I feel I must respond because I believe that my post is probably one of the ones that has influenced this opinion.
I have always outwardly treated the religion of others with respect no matter what my personal opinion of them is. Each to their own, and all that jazz. Although I have written a frank and honest post today on many of the aspects of religion that I have found questionable, problematic or objectionable, I do not force these opinions on others in my everyday life, or indeed offer these opinions to those it might offend. I would no more try to convert them to my way of thinking than I’d welcome them trying to convert me to theirs.
I lived for several weeks with a Catholic family and attended church with them because that was the respectful thing to do with my hosts. I have been to several baptisms/Christenings and I attended the Confirmation ceremony of my sisters-in-law. Recently, I came to the realisation that I was attending just because I was worried about what people would think if I didn’t, and that’s when I decided “No more.” While I respect that these ceremonies are important to believers, I think they can respect that it is not meaningful to me and not insist on my prescence.
If I seem to have a strong anti-Christian bias, it’s because Christianity is the only religion I have personal encountered, excepting only Wicca. This area, the area where I grew up, is not a very culturally diverse area. All of the local churches are Christian churches. I once saw what appeared to be an Orthodox Jewish family walking down the street in a neighbouring town but that is the extent of my IRL contact and so I have had no opportunities to be influenced by followers of other faiths.
Not to tread on your feat here, cazzle, but that isn’t respecting their religion, that is sharing important moments in their lives with them. That would be like not going to your nephew’s Eagle Scout ceremony because you disagree with the BSA’s policy towards homosexuality. Maybe that is a bad example. But you get the point. My sister may be marrying into a Catholic family soon. Being agnostic, her wedding will, no doubt, be very Catholic. I am not “respecting her religion” by attending her Catholic ceremony, I am respecting her. I don’t care if her ceremony was Hindu or Catholic or just in a courthouse, I would still attend it. Because it is a religious ceremony does not mean it is not a watershed in her life that I would want to share with her.
There is a fine line between being open minded and having a hole in your head, but most people decide to draw the line at some point. Some people draw it a pixies, and others at aliens, organized religion, god, or “spirituality”. I assume you draw the line at some point as well; does that mean that you have a blind prejudice?
The OP asked what I would think if my child “found god”, not what I thought you should think. Peace.
Well, I don’t go around telling people who believe in aliens (many of whom are atheists, I might add) that they are locking themselves in cages.
The purpose of this forum is still for debating, not listing opinions, correct? Mayhap you should start a thread in the appropriate forum for listing your chants?
And that is charmingly irrelevant. The thread contains the assumption that the child of an atheist finds religion, a decision presumably against the wishes of the parent. To be honest, I don’t want a religious or a schizophrenic child, but if circumstances beyond my control foisted one on me, I’d adapt.
My “prejudce” against irrationality isn’t blind, and if you’re going to introduce a metaphor (i.e. cages), try to pick one that can’t be applied to you more easily than your opponents.
I’m not the one going around calling other people mentally ill for their beliefs - but hey, whatever floats your boats.
I honestly don’t remember who introduced the caged metaphor, and I feel lazy enough to not go back and check, but I have a sinking suspicion that it wasn’t me.
I don’t know how I’m in a cage. Could you explain this to me?
Now, are you done sniping and trying to catch me (gods no!) contradicting myself, or do you want to keep at this line of thought?
Do atheists lock themselves in cages? No. It would be more accurate to say that they lock part of life away from themselves than the other way around. Most seem perfectly content that way, and more power to them. I never criticized anyone for being an atheist, so you may stop sniffing along that trail.
You haven’t explained enough about your “sprituality” to let us see the parameters of your particular cage, but since you’re not my kid, it doesn’t really matter. Were my kid to start talking about sprituality, though, I’d have to drop a bit of a sigh. I’d make a good effort to talk the kid out of the wackier aspects, though it would be damn-near impossible to not belly-laugh at any hint that any form of sprituality was superior to physics and logic and reason.
Huh. After reading some of the posts on these threads, I am tempted to pat myself on the back.
Not all of the posts on this thread give me that urge. Many of you are in the “disappointed but I’ll cope” camp and I completely understand that. It’s to be expected. It’s human nature.
But some of the borderline sneering, condescending stuff—well, I suppose it’s nothing new around here, but it never ceases to make me want to shake my head. And to be really blunt, I guess I feel the urge to pat myself on the back because I just don’t feel inclinded to look down so much on people who haven’t had the same experiences as me, or don’t feel the same way as I do. I don’t think they are less intelligent, I don’t think that they haven’t really thought about it, I don’t think that they’re mentally ill, I don’t think they’re not moral. I just don’t think about it in that way. I’m glad I don’t, because that would be kind of depressing—looking down my nose at so many people, all the damned time.
I’ve basically skipped to the end of this thread so forgive me if I’ve missed some of the finer points. I was raised Catholic, Mr.Pict Methodist and Pictsie kids free spirits. MrPict and I are confirmed atheists as is Kid #1. However both kids were encouraged to read the bible, the koran etc, and take classes in comparative religion. We tried not to deride religion excessively (slightly harder for me as a recovering Catholic than MrPict) , and mainly repeated the mantra that “some people believe… we do not, what you choose is up to you” (wow, way new age).
Kid #2 hung aroung with a lot of kids who were in the same church in middle-school and wanted to join. We went to her baptism. All was cool, it was her choice. She went to church on Sunday, we did not.
Now Kid #2 is marrying a Catholic and has converted. Confirmation was last Sunday. For me it was a “way back machine” experience. For MrPict it was his first full-blown Catholic, pointy hat (Bishops and all that) ceremony (he was suitibly impressed). I remarked during the ceremony “I now know there is a God and this is Her revenge”.
All kidding aside I support my kids in their beliefs even if they don’t agree with mine. However if they become Scientoligists all bets are off.
Yosemite, would you be perfectly happy and equanimous if your kid became a Raelian or joined the Hale-Bopp cult or started worshipping trees?
For a lot of us, traditional religion seems no more rational. Think about that while you’re patting yourself on the back. Would you really be ok with any choice your kids made? I don’t mean would you try to stop them, I mean is there no choice that would disappoint you?
There is a difference between a cult and a religion. That is like the difference between being an Al Qaeda terrorist and a Democrat. The two former groups you listed are cults. The latter may well be part of some religions, thanks for your divine judgement. I’m sorry that you can’t find somethign supernaturally beautiful about the simple life of a tree, but then, you are a cynic.
But you get the point. My sister may be marrying into a Catholic family soon. Being agnostic, her wedding will, no doubt, be very Catholic. I am not “respecting her religion” by attending her Catholic ceremony, I am respecting her. I don’t care if her ceremony was Hindu or Catholic or just in a courthouse, I would still attend it. Because it is a religious ceremony does not mean it is not a watershed in her life that I would want to share with her.