Agnostic or atheist parents: what, if anything, do you teach your kids about religion?

[Anonymous]

And if you do, what do you teach in general and how do you do it? DH and I are lapsed Catholics, I am an atheist, and DH is an agnostic. I don't have a problem with my kids (who are still little - under 4) learning about Jesus, Buddha, etc., and I think it's actually important for them to learn about this, but I'm not quite sure how to go about doing it. Are there kids books on religion you'd recommend? TV shows? Other ideas you'd suggest? TIA.

[Anonymous]

I leave it to school and TV and answer any questions they ask me ( with honesty). I was raised atheist and was pulled out of religious classes at school - but I don't think I have a great lack of knowledge or understanding because of it. They'll pick up what's important along the way. Try not to worry about it.

[Anonymous]

I was raised in a household that was not actively religious, but we read a lot. I read a lot of Bible stories right alongside Siddhartha stories and Greek myths. My personal feeling is that many of the parables in the Bible are not much different in a narrative capacity than many of the fairy tales that later become Disney movies. They teach general and specific codes of behavior and ethics in a way that is slightly less abstract and easier for children to understand. The higher level religious aspects are not things that I would personally be able to explain to my 3 year old anyway, since I do not come from a religious background.

So at Christmas time, we talk about a variety of things. My mom sent a nativity set, so we talked about the birth of Jesus and how it's important to be generous and loving to everyone. We talked about Santa in the same context. We talked more specifically about generous and loving things we do as a family related to charity and also just the way we treat each other and appreciate each other. It was not much different than the conversations we have about those things year round, but there are slightly more specific tools (that are Christian) at the end of December, so we used those tools as a jumping off point.

[Anonymous]

I was raised Catholic and am now agnostic. I'm struggling to find that balance -- I'd love for my children to choose their own path, but I don't know how to present those paths to them. For now, we encourage our friends who have faith to feel free to share their beliefs with our children and we talk about religious holidays when they come up. I have no idea how it will go but it feels right now.

[Anonymous]

I just teach my kid that people have different beliefs and its ok, but this is how mom and dad think and the choice is yours. I expose them to our "religion" for the culture but "God" is not a part of our lives.

[Anonymous]

This is 12:03. When DD is older, I think it would be fairly fun for us both to experience other people's religious practices together. Sort of like in "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." I attended Passover Seder a couple of times as a child and young adult. I also went to Palm Sunday mass with friends sometimes. I grew up in a town without a ton of options, so that was pretty much all we had available to us.

Would totally be interested to hear what sorts of public religious holidays are available in other faiths in this area. Yoga class doesn't count

[Anonymous]

I was raised in a pentecostal/protestant environment and DH in a mormon family. We are agnostic and atheist, respectively, but actually send our kids to a church preschool. I like that they emphasis being nice to other kids, sharing, loving... and they learn basic stories (usually about something like sharing or not judging) and a concept of religion without me having to be involved at all. It does kind of through me when my 4 year old occasionally "prays" for his lunch (didn't realize they were doing that)... but hey, saying thank you for food and thinking about your health won't damage him for life.

[Anonymous]

I was raised Jewish, my husband's family is Ultra-Conversvative Catholic. My husband now identifies as atheist, I agnostic...but still practice traditional aspects of Judaism. All three of my children have exposure to many different religions. At my parents wish they still celebrate Hanukah, Passover etc... and at my PIL request they celebrate Christmas and Easter. They know tons of bible stories, and have been to religious services from both sides of the family. My MIL is pushy with it, so I try to explain to her that they can only attend with her if she doesn't try to guilt them into her believes. I am pretty passive about it.

[Anonymous]

I'm not really your target audience but both DH & I are very religious but we're different religions. We agreed before we married that we could both fulfill our religious obligations regarding teaching our children our respective faiths and trying to raise them in it, but neither of us would interfere with the other's religious instruction. So we're really honest with the kids about this is what I believe the truth is and here's why; Daddy and I agree on most things and we love each other very much. As the kids get older, I expect a lot more questions on the finer points of theology but at this young age, it's really about God loves you, God wants what's good for you, these are the virtue/qualities that help you serve God, etc and in those matters, we are in total agreement.

But we have quite a bit of diversity in our family and we expect our children to be exposed to other religions through family, friends, and neighbors. I was as well and made my own decision as an adult. I would want the same for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Lots of "Some people believe..."

I wasn't raised with any particular religion. I was encouraged to learn about whatever interested me, my questions were answered w/o judgment, and I was taught to accept that other people's beliefs were just as believable as my own. I'm raising my kids the same way.

[Anonymous]

We really don't even bring it up. If they do, we discuss. If not, we don't. It's not something I'm struggling with.

[Anonymous]

Nothing.We are learning math and geography right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing.We are learning math and geography right now.

I'm the PP at 12:03.

I think it's kind of short sighted not to talk about religion at all. Even if you're talking about geography. How do you explain the sudden existence of Israel? How do you explain Northern Ireland vs. Ireland? Of course it depends on the ages of your kids, but I think the approach of not talking about it is one that will only work for so long. What happens when you get into history and they want to know why the Pilgrims left Europe?

[Anonymous]

I was raised in an agnostic household and one thing I would have liked to have was some more of the historical/cultural background. There's a lot of references to religion in history and politics, so I had to seek it out to learn the background. Like how Christian and Muslim faiths came from Judaism and how they deviated from each other. The kids I went to school with who were raised in some type of organized religion knew about these things and I felt kind of ignorant. My kids are too young for this now, but I’ll want to teach them the historical context of religion.

[Anonymous]

Raised agnostic. Religion just didn't come up a lot in my family. I did attend a Methodist youth group in jr. high with my friends, and I did, by default I think, believe in jesus when I was younger. Then in college it became a more amorphous belief in god. And now I am agnostic. My parents never said much about religion because it wasn't important to them and, lo and behold, it isn't important to me or my siblings (except one sister who is christian but just left her church for its gay politics and now attends a Unitarian Church. But even she is like a 3 of a religiosity scale of 10.)