I'd have to agree with you it would be a great time to teach them such things - before they've developed and misconceptions or personal bias.

But I wasn't saying it was a bad time to teach them. I was saying that it's impossible to teach them everything at that age. Just because it's theoretically a good time doesn't mean that we should do it.

Quite apart from issues of complexity (and I don't think that Osuche is right that children should understand - these are deep issues and require not only some life experience but also some incredibly complex philosophy) I think there is simply too much to teach them.

Much rather have grounded individuals who are literate and numerate even if they've still much to learn about these things. Are we really proposing to teach them a good understanding of all the world's major religions (again, how many of them exactly? 5? 10? 25? - the number of possible religions in this world is, after all, infinite), a firm grasp of the numerous different theories about how the world came into being, the skills to be able to properly compare what they are told AND everything else they are supposed to learn at school?!

It takes some people most of their lives to understand one religion properly and we're advocating teaching the most influential ones to children in a few years? As well as everything else?