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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm weirded out by the "love god" wording. I can understand parents wanting children to follow in their religious footsteps, but not believing in god(s) doesn't translate to "hating" god(s).

That's like saying that because I don't believe in Santa Clause, or Bigfoot, or the Tooth Fairy, that I don't love them - or that I "hate" them.

It has nothing to do with love/hate - some people just believe, and others don't. It either clicks or it doesn't. Agree with others - it's not a reflection of the parents if older kids and adults don't believe. Even when I was forced to go to Sunday School, I had lots of doubts. But when I was a kid, I didn't think there was any option except to believe. Now I know otherwise, and openly utilize my own mind to think and decide for myself. [/quote]

I'm 7:14, the poster with the two middle schoolers.  I appreciate your comments, but I think you just set up a straw man and knocked it down.  Has a poster equated not loving God with "hating" God?  I haven't seen that in this thread.  To be clear, both of my sons believe in God, and further believe that Jesus is his divine son.  My angst comes from the fact that they have zero enthusiasm for anything that would point towards actually puting that faith into practice.

I want my children to love God.  I want them to be faithful Christian boys and faithful Christian men one day.  I want this because I have very sincere beliefs that cause me to know that a strong faith has enriched my life in countless ways.  I want them to be similarly enriched.  So you may think it is weird that I want my kids to love God, but that is just a normal thing for people who truly believe.  We want to share that belief.  That belief brings us joy that we would never want to keep to ourselves.  [/quote]

I get where you're coming from - most parents want their children to grow and (mostly) follow in their footsteps, for various reasons.  That's pretty natural.

But I assure you, forcing faith on them or bringing it up regularly, will quite possibly have the opposite effect. Faith isn't something you can indoctrinate your children with. It's not something you can make them love. I honestly don't even think it's something you can teach - how many of us were taught to believe in religion/god by our parents or community, but still ended up not believing? Whatever happens, your kids will find their own way. Ultimately you have to admit that while your faith/religion/god brings YOU much joy, it cannot, will not, ever necessarily be something that will be joyful to others - even your kids. The joy that you find can never, will never be replicated for any other human being. Great happiness and joy are found in people of specific religions, general deists, agnostics and atheists. Even if you try, your experience can never be taught to someone else.  There are many, many ways to immense, blissfully-content joy. With religion/god, and also without.

Do you think that without religion or god, you children can be upstanding human beings? Do you believe they can be generous, kind, loving, supremely decent people even if they do not believe? I don't mean generous, kind, loving, and decent to a level of basic adequacy, but do you believe your children can be these things to the fullest extent, even without religion/god? These are the humanistic beliefs that should be your chief concern. If THEY decide to use religion/god as their vehicle, or to use their own hearts and minds as the vehicle, the end is the same.

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