I’m another atheist godparent to one of my Catholic nieces. In fairness, no one from the church ever asked me what I was, so maybe they’d have objected had they known.
Not really. You are selling them your child’s brain as a home for their dogma, in return for a few hours away from the kid.
I really, really try not to jump into religeous debates, for a whole lot of reasons, one in particular being the desire to have respect for the belief of others… not wanting to say anything that would make others feel disrespected.
But on this topic I really do want to say one thing. I was traumatized by the idea of hell. I mean, it sank into my psyche and took a terrifying hold.
When I fully believed in the brand of Christianity that my mother did, I didn’t fear hell too badly. But when my mind first began to turn inside of my lil’ young head, and I began to doubt a biblical heaven and hell…that is when I became almost suffocated with the fear of a never ending hell.
I mean, the idea that the god that loves me would burn me eternally, while I gasp for air, feeling choked and wracked with pain…forever! I was scarred.
By the time I was nearly completely out of the darkness regarding heaven and hell, I had started to panic at the concept of an everlasting heaven! An everlasting conciousness in any form freaked me out. But nothing was or ever will be as scary as that feeling I had as a young girl, fearing hell.
I simply cannot imagine traumatizing my own little girl.
That said, I completely feel comfortable with her learning about religion. In fact, we discuss it quite often.
I would hope to give my children the same non-religious approach as my parents gave us. Which is not to say it was an atheist’s method, partly because I now do have some understanding of their complicated relationships with traditional Christianity and in particular Catholicism.
I would see it as my duty, my obligation, to give them every opportunity to make decisions such as these for themselves. But not to impose religious views on them, and I would have a big problem with third parties doing so. (I have in the past started a big rant about religion having no place in education, and midway remembered that I was in the staff room of a Church of England school :smack: )
Atheism merely describes what I *don’t *believe, not what I *do *believe. I would teach my child to be a rational, independant and compassionate human being, and to receive joy from real things in a real universe. And I can’t imaging being married to someone who thinks otherwise.
On the other hand, like with vaccinations, it is sometimes good to expose some one to small doses, at the proper age, so long as you can answer questions they may have. We have it easier than slightly religious parents, who might feel it hard to call bullshit on what a teacher says.
Plus, kids rebel. I don’t want to set religion up as something forbidden and thus appealing. Far better for them to go and find out for themselves how absurd it is.
I dunno. As a non-Catholic participating in a Catholic ritual, I feel bound to follow their rules, purely as a matter of courtesy. It wouldn’t feel right, at least to me, to openly flout their traditions, rules and beliefs just because I do not believe in them myself.
But, will they realize it’s absurd ? Your idea is nice in theory, but the whole reason the various religious factions make a point of pushing religion on kids is because kids are the most vulnerable to it. By the time they are old enough or knowledgeable enough to make a rational choice, their judgement will already have been crippled; religion’s various anti-skepticism aspects will have subverted them.
How about Christmas carols? When my seven-year-old daughter was singing them last month, she pronounced “Christ” like “Chris” with a T.
My wife and I are both atheists, and we sent both of our daughters to a Christian preschool. We tried to let them make up their own minds about religion, and they seem to have gotten over it.
My mom has mentioned before that if we choose to send them to the local Catholic high school, she will help pay for it. The last time we saw her, my wife told her that we were strongly considering doing it, because the Catholic school is so much better than the public school. Mom told her what she had in mind as “helping”: $25 a month. :rolleyes: Gee, that 5% will make the difference.
I come from a nice, big, religious Catholic family: Three of my siblings are divorced, two of those remarried, and two of my sisters have children conceived with men they didn’t marry. (One married another man when she was seven months pregnant. She’s not one of the divorced ones; they’re still married 21 years later.) As far as I know, all of those people go to church every Sunday.
It appears to me (anecdotally through language) that most of you disagreeing with the notion of raising kids in some sort of religious environment actually HAVE NO KIDS!
Exposing kids to an organized religion is not a damaging prospect, nor a life sentence to engage in said religion.
I believe this thread of mine may have been the reason for this thread.
Knowledge of religion in and of itself is not a bad thing. In the same quoted thread I also said in post 51 that “Religion isn’t an issue with me: fanaticism is though and I’m not even fanatic enough about atheism to keep my kids from learning about religion.”
We are not a church-going family, although my kids are in a Catholic school. But it exposes them to the notion of God and religion and as I also said in post 51 “Although one certainly doesn’t need religion to be moral, some of the teachings are a good starting point: Lord’s Prayer, 10 commandments and all.”
I honestly believe that by exposing kids to this, and by keeping an open mind as a parent, they will be free to choose the path with which they feel most comfortable.
Anyone who disagrees with exposing kids to organized religion in any manner, but maintaining a level keel at home, is denying the children from learning a great deal about our society and culture.
It’s not a theory. It’s exactly what I did with my kids, who are both over 21 and both atheists. So it works.
Like I said, theists have a problem, because they are shamed into respecting the minister or pastor or priests view of religion. I don’t have that problem. They also respect the Bible. If a kid asks about Genesis, the most liberal might say it isn’t literally true, but there are seeds of truth. I can say it’s a total myth, total bullshit, and show exactly the evidence for people writing it, people who didn’t bother to get their story straight.
So don’t give advice to a successful atheist father. Plus my older daughter’s boyfriend is getting religion free. When you’ve done this, then you can talk.
My wife is catholic. My son went to catholic schools from grade school through college. I made it plain I would not go to church or any ceremonies in churches. If he asked why I would tell him. I told anybody I ran into in church what I thought.
He ended up being an atheist.
As an atheist with not much chance of having children, I would say no. My fictitious child could come to me with questions and I would answer them as best I could. I would not lie about my beliefs. But in my situation in order to have children I have to have a religion, so I guess my child would too.
SSG Schwartz
Indeed it was - I started this thread before you qualified your position on this. However I would point out that when someone says they’re raising their children Catholic that (to me, at least) implies more than simply having a bible in the room and learning the Lord’s prayer. To me it implies baptism, regular church/mass/eucharist eating, confession, first communion, confirmation etc. All of this seems quite a lot to go through for someone who’s an atheist, but if I’d known that it wasn’t occuring I probably wouldn’t have thought about it that much.
I do not know if this is still the rule, but in the RCC the sponsors (or God parents) are supposed to pledge to raise the child Catholic if the parents neglect to do so or die. it used to be that the Sponsor had to be a Catholic in good standing.
Monavis
Well, they have been baptized, and they have had first communion and confirmation. Like I said, we’re not regular church-goers; we do the bare minimum really. But learning about any religion is not a bad thing. Heck, how many Jeopardy questions are devoted to the bible? I’m clueless in this category, and wish I knew more, but really have little interest in learning more!
(The hypocrite that I am! 
)
Just as the people who taught you that intended, those sick bastards.
No freaking way would I raise my child with any kind of religious imperative.
I intend to expose my future kids to all sorts of different beliefs, including my own, but I will always be clear about the difference between faith and objective reality. My advice will no doubt be oriented around my own personal beliefs, but ultimately the decision to have a religion (or not) is a personal one and I want to raise a child who can think for her/himself in this regard.
On those occasions when I’ve gone to church with my family (nephew’s first communion, etc.) I’ve been courteous regarding the traditions. I stand and sit and kneel along with everybody else, though I don’t take communion.
But as to the rules regarding being a godfather I figure what they don’t know won’t hurt them.
Heh, I guess being brought up a Jew (though not a believer in any diety), I’m culturally predisposed to following rules just because they are customary, not because of any belief in their essential validity. Even other people’s rules. 
Just wouldn’t sit right with me, to have someone accept an essentially religious role who wasn’t qualified for it under the rules of that religion (even though I don’t believe in it or indeed in any religion). Not that I had a choice in this case, as I could not have gotten away with it.
Not saying you can’t feel differently of course.