Sure they are, but the amount of variables in those can be overwhelming for one and some of what you've listed may be based on flawed logic. So, I would not suggest starting out with those.

I think programming is great because it can potentially teach you how to break things down into different levels of abstraction and manipulate concepts by applying only a few basic rules.

I should've contributed a little bit more to the OP, but I was mostly replying to those who were saying that there is no difference between languages and one is just is good as the other. That I think is wrong because you can't compare a real functional language with an "object oriented" one.