All you atheist parents wondering how to broach the religion topic to your kids listen up!

[Rhubarb]

I'm a catholic and I teach my kids about all religions. I explain that some people believe different things and some people don't believe at all. I tell them what the Bible says about creation and what science says.

I tell them what my personal beliefs are but I encourage them to make their own minds up. I answer questions with "well this is what I believe but you might think something different".

I take them to Church and they know about the religion we follow, but I do encourage questions as far as I can bearing in mind their young ages.

So what I say to you is this. Don't put a barrier between yourselves and religion when it comes to your kids. Arm them with information and let them make their own minds up. If you push them a certain way, chances are that they'll reject it later on in life. Whereas if you add your support to whatever they decide to believe or not, it will give them the confidence to choose their own paths.

You may be disappointed in their choices but don't try to influence them too strongly one way or the other.

So says me.

unzip>>>> ;>>>>>>>

-nooooooo----
-zipuppppp----

says in James you need to control your tongue!!!

Says in Rhubarb "thou shalst speak thine mind or forever hold thy tongue"

go on then!

I think there are some really interesting points here by so many people.

Someone mentioned that they thought the message they are hearing is - OK for atheists to tell their children that religion is bunk, but not OK for those that do believe that their belief is true.

E-Prime is really helpful here - E-Prime is a variety of English Language that discounted the verb IS - it can lead to clearer conversations and meanings. So instead of 'IS True' or 'IS Bunk', E-Prime would use something like 'I think Christian doctrine are true according to the Stories i read in the Bible' or 'I dont believe God exists due to the lack of current scientific evidence for the presence of a supernatural force' etc etc.... (These are just examples!)

I dont believe there is a God due many reasons, lack of scientific evidence being one element, but i certainly would not tell my children that they must also believe this. I would hope to encourage them to show tolerance and acceptance of all faiths, as i hope that those who have faith would tolerate and accept my thoughts.

One think that i feel a little put-out by the title of this topic though - all the other atheist or humanists i know in real life act in accepting and tolerant way towards others beliefs - perhaps the message would help Everyone, not just 'atheists'?

excuse the general semantic hijack

Thread title critism accepted squidette. I started this for onehundredtimes after she and some others were discussing how to tell their kids about religion on another thread, but they were too lazy to start a thread title themselves so I did one for them, but I wasn't taking it very seriously at the time. I didn't know it would turn into such an interesting debate or I would have gone about it differently.

As for your other points I totally agree with them.

It is an interesting debate.

"But the impression I am getting here is that it is NOT a personal preference. Its OK for athiests to tell their children religion is bunk, but not OK for Christians to tell their children religion is true. Where both are clearly faith positions."

We're talking about two completely different ways of life here. I assume, if you are religious, that YOU introduce religion into your family-life, you don't wait until your children ask questions. You partake in activities which positively promote what you believe in. It IS indocrination and your children are very much immersed in a belief system each day of their life.

In my household, we don't do anything proactive in which to disclose our beliefs to our children. We just live our lives, bumbling along. We don't have weekly meetings chanting to our children 'god is not real' We don't read any special books to our children about athiesm. We don't have special ceremonies to celebrate not believing in god.

Most days of the year, the subject doesn't come up. We don't havce a faith position. We simply don't factor religion into our lives and only factor our non-religion into our lives when a counter-position is called for. This has nothing to do with faith on our part.

On this thread

You might not factor nonreligion in but other people do.

I am sorry, I am not weak, I am most certainly not brainwashed. I made a decision abotu faith which is, as far as I am concerned, evidence based.

I'm not a nutter, I dont go for 7 day creationism, or flat earth, or even a totally literal interpreatation of the bible.

I'm also not 'religious'. I'm a Christian. I live my life by those ethics, that beleif, in the relationship that brings me. Its fab.

I object to being called weak because of this.

Sorry to interrupt but...on the thought that "Its OK for athiests to tell their children religion is bunk, but not OK for Christians to tell their children religion is true"...why not? As someone said previously, most (i can't say all cos i don't know) religions do incorporate a belief that theirs is the one truth.
Also, I as an aetheist believe that my view is right, and actually for a few years we did have to discuss this because although dds school is no fixed religion, they still came home saying "my teacher says... and they say it's true". Funny how it was always Christian beliefs too actually. My kids were tops in science class for years .
I used to be RC btw so i understand both sides.

According to the OP I must have been "pushed" into atheism by my parents. For which I am grateful.

I go to church (and take my ds) for three reasons

1. To thank "someone" for the week that has gone
2. To thank "someone" for what I have and
3. To ask "someone" to help me to be a good person during the nest week

How can this be wrong???

I sit and listen to the sermons and question EVERYTHING.

I don't quite know what I believe but think that at least I have a time to thank and consider how I will behave this week
(This can be especially good when I know that MIL is visiting during the coming week!!!!)

Again, a key point is sometimes being glossed over.

I don't think it's necessarily true that atheists bring their children up to "be" atheists in the same way that Christians, usually, bring their children up in the faith. For one thing it's a bit difficult to define what you do to "be" an atheist - there are no observances to follow, no incantations, rituals, beliefs to express, utterances, texts, symbols, places of gathering/ education or events solely for atheists. It's something defined by what you are not - a believer in gods.

I don't think it's possible for me actively to bring my children up to be atheists. But maybe teaching them that Bible stories are to be regarded on a par with Greek legends and Norse mythology is doing so by omission? In that case, I am.

I'm teaching them, I hope, to be sceptical of anybody who makes claims with no evidence.

Atheism, as stated above, is not a faith-based position. No, it isn't. No, I'm sorry, but it isn't. It is an evidence-based position. You do not believe in God or gods because there is as little evidence for them as there is for a flat Earth, tealeaf-reading and the moon being made of green cheese. If you want to give your children the opportunity to encounter religion on the basis of "letting them make up their own minds" when they are older, you are on a hiding to nothing - if you are going to do that, you need to give them access to all known religions and also to Breatharianism, the Moonies, that David Icke cult and the whole damn lot of them.

In fact:
here's the whole damn lot of them!

My mother thinks they "need" religion, "otherwise how are they going to know what's right?", and that's partly why she was quietly fuming when we didn't get DD or DS christened. She thinks this means they are not going to get any moral instruction in their lives, which I find hugely offensive.

I hope they will grow up with a healthy scepticism, and to be suspicious of being part of anything which claims to have the answers, that one Way is the only True Way, that one book is the only True Book, that one god is the only God, etc.

I am with the unquiet dad on this - fabulous post.

Take the children to church occasionally - around five times a year - they hate it - but I mutter incomprehensible things about needing some background in judeo-christian tradition to understand a bit about the culture in which they live.

That might well be complete twaddle actually.

Looking down the thread, ekra expresses it better than I do below. "We don't have a faith 'position'." That's exactly it. You can't have a position on something you don't HAVE in your life. The fact that you don't believe in it is almost irrelevant, which is why I rarely call myself an atheist in public - it's a word which I am only forced to use because of religious-defined terms.

There is no one single word for someone who doesn't "believe" (for instance) that there is currently a giant invisible alien spaceship hovering over London, or a giant pink tortoise supporting the Earth. It just doesn't enter your everyday thought that there might be, because the idea is so daft.

Would someone please tell me what is wrong with what I do then?

I don't understand what it is that you think you might have done wrong?

Mamapoopants - have you got all night? Just kidding. I don't see why you have to thank "someone" for being good etc and why you think you can't be good by yourself but someone else is controlling your mind.

Since you asked twice, but I haven't got time to go into this.

So how may people who don't "take time out" actually do this each week?

As I said I don't know what I belive but I know that I then have time to consider myself in this world and how I am behaving

not may but many!
Sorry

It doesn't have to be regimented, e.g. 9 am on Sunday morning. I'm not even sure it needs doing like that. You live your life thinking through everything you do, not just going through it aimlessley and then taking "time out" once a week to reflect.

I live my life rushing through everything I do, rather than thinking through everything I do. Time out to think would be good but not sure it needs to be in an environment with someone preaching. Besides, the coffee is never any good in these places. But no-one is arguing that going to church is wrong are they?

I do think through everything I do but the onece a week thing is like a full stop in the week to check I've done all I can

(and belive me I never have)
I'm very hot tempered and say far too much to people about what I'm thinking
Not always a bad thing but it can be

also, I really am thankful for my lovely husband and son and my life as it is now (hasn't always been this way) and I don't think it's a bad thing to reflect on this each week

I know I could do this "as and when" but I know that this would happen on a less regular basis without a prompt

I'm very thankful for what I have, I'm just not "thankful" to an unspecified, unproven entity. Three main things have got me and DW the good things we have - talent, hard work and luck. The hard work is the only one we have any control over. And the bad things? Well, mainly just bad luck, I suppose.

Quattrocento - I don't stop and think things through but my beliefs still underpin everything I do. Perhaps some reflection time would be good too but I think this would be just a diversion in this discussion, not really essential.

As for whether going to church being good or not, I think Mamapoopants would like us to debate that but I really can't be bothered tonight. But yes, I think indoctrinating children with the ONE belief you have is wrong. Sorry if I can't put it in a more diplomatic way tonight.