agnostics/atheists parents: how do you explain/talk to your kids about it?

[Anonymous]

sad, hopefully you don't expect christian preschools to accommodate for your lack of belief

[Anonymous]

We told our kids this: "Some people are God people who believe in magic. Some people don't believe in magic and don't believe in God. Your parents don't believe in magic or God. "

We've also given our kids strict instructions not to talk about God at school because God people freak out about it.

We didn't have to explain to our kids that some God people are mean bigots, because some girls in their school took care of it, by telling our kids that their parents and their uncle were going to burn in hell for all eternity. (Missouri Synod Lutheran, FTW!) My kids were really pissed about it and decided that "God people are jerks."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sad, hopefully you don't expect christian preschools to accommodate for your lack of belief

What a ridiculous and off-the-point response. Valid parenting question.

Signed,
Practicing Catholic raising my child to be Catholic

[Anonymous]

OP, I would recommend Parenting Beyond Belief (with the caveat that my DD is only two years old, so I haven't actually implemented any of the suggestions). But I went to a seminar with the author and it was a very interesting discussion of raising a child who can make up her own mind, how to handle religious members of your family, etc.

[Anonymous]

Tell your DC that adults like children are full of fears and have insecurities and that they need to believe in something or someone as absurd as it may sound, something that is not based on science and logic but is a creation of fears of not knowing and traditions, in order to be able to function, to live, to strive. Tell them that you don't know what happens after a person die and you are comfortable with that, but there are a lot of adults who panic and have to have answers in order to go on.

If you told your child there is no Santa Claus, then you can draw a comparison...

Tell her that just like there is no one man who can visit the world in one night and give presents to everyone on the plant, there cannot be one person who is going to be able to hear everyone's prays, forgive sins etc. Tell her that religions are fairy tales for adults...Basically that is what they are.

[Anonymous]

PP here, and yes, by all means follow the advice of the poster supra:

"We've also given our kids strict instructions not to talk about God at school because God people freak out about it. "

Tell her that there are countries in which no one talks about religion and that people don't expect you to have one, but that the USA is not one of them and that the USA is found on religion and found by religious people....

The thing with magic is good...Tell her there are people who believe in magic, ie religion, and others who don't...You happen to be of the latter kind.

[Anonymous]

"Some people believe xyz. Jesus was a man who lived a long time ago and was a teacher. Some people like to read about the things he did and said." Et cetera. Substitute other gods/prophets as necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sad, hopefully you don't expect christian preschools to accommodate for your lack of belief

Why on earth would you assume that I (or OP or any other atheist) would be paying Christians to educate my preschooler?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again- my bigger question is: how do I teach my child to think for herself and come up to her own conclusions without buying into popular beliefs to fit in?

We take the "teach kids how to think, not what to think" approach. When they are old enough they will be able to research and read about different beliefs and decide for themselves. I don't think its something that you teach instantaneously, its something that's acquired over time. Its hard to explain. I expect that my kids will ask me one day why I'm an atheist, and I'll tell them its because I don't see any tangible evidence of gods and don't have a reason to believe they exist.

I hope they'll be able to come to me with questions about anything, including questions about religious beliefs/lack of them or questions that other kids have asked them. Although I doubt my atheism would be coming up into their conversations that much.