Best way to teach kids about religion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

But do you encourage them to "believe" some stories over others or do you approach them all as stories?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

But do you encourage them to "believe" some stories over others or do you approach them all as stories?

Approach them all as "some people believe" these stories. I don't encourage one way or another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

But do you encourage them to "believe" some stories over others or do you approach them all as stories?

Approach them all as "some people believe" these stories. I don't encourage one way or another.

NP. My family is the same way. We're Jewish, and take all stories in the Torah as jut that--stories that teach something. We take away the lessons, but don't believe that the stories happened just as written.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in a similar position OP. DH and I are atheists (raised mainline Protestant) and our child has had no religious exposure at all. I struggle with where to even start. I'm really interested in what others have to say.

Take him to a UU congregation. 6th grade is all about learning about the different religions. Before that they talk about the different stories, the historical basis, what some people believe, etc. Some UUs are atheist, some are agnostic, many are Christian and Jewish, and some are Buddhist and Hindu. It's a big tent philosophy that, at its heart, is about doing good for others and the earth and believing in the essential goodness of humanity.

[Anonymous]

NP and minister here - I tried to expose my kids to many different faith paths when they were young. We are a Christian family and attend an Episcopal church most of the time. I took advantage of opportunities to take my children to special services in many different types of churches. The only churches I avoided were the evangelical, southern baptist type. I did not want my kids exposed to that when they were younger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

But do you encourage them to "believe" some stories over others or do you approach them all as stories?

How you can encourage to believe or not to believe to Greek mythology? Do you make the same comment about believing and not believing after reading Red Riding Hood story? I leave it to the child fantasy to live with that story, to think about it, to fantasize about this. This is how children develop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

But do you encourage them to "believe" some stories over others or do you approach them all as stories?

How you can encourage to believe or not to believe to Greek mythology? Do you make the same comment about believing and not believing after reading Red Riding Hood story? I leave it to the child fantasy to live with that story, to think about it, to fantasize about this. This is how children develop.

what about the Bible stories? do you encourage them to believe or disbelieve those?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

But do you encourage them to "believe" some stories over others or do you approach them all as stories?

How you can encourage to believe or not to believe to Greek mythology? Do you make the same comment about believing and not believing after reading Red Riding Hood story? I leave it to the child fantasy to live with that story, to think about it, to fantasize about this. This is how children develop.

what about the Bible stories? do you encourage them to believe or disbelieve those?

No, we approach all the stories the same. We read them and we discuss them. Doesn't matter if this is a story about Nemo, Muhammed, or Noah's ark. I cannot imaging reading to my kids one of the fairy tale stories and then tell them: "You know, there are some people who believe that the prince Charming actually kissed the Snow White. But we are intellectual professionals with PhD and we do not believe this". The stories are the stories. All of them have a learning point of wisdom. Let children figure out what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Bible stories to them if you want to teach them about the Bible, and then let them decide what they want to believe. My children are encouraged to question everything and to make their own decisions. They have heard all of the Bible stories, they know about evolution, they have been encouraged to read about every belief, no matter what it is. My oldest son and my 15 year old daughter are agnostic, and have been for a few years. How and what they believe is their business, not mine.

Up to a point, yes. I bet you'd be pretty upset if they believed Neptune lived in the sea and that sleeping beauty was awakened by a handsome price and lived happily ever after.

Not PP, but we read some stories from the Bible right along with Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology, etc.

But do you encourage them to "believe" some stories over others or do you approach them all as stories?

How you can encourage to believe or not to believe to Greek mythology? Do you make the same comment about believing and not believing after reading Red Riding Hood story? I leave it to the child fantasy to live with that story, to think about it, to fantasize about this. This is how children develop.

what about the Bible stories? do you encourage them to believe or disbelieve those?

No, we approach all the stories the same. We read them and we discuss them. Doesn't matter if this is a story about Nemo, Muhammed, or Noah's ark. I cannot imaging reading to my kids one of the fairy tale stories and then tell them: "You know, there are some people who believe that the prince Charming actually kissed the Snow White. But we are intellectual professionals with PhD and we do not believe this". The stories are the stories. All of them have a learning point of wisdom. Let children figure out what it is.

How about something like, "You know, no one believes that Snow White and Prince Charming are real people who actually met and fell in love, but some people do believe that God spoke to Muhammed and that God sent his son to die for their sins."

[Anonymous]

or what about if the kids ask, "Did that really happen?" when you tell a story about a prince's kiss or an ancient flood or someone rising from the dead.

Would you always say something like "That's a story with some wisdom in it" or would you say "some people think it's true, but I don't"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:or what about if the kids ask, "Did that really happen?" when you tell a story about a prince's kiss or an ancient flood or someone rising from the dead.

Would you always say something like "That's a story with some wisdom in it" or would you say "some people think it's true, but I don't"?

My typical response is: "what do you think?" and "some people might think this happened."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:or what about if the kids ask, "Did that really happen?" when you tell a story about a prince's kiss or an ancient flood or someone rising from the dead.

Would you always say something like "That's a story with some wisdom in it" or would you say "some people think it's true, but I don't"?

My typical response is: "what do you think?" and "some people might think this happened."

But by the time they were asking this questions we weren't reading too many princess type books (fortunately that was a short phase!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:or what about if the kids ask, "Did that really happen?" when you tell a story about a prince's kiss or an ancient flood or someone rising from the dead.

Would you always say something like "That's a story with some wisdom in it" or would you say "some people think it's true, but I don't"?

My typical response is: "what do you think?" and "some people might think this happened."

But by the time they were asking this questions we weren't reading too many princess type books (fortunately that was a short phase!).

Thanks -- what if they started to believe something you really thought was harmful -- whatever that may be -- like they needed to be kissed by a prince in order to live happily ever after or needed to join a particular religion in order to achieve eternal life?