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Essay / Divine Virus Analysis - 2008
Another good example is that of the father who walked the corridor surrounding the interior of the temple leading his son by the hand. In the Hindu faith, you are expected to go to the temple with a mind free from anger, worry, and other emotions that would prevent you from achieving inner peace. To do this, members can walk a corridor that forms a circle around the main chamber of the temple as many times as they deem necessary. Although the young boy (who appeared to be about four years old) probably did not understand the purpose of this exercise, it was obvious that the boy's father wanted him to learn the practice, whether he understood the reasoning or not. This illustrates the idea of indoctrination, which involves teaching religious practices and ideas at a young age to determine whether children are capable of understanding them, so that as they grow up, these practices and ideas become second nature, accepted without doubt (Ray “Religion as a virus”). The hope is that religion and its practices become an integral part of the child, something that seems to be an important part of their childhood and self-perception. The process of indoctrination and imprinting is obviously a long and very personal process, which religions seem to prefer to be permanent (Ray “Religion as a Virus”). This is again where the antibody metaphor comes in..