Then why did you vote?
And why did you make it one of those sneaky threads that logs the names of people who answer?
Oh, don’t worry, I get it. You want to make a list of atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, secularists, and otherwise non theistic dopers. Well, honeychile, they happen to far outweigh the sanctimonious on this board, as revealed in another poll, so your little black list will be pretty big. Have fun pulling it out every time you want to use it against someone.
I knew a fellow whose parents did this. Nice guy. He became my tutoring student in literature because they had managed to avoid exposing him to so much that he missed much of what was going on in literature in English. If you haven’t at least heard of Adam & Eve, Noah’s Ark, David & Goliath, the good shepherd imagery, the notion of the sacrifical lamb, all that stuff, then it turns out that large chunks of US and UK literature and history are incomprehensible.
Hopefully your plan was to be less, er, efficient about it – I don’t know how they pulled it off actually, as all that stuff is just everywhere – but you might want to think about how to present that stuff so as not to cut him off from that part of the cultural conversation. Or not, but then he’ll need a tutor to get through Lit 101.
If it’s anything like a pet blessing at a Catholic church, it’s more like (heavily paraphrased) “Lord, keep this dog safe and healthy, because it’s a pet of Your worshippers here and they love it very much just like You love them.”
Presumably, if I was having kids with the woman, I’d have worked out some arrangement about religion with her. So I’d use that arrangement.
Edit: Honestly, the likeliest arrangement is me converting to her faith. I’m very credulous.
I am married to a theist and I wouldn’t have a problem with her exposing my daughter to her religion. If my daughter doesn’t want to go or attend or what have you then I would be against it. I would also give my opinions about religions to my daughter.
Absolute non-exposure to religion is almost impossible unless we move to the middle of Bumfuque and get rid of all television, books, music, etc. and forbid speaking with anyone outside of the three of us.
My son is already constantly bombarded with watered-down dogma from television and such. My wife and I usually try to explain it as “You know, some people believe that…”
• The world is actually resting on the back of a giant sea turtle.
• An old man with a long white beard lives up in the sky and controls everything. Once he had his own son —who was actually a version of himself— killed to dismiss bad things people had done, even people who hadn’t been born yet, and…it gets complicated.
• Invisible creatures fly around and control everything. We can make these creatures do what we want by giving them rum and cigarettes.
Explaining the pickup in the WalMart parking lot with “The End is Near! Jesus calls to his own! Repent Faggots!” crudely painted on the side was a bit difficult, though. That one I had to pass off as “…there’s something in the water in South Georgia and North Florida that makes certain people go crazy.”
That sounds like my kind of faith.
That was also my thought at the time – how did they pull it off? But he seemed to have otherwise had an ordinary, north Georgia semi urban childhood. You can hardly get down the street in Atlanta without somebody wishing you a blessed day. shrug I ultimately decided that maybe he was just incurious as a child. He learned it all soon enough, it isn’t all that complicated.
But it was a little odd.
The poll question is too pat. For instance, I’d think it’s a bad idea and would say as much, but I wouldn’t try to *forbid *it. Assuming it’s a strong marriage otherwise, I would try to find some way to make it work if I couldn’t convince my wife to change her mind.
So, is that “approve” or “not approve”?
I was born and raised Catholic by parents who weren’t particularly religious but certainly not agnostic, let alone atheist. I’m agnostic-to-atheist now.
Yet I’m extremely happy I was raised Catholic. To be honest, as annoying as I find the overly religious I find a lot of atheists even worse. Who has the right to say what you should or should not believe, as long as no one is hurt by it?
Children are not “little adults.” They’re children. They are extensions of their parents, and parents have the right-- indeed, the obligation-- to raise them in the way they deem best. I may disagree with it, but at the end of the day, absent physical abuse, it’s not my place to interfere. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone interfering with MY parents, that’s for sure.
I believe I am a better person for having been raised within a faith. It didn’t take with me, and I don’t believe in any God today. But I certainly was taught to be a gentleman who respects other people and does their best to take care of those less fortunate. I believe that many atheists who ridicule religion-- especially Christian faiths-- do so ignorant of all the good that comes from the strong moral upbringing one gets from such faith.
Now, can atheists raise moral children without faith? Sure, of course. But given human nature, it’s hard to do so. Children require authority figures in their lives, role models to guide them. A little religious belief goes a long way in reinforcing important moral lessons. If the child grows up and decides they don’t want to/can’t believe in God via organized religion any longer, guess what? That’ll be their choice, they’ll do it regardless of what the parents want anyway. Heck, I’m proof of that.
It’s like learning languages-- one can learn a language from a book, or one can learn it from living in the country/culture where the language is spoken. Which way sinks in better?
Anyway, to each their own. I’d be happy to send my child to Catholic school. Given how I’m a non-believer, I’m sure that it probably wouldn’t take, but if they spend their childhood learning Bible stories and working Salvation Army clothing drives, I don’t see how that hurts them at all.
I think I’m secure enough in my atheism to be tolerant of a spouses desire to expose our children to religion. As long as I get to express my views also. Now, as many others have stated, I would not be in a relationship with someone who was “deeply” religious anyway, so I think the risk is minimal.
Religion is a large part of our cultural landscape. By denying your children the opportunity to explore some of it would be comparable to denying your children music.
I had no problem with my kids being exposed to religion, but that is different from being raised in a religion. They both went to nursery school in a church, but it wasn’t an obnoxious church and at the time had a cool minister. Neither got baptized, but that was as much because I’m Jewish as it was that I am now atheist. It helped that my wife is not very religious (even less so now) and that her father is an atheist, though her mother was fairly religious.
Both my girls grew up into being atheists also, not from indoctrination but from setting an example that religion is not necessary, but reason is. One had a nonreligious wedding, the other has atheist boyfriends.
I don’t think anyone here is advocating for interfering with the parenting decisions of others; the poll is about what you would do with your own children.
See, now this right here is what makes atheists angry. While it is true strong faith can aid in setting a desired moral tone, it is simply not necessary. Children do not need a stronger authority figure than their own parents, and the implication that atheism is necessarily somehow immoral or “less moral” is infuriating.
No, no, and no.