Reply to As an Atheist, what do you tell your little kids?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I guess I’m more agnostic than true atheist since I’m holding out that 1% hope there is something more.

But what I’ve told my kids is that religion is how people explained the world around them before we had science, and where you were born affects which religion you were taught.

We’ve also spent a lot of time talking about the creation of the universe 300B years ago, how crazy it is that matter turned into conscious life, the statistical improbability that the earth was made to support life and that they were born as them, etc.

You can still look at the science and appreciate the “miracle” of it all. And my kids know that I don’t have any more answers to the unknowns than they do. 1 kid is practical and even questioned Santa from a young age. He’s had a pretty skeptical outlook on God from early on. Whereas my younger kid is much more creative/spiritual and open to the unknown existing. He will talk about maybe God is like X or like Y.

I support both of them in coming up with their own thoughts on the matter. I think indoctrinating them that there is no God is just as harmful as shoving religion down their throats. What they believe is up to them.[/quote]

I don’t think raising your own children in your family’s faith tradition is “shoving religion down their throats.” Children are part of a family, and most families have traditions and beliefs. Parents have the responsibility to raise their children in the manner they believe is a responsible and appropriate.

If a parent does or doesn’t have faith or religious beliefs or traditions, raising children without faith or religious traditions is how their family works, for lack of a better term.

When the children are adults, parents should accept whatever their child and their child’s own family (spouse and kids) decides they want to believe, or accept that their adult child and their adult child’s family is undecided about such matters, or does not have any religious or faith beliefs or traditions.

No one should tell other people how to raise their children. Parents do not have to stop practicing their religion once they become parents, that’s absurd. Parents don’t have to stop being atheist or agnostic once they become parents, but that’s absurd.

People need to stop believing they have any say or authority in the lives of other people’s children. They have zero input into the decisions parents make for their own kids. 
[/quote]

I’m sure there are families that simply that raise their children with religion without shoving it down their throats. But I grew up in the south and can 100% tell you a lot of parents are. Like very intensely raising their kids to operate within a very religious social community, if you don’t believe this you will go to hell, etc. I once went to a playdate that ended with the parents taking me to church and making me get on stage to accept Jesus into my heart (my parents were not thrilled to hear this).

Growing up amongst evangelicals in the south has really turned me off of religion. I doubt they are encouraging their kids to think for themselves or that they would be ok if their kids end up with different beliefs as adults. I’ve also seen this with some Catholic families (I have a close gay friend who was shunned for many years by his very conservative Catholic family).

So I don’t judge raising your kids within a religious community and teaching them your beliefs, but I also think it is gross to insist your beliefs become your children’s beliefs. I would never teach my kids to be lemmings and not have thoughts for themselves.[/quote]

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