Best way to teach kids about religion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this is the "best" way, but we've read through these books on occasion. Along with a book about evolution.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0756617723/
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1465402500/

Here's a reader review of the first book: This book is terrible. It is so obviously written from a Christian bias that it makes for very uncomfortable reading. The section on Buddhism skips entirely over the ideas of Mahayana Buddhism to focus on the more sensational beliefs of those who study Tantric Buddhism. The section on native belief systems is woefully inadequate, lumping peoples as diverse as Siberian Shamans and North American First Nations people in the same category. It treats the religions of the Neo-Pagan Movement as non-entities. I bought this book as an adjunct to a Interreligious Understanding course and feel that it completely fails in its task, but in scope and individual facts.

The second book, which is exclusively a children's Bible, gets more positive reader reviews, but they seem to come from religious people. Also, part of the review says this: "With a short passage at the end of each key story explaining the meaning behind it, the DK Illustrated Family Bible encourages young readers and families to think and learn making for a wonderful and meaningful introduction to the greatest story ever told." (bold added for emphasis)

which suggests a pro-religious bias.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this is the "best" way, but we've read through these books on occasion. Along with a book about evolution.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0756617723/
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1465402500/

Here's a reader review of the first book: This book is terrible. It is so obviously written from a Christian bias that it makes for very uncomfortable reading. The section on Buddhism skips entirely over the ideas of Mahayana Buddhism to focus on the more sensational beliefs of those who study Tantric Buddhism. The section on native belief systems is woefully inadequate, lumping peoples as diverse as Siberian Shamans and North American First Nations people in the same category. It treats the religions of the Neo-Pagan Movement as non-entities. I bought this book as an adjunct to a Interreligious Understanding course and feel that it completely fails in its task, but in scope and individual facts.

The second book, which is exclusively a children's Bible, gets more positive reader reviews, but they seem to come from religious people. Also, part of the review says this: "With a short passage at the end of each key story explaining the meaning behind it, the DK Illustrated Family Bible encourages young readers and families to think and learn making for a wonderful and meaningful introduction to the greatest story ever told." (bold added for emphasis)

which suggests a pro-religious bias.

OP here. Thanks for the review. I will skip these.

[Anonymous]

I'm enrolling my teenage son in a world religions class at a Unitarian church this fall

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this is the "best" way, but we've read through these books on occasion. Along with a book about evolution.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0756617723/
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1465402500/

Here's a reader review of the first book: This book is terrible. It is so obviously written from a Christian bias that it makes for very uncomfortable reading. The section on Buddhism skips entirely over the ideas of Mahayana Buddhism to focus on the more sensational beliefs of those who study Tantric Buddhism. The section on native belief systems is woefully inadequate, lumping peoples as diverse as Siberian Shamans and North American First Nations people in the same category. It treats the religions of the Neo-Pagan Movement as non-entities. I bought this book as an adjunct to a Interreligious Understanding course and feel that it completely fails in its task, but in scope and individual facts.

The second book, which is exclusively a children's Bible, gets more positive reader reviews, but they seem to come from religious people. Also, part of the review says this: "With a short passage at the end of each key story explaining the meaning behind it, the DK Illustrated Family Bible encourages young readers and families to think and learn making for a wonderful and meaningful introduction to the greatest story ever told." (bold added for emphasis)

which suggests a pro-religious bias.

OP here. Thanks for the review. I will skip these.

I'm the PP who posted the links. I am an atheist and frame the stories with "this is what some people think". And we don't read them cover to cover, just picking out some of the stories. I thought they were fine for kids as an introduction.

Any better suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Curious about all you who want to study all world religions. It seems you give creedence to all belief except evangelical Christianity, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, died for your sins and rose from the grave. One, it seems you are always very eager to deny that's the actual teaching, when there are millions of people who believe just that. And two, of course THAT belief just can't be right. Why is that?

[Anonymous]

I don't really know when Jesus died or came back. I guess he died 2017 years ago? Or was that when he was born? I guess he came back at Easter
- that must be the whole "He is risen" thing, right? Jesus is completely irrelevant to my life. I consider this unsubstantiated trivia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about all you who want to study all world religions. It seems you give creedence to all belief except evangelical Christianity, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, died for your sins and rose from the grave. One, it seems you are always very eager to deny that's the actual teaching, when there are millions of people who believe just that. And two, of course THAT belief just can't be right. Why is that?

Not sure I completely understand your question, but my goal is for us to understand other people, cultures, politics, literature, music, etc. I honestly don't "believe" any of it or think they are "right" (outside of some common moral threads - "golden rule", etc.). Does that answer your question?

[Anonymous]

We have introduced the concept of God and Jesus since our children were little (we are non-practicing Christians). As they grow (they are preschoolers now), when major holidays come up, we introduce in age appropriate ways, the religious events behind the holidays. So, we introduced the concept of celebrating Jesus' birth at Christmas. This year, age 5, we introduced the idea of Jesus' death and return during Easter. We get age-appropriate books from Amazon (I can try and check for the ones that we have) to help us with these concepts. But we start a week or two before the holiday and we spend a little time each day talking about the events that led up to the major holiday/event and why they are important to know.

My best friend is Jewish and we celebrate some of the holidays with his family, so we are starting to introduce the concepts/stories/events behind the major Jewish holidays to the children now. We have found that teaching our children about religion from the perspective of the major holidays and then expanding on the topics as they become curious and ask questions to be the best way to start. Of course, it depends on your children's age, but this works for us with younger children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about all you who want to study all world religions. It seems you give creedence to all belief except evangelical Christianity, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, died for your sins and rose from the grave. One, it seems you are always very eager to deny that's the actual teaching, when there are millions of people who believe just that. And two, of course THAT belief just can't be right. Why is that?

Do you realize most religions have someone like that in their pantheon? Buddha, Jain, Several hindu sages, all are supposed to have god's direct blessings/talked to god, etc. and by the way, these happened long before Jesus Christ. I'm Hindu but respect other religions. Did Jesus rise from the dead? I don't know. However, if a christian friend or neighbor believes as such, it behooves me to respect that much like I'd like other religions to respect mine. An easy way to do this is to understand other religions and realize that they are all pretty much the same.. Morality, priests controlling access to god, heaven, hell, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm enrolling my teenage son in a world religions class at a Unitarian church this fall

Can you do that as a non-member?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about all you who want to study all world religions. It seems you give creedence to all belief except evangelical Christianity, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, died for your sins and rose from the grave. One, it seems you are always very eager to deny that's the actual teaching, when there are millions of people who believe just that. And two, of course THAT belief just can't be right. Why is that?

If I understand it correctly, OP isn't looking to give credence to any belief. He wants to teach his children about religions -- all kinds of religions. Evangelical Christian beliefs would be on that list and there would be no effort to encourage his children to believe in any of the religions or to deem them right or wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about all you who want to study all world religions. It seems you give creedence to all belief except evangelical Christianity, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, died for your sins and rose from the grave. One, it seems you are always very eager to deny that's the actual teaching, when there are millions of people who believe just that. And two, of course THAT belief just can't be right. Why is that?

If I understand it correctly, OP isn't looking to give credence to any belief. He wants to teach his children about religions -- all kinds of religions. Evangelical Christian beliefs would be on that list and there would be no effort to encourage his children to believe in any of the religions or to deem them right or wrong.

I asked this because when I said how about the Bible, that was discounted as not "non-biased." Why is that? Probably because the Bible claims He is God and that He rose from the grave. But that's from the only place you can read about Christ from the source. It's not non-biased; it's the only account we have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm enrolling my teenage son in a world religions class at a Unitarian church this fall

Can you do that as a non-member?

I'm working it out. I'm contemplating membership. I'm open to making a donation. I enrolled my son this past year in a sex Ed class "Our Whole Lives" at a UCC church as a "neighbor". I made a donation. I guess I'm doing things a la carte.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm enrolling my teenage son in a world religions class at a Unitarian church this fall

Can you do that as a non-member?

I'm working it out. I'm contemplating membership. I'm open to making a donation. I enrolled my son this past year in a sex Ed class "Our Whole Lives" at a UCC church as a "neighbor". I made a donation. I guess I'm doing things a la carte.

That sounds like a good way to handle it. I almost recommended a UU sunday school, but it was based on limited evidence. As a visitor at a UU service, I walked past a sunday school class and was impressed by the even-handed, didactic tone of of the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about all you who want to study all world religions. It seems you give creedence to all belief except evangelical Christianity, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, died for your sins and rose from the grave. One, it seems you are always very eager to deny that's the actual teaching, when there are millions of people who believe just that. And two, of course THAT belief just can't be right. Why is that?

If I understand it correctly, OP isn't looking to give credence to any belief. He wants to teach his children about religions -- all kinds of religions. Evangelical Christian beliefs would be on that list and there would be no effort to encourage his children to believe in any of the religions or to deem them right or wrong.

I asked this because when I said how about the Bible, that was discounted as not "non-biased." Why is that? Probably because the Bible claims He is God and that He rose from the grave. But that's from the only place you can read about Christ from the source. It's not non-biased; it's the only account we have.

While the the Bible is the first known source of info about Jesus, its not the only account we have and its certainly not the most historical or reliable source. It's more a book of stories about Jesus and early Christianity. Much has been written about these subjects by scholars analyzing the bible in the original greek and doing archeological research in Israel.

Someone teaching children about christianity and not teaching them to believe it would want to use sources besides the Bible. We wouldn't expect children to learn about Judaism simply by reading the Torah or Islam by reading the Koran. The same goes for Christianity and the Bible.