goes for any other authroity figure.
No religion is better than the other but if I had to give an edge to one of them, I'd say the older the more plausible
I think every religion regardless of age has about the same odds of being plausible. Older ones were based off a lack of worldly and universal knowledge. Newer ones have had fewer chances to have the holes in the religious theory plugged, corrected, or obfuscated.
If a god or gods did exist they would have taught the first human being the "true" ways.
I mean where did the concept of religion come from in the first place?
Also why did polytheism arise before monotheism?
My theory is that religion is this: Early on, when humans or their forebearers were self-conscious and aware of the world around them, knowledge of how and why things happened the way they did was incredibly limited, so they used what they though is the logical explanation given the knowledge of the time. These faith beliefs were liklely explained as a supernatural force, and human nature tends to "personalize" things to give them a sentient quality (how many times have you felt that an mechanical, electrical, or electronic appliance of any type seems to be consipring against you?).
As humans are social creatures, chances are the leaders of the early "tribes", as a consolidation of power, told the tribespeople that the beliefs they had for how and why things happen the way they do is the only correct explaination, and per human nature, people quietly acceptred and believed it lest they be shunned. Hence, as the beliefs consolidated, they became religions.
For Poly vs Monotheism, I think originally, humans saw such things as the systems of the moon, the cycle of the sun, the cycle of the seasons, lightning, fire, and just about any unexplainable concept as completely unrelatef, and thus the explainations and personifications evolved into separate gods. As human "culture" developed and leaders consolidated their power, the natural evolution of though was likley that if there's one supreme human ruler, there must be a supreme god controlling everything.
The problem is, as is with most concepts of leadership, you'll eventucaly get someone in the position of leadership that is completely ill-suited for the job, and has an inferiority complex and can't have their power questioned. So, as religions took hold, a discovery that contradicts an estabilished religious belive probably was seen as questioning the authority or wisdom of said leader, and the questioner was likley struck down with impunity.
TSD said pretty much the same in less words, but with less of a cause-effect relationship linking everything. Again, my assertation are only theory and conjecture.
Now, as for the camp. I don't see a problem with it per se, because there's always one ******* who, in any conceptual gather, will inject their religion/belief system into it and be completely inflexible about it. Further, a lot of people can't dissoaciate their religion from other concepts in their life. Until humaity changes human nature and gets a real understanding of acceptance and tolerance (which, the so-called liberals and conservatives in spite of their assertion have no clue what that truly is), you'll have segregated camps like this.
