If I had kids, and they were curious about religion I’d tell them about it from the vantage point of an agnostic atheist who was brought up Catholic. If, after that they still wanted to explore religion I’d have to let them, but I’d definitely try to provide a consistent counterpoint.
Problem is that my wife is religious. Or rather still has religious feelings in that there must be something out there, a Big Boss.
So she does want to teach them the ‘old stories’ and I’m okay with that. I mean, I learned them as true and was able to outgrow it so why shouldn’t my kids.
Every now and then though her feelings grow deeper and she would like them to grow up ‘in the bosom of the Church’ with the feeling of belonging that she used to feel.
That would mean having them baptised which would, in turn, mean that I myself should swear to raise them as good Catholics.
NO FFING WAY
It would seem bizarre to me. Which religion would I choose? Since I don’t believe God exists, a fortiori I don’t know which religion/denomination is the correct one, so it would seem arbitrary to pick this particular faith for my child to have. I mean, if one religion is better than the others, there must be some reason why it is. If our daughter is able to discern such a reason when she is older, she is free to join that church. I won’t try to indoctrinate her into atheism; but I won’t outsource her indoctrination either.
My SO and I aren’t religious. Religion isn’t a part of our lives at all. So there’s little good reason to raise our kids as anything other than the heathen sinners we are. We will educate them and encourage them to figure the world out for themselves, but to actively encourage a dogma that isn’t ours? Can’t, and won’t, do it.
I would be reluctant to send my kids to a better but religious school. That feels disrespectful to the faithful somehow.
No, I can’t in good conscience indoctrinate my kids.
Religion is an open topic of discussion around our house and each kid had attended some kind of church at least a couple of times, but I just can’t bring myself to take them regularly to any kind of church.
That’s odd: I’m godfather to two Catholic children (and a Protestant one), and my atheism was well known to both sets of parents.
No, because I would have had to hold my tongue if they came home spouting nonsense. Not to mention it was important to me to raise skeptical, questioning kids, and that doesn’t go well with most religions.
What I did was to go through the beginning of Genesis with them when they were about in 7th grade, pointing out the obvious contradictions and the evidence of separate authorship of the different sections. The purpose was to help them read critically. After that, we didn’t oppose them going with friends to religious youth groups and things. I trusted them to be able to listen critically to the indoctrination while having fun. This trust was well placed. At home I set an example of how religion was not necessary. It worked, they are both adults and both atheists.
My dad was raised religious, but became an agnostic as an adult. He allowed and even encouraged me to attend Sunday School and church as a kid. As an adult I wound up taking his path to atheism.
I would have no problem with my (still hypothetical at this point) kids attending church. I doubt any indoctrination would stick into adulthood (didn’t for me or my dad, or my sister), and I think it’s actually good to have some cultural (if not spiritual) grounding in the Bible.
On the other hand, what’s your punishment for swearing insincerely?
Hey, I’m just going by what I was told, since I am not Catholic myself. Allegedly in Catholicism you gotta be Catholic to be a proper “Godfather”, though if you are a Protestant you can be a “witness”. A Muslim (or athiest) is right out.
A bit of Googling tends to confirm this:
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0233.html
Of course, some churches take this stuff more seriously than others - my wife’s family’s church does, so I could not have my friends as “godparents”.
More cites on catholic godparents:
Ironically, there is no way I could be a “godparent” myself … 
Is anyone else noticing the common theme of “I am an atheist and my wife is Roman Catholic?” It seems to be coming up quite a bit.
Jews and Catholics are another common pairing (says the atheist Jew married to the lapsed agnostic Catholic)…
What can I say? They turn us on!
Since both my Catholic godchildren are in Ireland, I’m guessing Irish Catholicism, like other aspects of life in Ireland, honours the rules more in the breach than the observance…
Ironically I’m a godparent as well - well, I am technically, I no longer associate with the people I was made godparent to so it’s academic whether I should have been made one at all (just as well really considering I’m a Satanist, isn’t it?).
I’m atheist, and live in a generally atheist country, the Netherlands. Would I raise my kid in any religion?
I’d hope to follow the example of Barack Obama’s atheist mom, and how she raised little Obama, as cited on Snopes. .
I’m a godparent to one of my nephews. I look at it this way.
a) The Catholic Church has rules.
a)-1 Those rules apply to Catholics.
b) I no longer believe in a god and have no active relationship with the Catholic Church, therefore I am not a Catholic.
b)-1 Those rules do not apply to me.
c)Therefore, even though I’m an atheist, I’m not breaking any rules that I recognize as valid by being a godparent. I would, if necessary respect my sisters wishes with regard to the raising of her son, even if I don’t believe as she does. To me,that should be enough.
No. Absolutely not. I’ll probably celebrate Christmas but I couldn’t even in good conscious celebrate Easter (other than to go to family things). I might do my best to teach them about religions but I’d cover them all equally mostly so they understand what all the fuss is all about.
To be honest, I don’t see myself marrying someone who is so religious that they’d want to raise our children religious so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Is that actual instruction in the RCC or CoE, or just “religious studies” as in learning about the various world religions?