Atheists with kids.

[Kaviik]

@MyFootsZZZ

Just a few simple questions.

Do you teach your children to be Atheists, or do you teach them to be whatever they want to be? .

Every single human is born an atheist, you cannot teach it. Religion is taught, belief is taught, non belief is not taught.
For example were taught to not believe in the “gobobobogaugalink”; clearly you cannot believe in it. Just like one cannot teach NON Belief in God(s). Non Belief is the default position at birth. Non one single human has been born with a belief.

[QUOTE=I was reading the thread; “Why should “In God We Trust” be on our currency?” and it occurred to me that I might be more passionate about things like this if I were to have children. Do you feel more passionate about keeping ‘God’ where he belongs; church and Sunday school?[/QUOTE]

How about simply giving the child the mental tools to discern between reality and the supernatural. IMO religion should be an R-rated event. No children should be allowed in a church or Sunday school. This is a personal choice and what right do parents have to force religion on their children?
I say this because the same parent willing to force religion would not allow a different religion to be forced on them.
Rights extend to all citizens including the children.

Children should not be introduced to religion until they have the mental tools, anything less amounts to mental child abuse. Especially we discuss the Christian religion where one is told about hell and punishment for non belief.

[QUOTE=What do you tell your children to say to other children when God comes up? I remember getting a scolding once in class when I stated that I didn’t believe in Santa Clause.[/QUOTE]

I didn’t tell them anything, I let them field the questions on their own. They cannot live life if we do not allow them to be introduced to life. Since religion is separated from State; religion at school is not a problem. When the children are old enough to be out on their own; they are old enough to handle the topic with other children.

How old are you?
I am 51 and we openly spoke of the Santa myth by the second and third grade; nobody got scolded for it.

[Kaviik]

@I_Made_French_Toast_For_You

I was referring to your comment about treating religion like Bigfoot, which makes it seem like you don’t treat religion with the seriousness or importance it deserves. Maybe I’m reading too much into the comparison though.

Yes and you are assuming facts not in evidence. Religion deserves nothing but ridicule. It is BELIEF, meaning something accepted as fact due to internal conviction and in SPITE of evidence.
Beliefs deserve no respect, respect is EARNED and no religion to date has EARNED respect, how could they?
They are the beliefs of ignorant people who had a very little understanding of the natural world.

A Scientific Theory can deserve respect because it is not a BELIEF and can be tested; religion deserves the same respect you would give the 5 year old child’s invisible friends.

[QUOTE=Well, there’s the mythical side of religion (gods, miracles, afterlives, etc.) and there’s the real-world, profoundly consequential side (religious wars, charities, rituals, arts, prejudices). Some of the comments in this thread seem to treat it only as the former.[/QUOTE]

Religion does not provide what you claim; people provide what you listed. The people that give would give with or with out the religion. On the other people USE religion since it is a tool. Much like a hammer, it is a paper weight unless wielded by an operator.

[QUOTE=I would say that calling the majority of people on Earth “idiotic,” openly mocking their beliefs, or trivializing the impact religion has had on the world by comparing it to Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, is unhelpful at best.[/QUOTE]

Those people openly mock the beliefs of the majority of the population. All Christians mock the beliefs of the majority of the world’s population simply by claiming their god is the only god.

Why should they be protected from their beliefs being mocked? Since there is no religion that the majority of the world’s population agrees with; all people with beliefs mock the beliefs of the other believers.

Think of this quote and it shows all religious people are atheist to a point.
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” – Stephen F. Roberts

So in reality the non religious only mocks a few more religious beliefs than the believers.
Polytheist are less mocking of other gods than Theist believers. On the other hand Christians, mock as many beliefs less one than the atheist.
Christians even mock other sects of Christians.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=But this thread is about kids of atheists, so I’ll ask this: how would you want your children to act when they visit a temple in Japan? or see a painting of Jesus in a museum? or make a Muslim friend in school? or read about a religious war?

Should they act superior to religion? With mocking disdain? With open respect?[/QUOTE]

If they visit a temple, they clearly are interested in what is there, if they see a painting of what some person thinks of Jesus they can be instructed to look at how others viewed the same character in other paintings. If they meet a Muslim friend at school, that is their issue to work out. I am a parent of children I do not own them, so their relationships between friends are their own business

Of course they are superior to religion, no acting needed. They are living people, no religion is worth the life of one human being, so clearly they are superior and should be informed so. To suggest they are equal or inferior would be a lie.

Since religion does not EARN respect, there is none to be given, so it is not even an option.

[Kaviik]

@Lasciel

While I wish you were right about that, I have to argue that it isn’t, looking at the vast swathes of recorded history, and kids’ own tendencies to make up and then believe in causal reasons for the physical phenomena they don’t yet understand.

But it is correct, all people are born Atheists, people are not BORN with belief, they have to be taught it. People are not BORN with a knowledge or belief in God; they are taught it. As well it depends on your geographical location and point in time.

For example; nobody in North America worshipped the Theist religions until they were taught them.

[Kaviik]

@I_Made_French_Toast_For_You

Right, different scenarios would call for different attitudes toward religion, ranging from positive to negative. Religion isn’t “good” or “bad” – it’s much too complex.

No, religion is not complex, not in any manner, it is simply BELIEF via FAITH; no evidence what so ever, no complexity.
Religion is the opposite of complex IMO and irrational as well.

[QUOTE= “Open respect for religion” to me just means an open-minded admiration or due regard for someone’s beliefs or traditions, which again depends on the scenario.[/QUOTE]

Huh, what is there to be open minded about? I ask because once you actually study the birth of a religion, what is there to be open minded about?
Believe or go to hell is not much of a tradition to respect is it? (christian dogma)

What about the fact that Christianity for example is a Blood Cult? Why do we need to respect it, when Christians denounce other blood cults?

What is to respect of a God that is claimed to demand that his followers commit genocide? This is the OT god which is nothing but the evolution of a Canaanite God.

I do not see anybody demand that people respect the Canaanite Pantheon which is where Yahweh existed before elevated above El.

[QUOTE=People have to know about gods before they can not believe in them.[/QUOTE]

Huh, this makes sense because nobody not one person KNOWS anything about any God, really we only have claims, and claims do not equal KNOW.

KNOW is the realm of FACTS and there are no FACTS about any god.
Non Belief in something does not mean one has to know what they have no belief in.

Think for a minute, with all the cultures out there in the world that you and are ignorant of, how many things do you think you do not believe in without even knowing others believe in said thing?

Think of every belief bands of Natives in North America have that you are an atheist to; have no belief in. Heck you do not even know all the beliefs you have no belief in.

[MyFootsZZZ]

@Kaviik

How old are you?

32 year old.

[Kaviik]

@MyFootsZZZ

32 year old.

Wow, and you got scolded in school for such. As said I was schooled in the 60’s and 70’s (because I am 51) and there would be no such scolding. There would be no point since we are in a school environment and the older children with no belief in Santa are quick to correct us younger ones.

My youngest child held on to his belief in Santa and the Bunny to please his mother; I knew he did not believe but he knew his mom got excited and he had her convinced he believed up to the 5th grade.

My children are 20 and 16 and we live in Ontario Canada.

[Renee_RL]

I am even older…old enough to remember prayer in school. In my prejudice workshops there are always people who blame all the ills of society on a lack of prayer in school. I pointed out that we prayed in school and grew up to be the generation of drugs sex and rock 'n roll