To ask religious MIL to respect our views?

[Namedilema123]

PIL are Christians. DH is atheist. Im not atheist but not religious at all and find it all a bit culty.

MIL is always talking about Jesus and God to my 4yo and 2yo. She plays religious nursery rhymes when she looks after them. For Christmas has bought them a Childs First Bible and Child's First Prayer Book. How do i broach this subject? It makes me feel so uncomfortable. Its not so much the religion itself but more it being taught as blind fact, rather than just stories or that some people believe it, others don't. would be much happier if other religions were spoken about too. Or AIBU?

Weird thing to post, onlyindreams, particularly a full 13 hours since Bertrand last posted on this thread.

Some of these comments are truly shocking. I'm no god botherer but to equate a belief in God to Father Christmas is so disrespectful. Of course a child's bible is suitable for a child, the clue's in the name, ffs. I do wonder why it's only Christianity that gets attacked like this, nobody would dare take this attitude towards Islam or Judaism

There s more evidence for the tooth fairy and father christmas.

And it's the same god for Jews and Muslims, so the post is actually attacking all three.

If you take a non religious perspective the old testament are a collection of stories that record the "history" and "mythologies" of an area of the world and the new testament is testimonials related one person. In both cases they are a collection of facts or stories as the authors saw them or as had been handed down orally to them.

There are very few if any that are facts, if a group of people wandered around a desert for 40 years, that they could have crossed in a couple of weeks then they should have left some archaeology behind.

Theres historical evidence that the great flood probably did occur (fact), was there a man in a giantic boat who saved all the animals (myth... probably or if there was a man in the boat he didnt save the animals).
The Bible flood was global, a scientific impossibility (fundamentalists cite the flood as the cause of the grand canyon), there is evidence of a local but devastating flood and a merchant who managed to ride it out on a boat containing lots of his wares.

Was there a man claiming to be the son of God possibly, as these eyewitness accounts testify to that fact, was he actually the son of god, well thats a matter of belief.

There were quite a few wandering around at the same time claiming all sorts of things.

As for the god in the Bible, the notion of what a 'god' is changes with various invasions, Satan also changes quite a lot in different versions.

@Craft1905 wth? I chose my words advisedly and stand by them. It sounds like you’re trying to tell me what to believe.. I thought only pesky Christians did that?

@Bluelady

It's been called poisonous, a fairytale, make believe to name but a few. Of course that's "bashing", and I never said you.

But don't you understand that atheists think the same of all religions? We don't just not believe in the Christian God, we don't believe in any Gods. The thread is about a proselytising Christian MIL and so posters are mainly talking about that but the same comments would apply to a MIL from any proselytising religion who tried to convert their grandchildren against the wishes of the atheist parents. The trouble is the proselytising.

I've got a flat out ban on god/ Jesus talk or gifts. All relatives have been polities told any bibles etc won't be accepted but thank you anyway.
I'm very anti religion and when I introduce my children to it, it will be how I want to do it and when.
People are welcome to say whet they want of course but I will reply very firmly if they do

Jaxtellers that was my position as well. I wanted my children to live in (as near as possible) a non religious 'default' until they learned about it at school in an objective manner. The only religious person in our families was my Mum and she respected my wishes
Having said that, if you marry someone from a more religious family this is something you have to consider ahead of time, especially if you want the extended family to be involved in childcare. You can't expect other people to hide their religious expression in their own homes to suit you, and for some people religion is so deeply embedded in their lives that it's impossible for them to ignore.

Honestly - this is not hard. This is what Grandma believes, which is why she’s telling you about it. Daddy doesn’t think it’s true at all. Me? Well I’m not sure really. Do you want cheese on toast for lunch?

Over zealous atheists are just as bad as the religious lot. We allow all views in our house because i don't tell my kids what to believe or not.

What @longtalljosie said.
Never met an over zealous atheist. What do they do?

RTFT @BertrandRussell, it's a huge illustration of over zealous atheism.

Ah, yes. Over zealous atheism= being an atheist, saying so and being at all critical of religion.

Nobody can consider themselves well educated without knowledge of the world's main religions

You could say the same of philosophy. How much do you know about logical positivism? yet no-one on MN bangs on about it being essential to a well-rounded education.

You could indeed say that. It wouldn't make it true. Saying something once is hardly banging on, is it?

So, explain. Why is knowledge of religion vital but knowledge of philosophy utterly dispensable?

Because Western art and literature is full of religious, specifically bible, references. A working knowledge of those references is essential to their full understanding and appreciation. As far as I know logical positivism doesn't really figure. Had you said a knowledge of myths and legends, I'd have agreed with you.

It's also full of references to philosophy. A working knowledge of those references is essential to their full understanding and appreciation. Try reading Voltaire or Sartre with no knowledge of philosophy, you won't get very far.

“Nobody can consider themselves well educated without knowledge of the world's main religions”

I agree. That is not the same as teaching a child to practice religion. Not sure why this is so hard to understand.

Or indeed, Gulliver's Travels and Tristram Shandy, which are both satires on Lockean philosophy.

Completely agree, @BertrandRussell. That's pretty much what several of us have been arguing for the last umpteen pages.

That is the perspective of a society with a state-sponsored religion. Living in a society with full separation of church and state, I think you can be perfectly well-educated with a knowledge of religion that is perfunctory at best.

Actually, I was educated in the UK at a Christian school that taught me absolutely nothing about any other religion. I still consider myself well-educated, and my academic pedigree would tend to back that up.

“Living in a society with full separation of church and state, I think you can be perfectly well-educated with a knowledge of religion that is perfunctory at best.“
Really? Even when thinking about art or music or literature? Certainly a basic knowledge of the bible and the book of common prayer and a missal is quite useful. Also for doing pub quizzes.

“That's pretty much what several of us have been arguing for the last umpteen pages.”
Is it? My mistake. I thought several of you were arguing that religion is to be respected at all times and not criticised.

Well, I have basic knowledge that I've picked up from general knowledge as an adult. I'm kind of mystified why religion is considered so vital to understanding art and literature though, when philosophy isn't. I'll add try reading Animal Farm without a basic knowledge of Marxism to my list. I'm a humanities academic with a PhD in literature, FWIW, so yeah, pretty well educated by any standard metric.

In my case, not religion but people with religious beliefs.

Oh there are definitely overly zealous atheists, my brother can bang on for hours about how stupid religious people are and how the idea of God is pathetic etc.

He soon shuts up when my very religious MIL is around though.