To get annoyed when dd(6) learns about Christianity?

[MooPointCowsOpinion]

She is at a non-religious, normal state primary. She is the type of kid who remembers everything she's told and parrots it back, so I hear about her entire day every day at school. Almost every day she tells me they sang this song about Jesus, learnt that story about Jesus, learnt this lesson about Christianity. Every assembly they sing a Christian song.

I am an atheist. I don't want her to learn just about Christianity, all religions are important in a 'this is what some people believe' kind of way but I feel like they're indoctrinating her into Christianity by pushing it so much. I try to counter it by teaching her other religious beliefs and telling her my beliefs, but I know the steady drip drip of information could plant a seed that could lead to what I would consider radicalisation.

I've brought it up with her teacher, she's sympathetic and has given us the option to opt-out but I'd hate for her to feel singled out and to miss important things in assemblies.

Does/did it bother you? AIBU to be annoyed?

people dont celebrate thursday they do celebrate christmas despite not being christians im a christian but wouldnt celebrate hannuka or Eid Al-Fitr

people dont celebrate thursday they do celebrate christmas despite not being christians

How do you think people celebrate Christmas?

If people don't go to church on Christmas day and don't mention Jesus at the meal, are they really celebrating Christmas as Christians would celebrate Christmas?

How do you think Christmas should be celebrated?

im a christian but wouldnt celebrate hannuka or Eid Al-Fitr

Yes but I'm not aware those festivals have been appropriated from other winter celebrations like Christmas was. Could be wrong, of course, would be interested to hear otherwise. Despite the name, the only right Christianity has to Christmas is the name. The rest isn't truly correct in terms of the actual religion.

The grammar in my last post was far more coherent in my head than it was written....

Edmund,

I know that God is a God of love.
I know that some of the things described in the bible are atrocious.
I don't understand how a loving God could countenance some of the things described. Hill of foreskins? No thank you. Many can be ascribed to man's inhumanity to man, rather than being directly attributable to God. But others - I like Job, the character and the book. Essentially God and the Devil have a wager, and Job is the hapless pawn.

He's a good man, Job. Looks after his family and his people. Loses everything. His friends declare this must be a punishment for sin. Not so, says Job, and they curse him for being arrogant. Then they decide he should get angry with God, not so, says Job. They call him a fool. A sinner. All sorts.

Finally, God shows up, and tells the friends exactly what he thinks of them. And then Job dares to ask God why all this happened to him. And does God apologise, or comfort? No, he's quite sarcastic, but essentially points out all the things he can do and has done which Job can't ever hope to understand. And Job essentially replies "you are God, my God".

We might now have a bit more understanding of what causes seasons, weather, etc., than Job did. But my answer is still the same. "You are God, my God." I know that God is good. I know that God is love. I don't understand the rest, and I don't need to.

I don't have to believe what you think I need to believe in order to believe in God. In fact, looking at Cheistians today and over the centuries, we can believe vastly different things to each other. Wars and factions all over the place over matters of religious doctrine. Catholic or Protestant, reform or orthodox, evangelical or charismatic or traditional or a mixture of all of these. Infant baptism, believer's baptism, transubstantiation, people have died forth ear things.

I think they're irrelevant. Jesus says, follow me. The rest is fluff. I couldn't possibly believe everything that "Christians believe" because, beyond the fact that we all believe Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, that he was the son of God, that he died for us and rose again, and that we are saved if we call on his name and follow him, we all believe a massive range of mutually contradictory stuff. Satan must laugh, the number of times he hears people telling other believers they can't actually be Christians unless they do X, y, or z totally not necessary thing.

But there are plenty of atrocities in the bible done by your loving god. Not man made in the slightest, your god, the one who sits on high unable to save dying children or stop wars. He was 'responsible' for drowning the world, destroying cities, turning absolutely innocent people into pillars of salt, murdering children, playing mind games with his followers, allowing slavery, allowing his followers to knock up their slaves if they can't impregnate their wives. The list is endless. And this is the God who presented himself through Jesus, you cannot have one without the other. Deciding you like Jesus better doesn't excuse the awfulness of the bible. That is absolutely picking and choosing your belief, or are you arrogantly suggesting that your version of god and Jesus is true, purely on the voices you speak to? Because it certainly reads that way.

Of course, if you are actually admitting that parts of the bible are merely 'a piece of fluff', that is open to interpretation of what else is not necessarily true, based on what the next person chooses to believe. I think that might open a can of worms though. To 'contradict' information means one or the other must not be true. How do you know the parts you choose to believe are the truthful ones?

Awful lot of Old Testament being used here as a reason why Christians are terrible. Surely, if you want to identify terribleness in Christianity, there is more scope for talking about the evil people do in the name of religion including Christianity. Usually a power trip; usually misogynistic; usually self hating.

It's because the bible (old and new), is the source of the issues you mentioned, Nicotina. No point mentioning what people's beliefs have lead then to do and behave, unless you can identify and accept the cause. The Old Testament cannot be dismissed, it is still part of Christian lore, even if the focus is more on the New Testament. Though that side isn't without issue either, just because god stopped being as shitty as the previous testament.

Radicalisation is definitely pushing it but I was very annoyed when my son entered yr 7 RE lesson and was given a brief questionnaire; 'Do you believe in God? A) yes or B) I'm not sure.

He was fuming as he's a confirmed atheist (his choice!)

As I said, I'm not a theologian. This is just my interpretation.

But the Old Testament is about Law. God made the law, his people were to live under it. He was very clear about the blessings and the curses under the law.

Follow my rules and I will look after you. Turn away from me and bad things will happen.
Leave the city, and don't look back. Lot's wife looked back. Blameless? Did she deserve to die? Seems a bit excessive. But she wasn't blameless.

That didn't work. Destroying cities, destroying nations, flooding the world. Time and time again God's people turned away, ended up in slavery, or famine or exile or whatever.

God sent Jesus. It's a new covenant. The law is still the same. But Jesus paid the price, bears the consequences, took on himself the punishment for all of us.

So the New Testament is about the New Covenant. We don't live under the law - which was too heavy for anyone to bear - but under grace. Grace, love, mercy, forgiveness, hope.

It's a new story. It doesn't contradict the Old Testament, it replaces it.

Nicotine you're right. Awful awful things done in the name of Cheistianity. I know so many people who have lost their faith or cannot consider putting faith in a God when they have been so badly hurt by his representatives on earth. People; priests, pastors, lay members, have committed appalling atrocities in the name of Christ. There will be a reckoning. And those in positions of authority who have abused that will pay the price.

The church has a history of reacting appallingly badly to abusive adults within its midst. There are no excuses for that. Within our own church, we have robust safeguarding procedures; rules for anyone involved in youth work are tighter than they are for staff in our local schools even, everyone from paid staff down to the volunteer working for 2 hours on the summer play scheme has to have training, DBS checks, and a thorough grounding in appropriate and inappropriate behaviours and actions. Never ever is any adult alone 1:1 with a child. It's tighter than the regs for GirlGuiding, tighter than the regs for volunteering in our local primary schools.

It's probably still not perfect. But we are trying.

There has been so much harm done. I can't excuse it. I wouldn't want to. I wish it hadn't happened though, and I hope that our safeguarding procedures (and this extends to more than just children; I'm just using children as an example as that's where I know most about) are enough to ensure it never happens again. And no, I don't think our specific congregation has had an issue in the past; our policies and procedures are built on trying to prevent anything from happening, learning from the cases in other places in the past and not so far past.

I'm not perfect. I get grumpy and snappy at times. And I'm well aware that I fall down as God's representative all the time. All I can do is apologise. And try to avoid hurting my friends again.

Batman, I'd be annoyed about that too. Did he feel able to write in option C?

What do you base your interpretation on? So you do concede that god has committed atrocities, but it's ok because it 'sort of' changed in the New Testament (ignoring the fact that Revelations specifically says that all hell will break loose on earth one day, if you do not follow god). All god did was stop being violent and started on the silent treatment/threats of 'follow me or else'. That's not love. How is god 'loving'?

There's also a key thing you said in a previous post, silence that I doubt you can coherently explain, but I'll ask anyway;

He knows my future, my past, my present. He knows exactly how many times I'll mess up, and he loves me anyway.

Assuming god knows all this about you, it would only be fair to say he - as an all powerful god - knows this about every human that ever existed. So, what is the ultimate point? If god knows everything every human is going to do, that their behaviour is as it was going to be and ever will be, that you will always be a believer and I always will not be, what was the point of creating all this? What's the point of being sad or angry with humans, when he knows their thoughts and actions before they actually do them? It's a rather pointless venture isn't it? Like watching a crap film that's going to end badly, that you don't enjoy watching, but keep doing so on repeat? What a boring existence to have.

Wow, Silenceoftheprams, whatever floats your boat but that kind of stuff just freaks me out. And I'm a Catholic.