Anonymous
05/07/2017 21:34
Subject: Re:Best way to teach kids about religion
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.
Anonymous
04/28/2017 19:34
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
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?
LOL. Put down your persecution complex, PP.
I'm a former evangelical who is now an atheist. I would like to give my kid a general education on all world religions. I will probably teach him a bit more in-depth about the story of Jesus and some of the Old Testament myths (like Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark) because these are common stories that arise in Western culture. But I don't believe ANY religions are "right."
Anonymous
04/27/2017 21:16
Subject: Re:Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I rejected religion years ago.
I looked at all the evidence and decided that all religions are man made...and most religions are harmful to mankind.
As a result, I have created my own set of moral values.
But what is really, desperately needed is for governments to get involved.
I believed that it is the moral duty of governments to create sets of moral values based on consensus and debate.
Again, leaving moral teachings to religions is very dangerous.
Getting back to the main question.
If you must teach your children about Jesus, you must, morally, also tell them that a lot of very intelligent people believe that the Jesus, as portrayed in the Bible, never existed.
How about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
"...a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of what many people believe to be the rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. The full text is available on the United Nations website."
Here's a link to the whole thing: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html
Anonymous
04/27/2017 17:20
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kids don't know when Jesus died and came back from the dead. One of them goes "Wait, he came back from the dead??".. We are not Christian but where I grew up religion was part of the school curriculum and we learnt about all religions. Is there a source I can use (TV or website) to teach them the basics. Prefer a non-biased, non-judgmental source.
It is difficult. We are UU and our children received a whole year of Old Testament, a whole year of New Testament, several years where they learned about many different religions in 3-4 week chunks including visiting different houses of worship and attending their religious services. They are still confused on most of the Bible stories and only have a hint of some of the other religions major holidays and meanings. In order for it to really sink in, they need to hear it every year and have that knowledge built upon. Or wait until they are in HS or college and have them take a comparative religion class where they have to read, write papers, discuss in class and take tests for knowledge. This is my observation after 12 years of RE. I would like to add that many of the curricula that my children experienced, were well written, accurate and informative- it is just that they need to hear it more often and they have to want to retain the information. Exposure is not enough. However, exposure is excellent for developing empathy, inclusiveness, and an understanding that not everyone thinks or believes the same things, but many religions have major tenets in common.
Actually, this sounds pretty good. It seems natural that if they aren't being taught that they have to believe something or else pay the price, it might not "sink in" in the same way, but that's a good thing, right?
Anonymous
04/27/2017 17:14
Subject: Re:Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:I rejected religion years ago.
I looked at all the evidence and decided that all religions are man made...and most religions are harmful to mankind.
As a result, I have created my own set of moral values.
But what is really, desperately needed is for governments to get involved.
I believed that it is the moral duty of governments to create sets of moral values based on consensus and debate.
Again, leaving moral teachings to religions is very dangerous.
Getting back to the main question.
If you must teach your children about Jesus, you must, morally, also tell them that a lot of very intelligent people believe that the Jesus, as portrayed in the Bible, never existed.
How about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights
"...a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France. The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of what many people believe to be the rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. The full text is available on the United Nations website."
Anonymous
04/27/2017 16:32
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:My kids don't know when Jesus died and came back from the dead. One of them goes "Wait, he came back from the dead??".. We are not Christian but where I grew up religion was part of the school curriculum and we learnt about all religions. Is there a source I can use (TV or website) to teach them the basics. Prefer a non-biased, non-judgmental source.
It is difficult. We are UU and our children received a whole year of Old Testament, a whole year of New Testament, several years where they learned about many different religions in 3-4 week chunks including visiting different houses of worship and attending their religious services. They are still confused on most of the Bible stories and only have a hint of some of the other religions major holidays and meanings. In order for it to really sink in, they need to hear it every year and have that knowledge built upon. Or wait until they are in HS or college and have them take a comparative religion class where they have to read, write papers, discuss in class and take tests for knowledge. This is my observation after 12 years of RE. I would like to add that many of the curricula that my children experienced, were well written, accurate and informative- it is just that they need to hear it more often and they have to want to retain the information. Exposure is not enough. However, exposure is excellent for developing empathy, inclusiveness, and an understanding that not everyone thinks or believes the same things, but many religions have major tenets in common.
Anonymous
04/27/2017 15:23
Subject: Re:Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:I rejected religion years ago.
I looked at all the evidence and decided that all religions are man made...and most religions are harmful to mankind.
As a result, I have created my own set of moral values.
But what is really, desperately needed is for governments to get involved.
I believed that it is the moral duty of governments to create sets of moral values based on consensus and debate.
Again, leaving moral teachings to religions is very dangerous.
Getting back to the main question.
If you must teach your children about Jesus, you must, morally, also tell them that a lot of very intelligent people believe that the Jesus, as portrayed in the Bible, never existed.
When you say "as portrayed in the Bible" - do you mean certain of his sayings (e.g., do unto others) or activities (e.g., rising from the dead, born of a virgin) that he has in common with other ancient gods? If not, what do you mean?
Anonymous
04/27/2017 14:38
Subject: Re:Best way to teach kids about religion
I rejected religion years ago.
I looked at all the evidence and decided that all religions are man made...and most religions are harmful to mankind.
As a result, I have created my own set of moral values.
But what is really, desperately needed is for governments to get involved.
I believed that it is the moral duty of governments to create sets of moral values based on consensus and debate.
Again, leaving moral teachings to religions is very dangerous.
Getting back to the main question.
If you must teach your children about Jesus, you must, morally, also tell them that a lot of very intelligent people believe that the Jesus, as portrayed in the Bible, never existed.
I looked at all the evidence and decided that all religions are man made...and most religions are harmful to mankind.
As a result, I have created my own set of moral values.
But what is really, desperately needed is for governments to get involved.
I believed that it is the moral duty of governments to create sets of moral values based on consensus and debate.
Again, leaving moral teachings to religions is very dangerous.
Getting back to the main question.
If you must teach your children about Jesus, you must, morally, also tell them that a lot of very intelligent people believe that the Jesus, as portrayed in the Bible, never existed.
Anonymous
04/27/2017 13:27
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Please tell me a more historical account of Jesus Christ than the Bible. Your assertion is nonsense.
Below are a few sources I pulled from the web, googling “historical Jesus”. I’m familiar with most of these authors. Also, there’s a whole wiki page on the “quest for the historical Jesus that you might like to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_the_historical_Jesus
Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne.
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1 by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (Feb 20, 2006) ISBN 0521812399
Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship by Marcus J. Borg (1 Aug 1994)
Who Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts 1999
Jesus in history and myth by R. Joseph Hoffmann 1986
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman 1999
The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1999
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2d ed. 1913
Astounding. The earliest of Paul's letters dates to within about 20 years of Christ, the latest of the Gospels within about 60 years at most. Yes these are not considered by some PP's as the most "reliable" or "historical" sources for information about Christ. Instead, we get a list of texts all from the 20th Century or later.
Yes, that's in the ballpark of what I've read. And that dating of the gospels wasn't known until the 17th century when Biblical scholars first attempted to analyze the Bible as literature. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_criticism It's really fascinating.
Anonymous
04/27/2017 10:43
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Please tell me a more historical account of Jesus Christ than the Bible. Your assertion is nonsense.
Below are a few sources I pulled from the web, googling “historical Jesus”. I’m familiar with most of these authors. Also, there’s a whole wiki page on the “quest for the historical Jesus that you might like to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_the_historical_Jesus
Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne.
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1 by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (Feb 20, 2006) ISBN 0521812399
Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship by Marcus J. Borg (1 Aug 1994)
Who Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts 1999
Jesus in history and myth by R. Joseph Hoffmann 1986
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman 1999
The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1999
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2d ed. 1913
Astounding. The earliest of Paul's letters dates to within about 20 years of Christ, the latest of the Gospels within about 60 years at most. Yes these are not considered by some PP's as the most "reliable" or "historical" sources for information about Christ. Instead, we get a list of texts all from the 20th Century or later.
...and yet the gospels and Pauline epistles don't agree on the details of Jesus's life, ministry, and death. Read them side by side and see for yourself. For example, how many women were at Jesus's tomb? The answer depends on which synoptic you cite. Of course, this is symptomatic of the bigger issue namely that we don't know what the original gospels texts said, we don't know who wrote them, and they've been translated, edited, copied, etc. over the years into what we have today. Also, some of Paul's letters are almost certainly forgeries (First and Second Timothy, Titus). So I'm not clear as to how these can be considered "reliable" or "historical" when you've have several glaring deficiencies. I'm also not going to get into it but what about the gospels not in the bible? Are those more or less reliable? Why? What about the lack of mention in non-Christian historians of the time? I think you can see where I'm going with this.
Anonymous
04/27/2017 07:09
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Please tell me a more historical account of Jesus Christ than the Bible. Your assertion is nonsense.
Below are a few sources I pulled from the web, googling “historical Jesus”. I’m familiar with most of these authors. Also, there’s a whole wiki page on the “quest for the historical Jesus that you might like to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_the_historical_Jesus
Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne.
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1 by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (Feb 20, 2006) ISBN 0521812399
Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship by Marcus J. Borg (1 Aug 1994)
Who Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts 1999
Jesus in history and myth by R. Joseph Hoffmann 1986
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman 1999
The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1999
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2d ed. 1913
Astounding. The earliest of Paul's letters dates to within about 20 years of Christ, the latest of the Gospels within about 60 years at most. Yes these are not considered by some PP's as the most "reliable" or "historical" sources for information about Christ. Instead, we get a list of texts all from the 20th Century or later.
Not astounding at all. By the 20th century, scholars had much more material and many more means of examining and analyzing it. They were using the old texts, plus other historical information from Jesus' time, plus archeological evidence and advanced means of translation, etc. Scholars were and still are working very hard to get a fuller picture of Jesus of and the Christian religion that has had such a huge effect on world history.
Anonymous
04/26/2017 23:50
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Please tell me a more historical account of Jesus Christ than the Bible. Your assertion is nonsense.
Below are a few sources I pulled from the web, googling “historical Jesus”. I’m familiar with most of these authors. Also, there’s a whole wiki page on the “quest for the historical Jesus that you might like to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_the_historical_Jesus
Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne.
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1 by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (Feb 20, 2006) ISBN 0521812399
Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship by Marcus J. Borg (1 Aug 1994)
Who Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts 1999
Jesus in history and myth by R. Joseph Hoffmann 1986
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman 1999
The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1999
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2d ed. 1913
Astounding. The earliest of Paul's letters dates to within about 20 years of Christ, the latest of the Gospels within about 60 years at most. Yes these are not considered by some PP's as the most "reliable" or "historical" sources for information about Christ. Instead, we get a list of texts all from the 20th Century or later.
Anonymous
04/26/2017 21:31
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Please tell me a more historical account of Jesus Christ than the Bible. Your assertion is nonsense.
Below are a few sources I pulled from the web, googling “historical Jesus”. I’m familiar with most of these authors. Also, there’s a whole wiki page on the “quest for the historical Jesus that you might like to look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_the_historical_Jesus
Crossan, John Dominic (1995). Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. HarperOne.
The Cambridge History of Christianity, Volume 1 by Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young (Feb 20, 2006) ISBN 0521812399
Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship by Marcus J. Borg (1 Aug 1994)
Who Is Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan, Richard G. Watts 1999
Jesus in history and myth by R. Joseph Hoffmann 1986
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman 1999
The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1999
Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, 2d ed. 1913
Anonymous
04/26/2017 20:43
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Please tell me a more historical account of Jesus Christ than the Bible. Your assertion is nonsense.
I thought PP had a good explanation. What part is nonsense?
Anonymous
04/26/2017 20:33
Subject: Best way to teach kids about religion
Anonymous wrote: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.
Please tell me a more historical account of Jesus Christ than the Bible. Your assertion is nonsense.