To think buying a Bible is not the same as forcing religion on a child?

[Popcornn]

For context: I am not religious, however I have always been of the mindset that religion is a personal thing and that it should be up to an individual to decide what they believe.

DD recently started going to a CofE school. She has been learning about Jesus and the Nativity and has always been a very curious child. She has lots of questions Christianity that I didn't feel qualified to answer because I didn't learn these things due to a very anti-religious family. So when I saw a children's Bible in a bookshop the other day I decided to buy it. My intention being to read through it alone first and then if questions came up again we could look at it together and discuss it. My DP didn't like this because although he agrees that it should be DDs choice, he feels like it's forcing it on her and that these questions could've easily been answered at school.

I want DD to continue to be curious and to feel comfortable asking these questions at home. I'll always do what I can to help her learn about the things that she's interested in, even if it's not necessarily what I believe. But DP thinks I've crossed a line. AIBU?

I'm not saying that your point about OP potentially having no choice but to use a church school is a bad one.

But I think you are saying that Americans would not understand you if you said "England" instead of "the UK", so you just said something misleading in order to help them understand your point.

I'm just correcting your misleading statement that C of E is the dominant school choice in the whole of the UK. They might find that interesting.

@Goldpaw "overwhelming" is not about absolute numbers though, is it? Most people are not picking from all schools nationwide.

The implication was that most people in the UK will have majority C of E schools around them.

Because often they are the only catchment area schools, with the only place to offer. Some areas really do not have a choice of schools.

You say this is what some people choose to believe, but other people believe that it's just stories - and you can believe whatever you like.

I've always been of the mindset that religion was invented to explain the unexplainable. Now, we have science for the vast majority of things.

I don't think the pedantry was necessary if clarification was what you were after.

That's pretty offensive, suggesting that clarifying that Scotland exists is mere "pedantry". And I'm not even a nationalist!

Oh stop trying to find something to be offended about. It's pathetic.
You know for a fact if I'd have said England you'd be on here saying what about Scotland.
The pedantry is your time, not the information.

Tone not time

Is it wise to say “we the parents believe x and we do not want our child to be exposed to (the opposite)?

I'd get her a copy of the Bhagavd-Gita as well, for comparison purposes, though not in the original Sanskrit.

I had a book of children's Bible stories as a child, it was the stuff of fucking nightmares! I particularly remember the story of Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt just for looking around and lots of destruction. I'd never get something like that for my child, it was grim.

Thats the whole point of the New Testament for Christians though. Love is meant to supercede the other commandments.

But it doesn't always work out that way in real life.

I was talking about the stuff Jesus said that is recorded in the Bible when I was talking about the “central message”.

Show me a bit where he advocated smiting, banishing or stoning and I’ll accept your insult and wear it on a t-shirt.

*He

☺️

That's the part I have a problem with though. Centuries of very harsh punishment doled out to men and women who don't live up to god's whims and standards.
Then someone comes along and says, whoops, nevermind all is forgiven and the central message has changed. Basically to the polar opposite of what it was previously.
It's bizarre. And if God was a real person this would be abusive behaviour and I'd be worried about a switch back to his old standards.

Your daughter goes to a CoE school and your husband is concerned that buying a child's version of the bible is forcing religion on her!

I wouldn't say so. We are atheists. Our dc went to a C of E primary school, because it was our village school, an excellent school and was where all the children in the village went. There was no way I was going to send my dc miles away (all the other local village schools are C of E too). Besides, the Head fortunately never gave the impression that he was very keen on the religious side of things. I certainly wouldn't have bought my dc a bible.

I know of a family who for every year at school they got a Bible as a prize for attainment etc. None of the family are religious and they clearly didn't read their Bibles 😂

I'm anti- religion, but see nothing wrong with children's bible stories. I quite liked them when growing up. Plus they're going to a religious school anyway, so he seems like he's being a bit silly

If my husband bought our children a bible I would be livid. I don't want my children anywhere near anything religious. Thankfully my husband is also of the same mindset, I wouldn't have married him if he was a god botherer. You should respect his wishes. Why do atheists never get their beliefs respected but we are meant to tolerate actual adults spouting pure fantasy about sky fairies? It is insanity.

Why do atheists never get their beliefs respected but we are meant to tolerate actual adults spouting pure fantasy about sky fairies?

I think you kind of answered your own question there, don’t you?

How so?

We are atheists (and bookworms) and I bought my DD a book of bible stories when she was a child because such a lot of references in Victorian English literature were going to be meaningless if she didn’t have at least a nodding acquaintance with the bible.

She enjoyed the stories a lot and found them useful to know later on.

This. Religion aside a lot of Western culture is based on the stories in the Bible. Even down to things like the picture on the side of the Tate & Lyle golden syrup tin.

Have you read the Bible?
Have you read the Old Testament? It absolutely lends itself to multiple questions, particularly if you read or learn about Darwin....fascinating stuff. Also the phrase a 'doubting Thomas' is from the NewTestament, even Jesus doubted his own belief, and lends to multiple questions.

Religious studies at most primary schools, generally look at Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism. Some primaries also include Sikhism and Buddhist faiths. Many faiths including Confucianism and Toaism are all written to ask questions rather than following blindly.

Reading any Holy book doesn't suddenly make someone a 'Radical', in fact the more folk that read these books the less 'radicalisation' we'll get! I don't profess to be an expert by any means, but I have read many texts of differing religions and they all give a good code to live by, in fact many are a form of cognitive behaviour therapy.

Some unscrupulous people use religion as a weapon and that's why it's really important to have a basic understanding of all Religions including atheism (atheists can be just as dogmatic in their non belief as Religious zealots in theirs...admittedly I'm not aware of any war been started using atheism as an excuse...but certainly I've seen fisticuffs being used by an atheist!)

Religion exists for 2 reasons

1 - to control people

2 - to pretend that existence has some sort of point to it