Discussing Religion with Kids

[mancity2012_eamo]

Well thats just ridiculous. Good on you for helping out but it seems your sister just doesn't get it.

I have 4 god children. Get over it.
Just support them anyway you can.

 

[Bill Walker]

So, for parents who are not religious how do you broach the subject? Do you say you don't believe or just go along with it until your child comes to a certain age where he can more form his own opinions?

You just let them be taught about religion (as we were at my school) and make up their own mind. Don't try to influence them one way or the other.

 

[aguero93:20]

So my 5 year old at school is starting to be taught religion and specifically Christianity. So with this it obviously raises questions for me - an atheist - the sort of response I should provide. He is asking to pray before bed and wants to visit church etc, which obviously I can't object to but equally am fairly uncomfortable with.

An emphasis on critical thinking though is also important. If you raise your children to be skeptical as a general rule, it shouldn't be necessary to go out of your way to have them treat religious claims skeptically. They should end up doing that on their own anyway. Skepticism and critical thinking are attitudes which should be cultivated across a broad range of topics, but again age comes in to this.

So, for parents who are not religious how do you broach the subject? Do you say you don't believe or just go along with it until your child comes to a certain age where he can more form his own opinions?

Let him do what he wants and make his own choice.

 

[aguero93:20]

I have 4 god children. Get over it.
Just support them anyway you can.

Lucky bastard, I've 7. Had 8 but one died 2 months ago.

 

[Brightwell’s left peg]

So my 5 year old at school is starting to be taught religion and specifically Christianity. So with this it obviously raises questions for me - an atheist - the sort of response I should provide. He is asking to pray before bed and wants to visit church etc, which obviously I can't object to but equally am fairly uncomfortable with.

An emphasis on critical thinking though is also important. If you raise your children to be skeptical as a general rule, it shouldn't be necessary to go out of your way to have them treat religious claims skeptically. They should end up doing that on their own anyway. Skepticism and critical thinking are attitudes which should be cultivated across a broad range of topics, but again age comes in to this.

So, for parents who are not religious how do you broach the subject? Do you say you don't believe or just go along with it until your child comes to a certain age where he can more form his own opinions?

Imagine your 5 year old was being taught at school that the rags were the team to follow, and all other teams were inferior. If he then asked you to take him to the swamp, you’d object, especially as you’d know he was being peddled a load of bollocks by a person who’s a fucking idiot. You’d then probably give the ‘teacher’ a what for at parents evening for filling your kids head full of bullshit.

Your kid being taught to practice religion is arguably worse, but in either event too fucking right you should be objecting in the strongest possible terms.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Make him go to church every Sunday morning instead of watching cartoons. I guarantee by the time he's a teenager, he'll think "I've had enough of this. It's all bollocks."

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Imagine your 5 year old was being taught at school that the rags were the team to follow, and all other teams were inferior. If he then asked you to take him to the swamp, you’d object, especially as you’d know he was being peddled a load of bollocks by a person who’s a fucking idiot. You’d then probably give the ‘teacher’ a what for at parents evening for filling your kids head full of bullshit.

Your kid being taught to practice religion is arguably worse, but in either event too fucking right you should be objecting in the strongest possible terms.

But it depends. If you've pretended to be religious to get into a religious school, you can't then kick up a fuss about them teaching religion. My cousin just got her kid baptised. She's never been to church in her life except the odd wedding or funeral. It's definitely to give her a bigger choice of schools.

 

[Stuuuuuu]

I'm very clear with my kids that there is no valid evidence (literally none) for any kind of supernatural being and that all religion is frankly very, very weird, is a human construct and follows no logic. They go to a C of E school so they are exposed to some attempts at indoctrination; I respectfully discuss it with them, or rather just make occasional comments to encourage them to think.

I am clear with them that we are tolerant of all beliefs as long as nobody is being harmed. They have religious friends and that's fine of course.

For me, all religion is just bizarre: billions of people literally believing in fairy stories despite there being zero evidence in favour of them - and failing to see that other groups believe similar (but different) things and not joining the dots that the different groups/beliefs all have exactly the same amount of evidence (none).

It's about time all religion was thrown in the bin and consigned to history. We do ourselves a great disservice in believing in this stuff, and promoting it to kids borders on abuse if you ask me. We are moving in the right direction but nowhere near fast enough.

 

[Stuuuuuu]

But it depends. If you've pretended to be religious to get into a religious school, you can't then kick up a fuss about them teaching religion. My cousin just got her kid baptised. She's never been to church in her life except the odd wedding or funeral. It's definitely to give her a bigger choice of schools.

Why go out of your way to send your child to a school which actively teaches falsehoods? Surely you would do the opposite?

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

I'm very clear with my kids that there is no valid evidence (literally none) for any kind of supernatural being and that all religion is frankly very, very weird, is a human construct and follows no logic. They go to a C of E school so they are exposed to some attempts at indoctrination; I respectfully discuss it with them, or rather just make occasional comments to encourage them to think.

I am clear with them that we are tolerant of all beliefs as long as nobody is being harmed. They have religious friends and that's fine of course.

For me, all religion is just bizarre: billions of people literally believing in fairy stories despite there being zero evidence in favour of them - and failing to see that other groups believe similar (but different) things and not joining the dots that they different groups/beliefs all have exactly the same amount of evidence (none).

It's about time all religion was thrown in the bin and consigned to history. We do ourselves a great disservice in believing in this stuff, and promoting it to kids borders on abuse if you ask me. We are moving in the right direction but nowhere near fast enough.

I actually quite like your approach, but sending your kids to a faith school seems an odd choice? I expect it's because it also happens to be the best option in other ways, but it must be a bit weird for kids with atheist parents having to lead a sort of 'double life' as daytime Christians at school. Not really fair on them.