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Current time: December 22, 2024, 5:50 pm

Poll: If the teenaged child you'd raised to hold the same religious views as yourself came to you and said they no longer shared those beliefs, how would you handle it?
This poll is closed.
C'est la vie; win some, lose some.
3.57%
1 3.57%
I'd respect their choice whether or not to attend customary religious activities or the atheist equivalent. (Is there one? Skepticism day camp?)
25.00%
7 25.00%
I'd try my best to understand what had changed in their thinking and to understand their new beliefs.
28.57%
8 28.57%
I would do my best to reason with them to dissuade them from leaving the beliefs they were raised in.
14.29%
4 14.29%
While they are my dependents I'd still expect them to participate in the culture of the family, including religiously themed activities or their skepticism themed alternative - if there is one.
10.71%
3 10.71%
I would not accept their decision and forbid them to speak of it.
0%
0 0%
I would throw them out of the house and have nothing more to do with them.
3.57%
1 3.57%
If their beliefs did not change by the time they were independent, I would likely have less to do with them than I would otherwise.
0%
0 0%
I would end them. If God/reason can't have them, neither will Satan/a cult.
0%
0 0%
Fuck all polls in the ass .. yada, yada, yada.
14.29%
4 14.29%
Total 28 vote(s) 100%
* You voted for this item. [Show Results]

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Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
#1
Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
Oh well, at my age I probably ask a lot of questions more than one.  (No snickering.) 

So if your teenaged kids (or future kids) were to tell you they just can't believe in God any more and didn't want to go with you to church, how would you respond?  Naturally there needs to be poll, but as always feel free to point out any inadequacies in its construction and provide your superior response in a comment.  You may choose as many as apply in addition to adding other responses in your comment.  And your answers will be public in order to subject us all to any due humiliation before our peers.

Rather than let the atheists off the hook, lets provide appropriately broad enough responses to allow atheists to also say how they'd respond if their teenaged kid decided to join one of your Christian cults denominations.  

I might well try to dissuade them from joining the cult too, but it would depend on what they had to say about their process. My own stepson has become quite woo, becoming a priest in a cult involving some Brazilian dude who calls himself "John of God". He was 30 before he went this way but I think our situation was complex. His biological dad was a magnet for woo while his mom and I are not. His mom even more so that I. She gets agitated around anything woo. I just get intrigued to understand how people can believe such things.

(December 5, 2016 at 3:57 pm)mh.brewer Wrote: My parents were only concerned for the fist 10 years or so. When they figured out I wouldn't go insane, wouldn't become a killer, or more weird than I all ready was, they let it go.

Well they sound very healthy to me.  You could have had it much worse.  I guess your failure to go insane was an instance of their having bred true.
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#2
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
I told my Catholic husband that he can raise our kids Catholic if he wants and I will stay out of that part of their up bringing. He said he wouldn't put them in the faith. We ended up deciding that he will continue his religious practices while I stay out of it and the children will be raised to see both sides. When they start to question us we will explain to them why we don't believe the same thing. We won't ask them to pick, we won't try to persuade them to one side, we will remind them that if they do pick one it doesn't mean they love one parent over the other, and that it is all a personal decision. If they do become religious I will honestly be sad but I would never let them nor their father know it. I plan on supporting them no matter what.

Now to just have said children. lol
“What screws us up the most in life is the picture in our head of what it's supposed to be.”

Also if your signature makes my scrolling mess up "you're tacky and I hate you."
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#3
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
My eldest son claimed he was an atheist before I admitted I was atheist to myself. My wife and I raised them Catholic, but all 3 sons are admitted atheists now. So, we don't talk about religion in our house, since my wife and her mother still believe (even in the shroud of Turin, for example! SMH).
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
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#4
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
I would force them to repent and then burn them to death to ensure them a place in Heaven before they changed their minds again.

PS - I voted for the first 4.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly." 

-walsh
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#5
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
My two oldest daughters have followed their mother into Evangelical Christianity, which is not surprising since that is how they were raised. My second daughter seems more involved in it than my oldest, which is probably attributable to the influence of my oldest daughter's husband, who goes along to get along but is fairly skeptical about it all. It rankles to see them buy such nonsense, but it's their choice and I don't interfere. That said, I also don't play the relativist and pretend that I admire their choice. They know what I think about it, and we have agreed to disagree and leave it at that. I will focus on doing what I can to mitigate the damage with my grandchildren and encourage critical thinking in whatever ways I can.

My third daughter and my son are both atheists.
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#6
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
(December 5, 2016 at 5:26 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I would force them to repent and then burn them to death to ensure them a place in Heaven before they changed their minds again.

Man you're on fire lately!
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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#7
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
I say it depends on the kid.

Me: Ready for church?
Teen: Why do I have to go it's all bullshit anyway?
Me: You're going anyway but don't take communion if you don't want. We'll talk about your disrespect when we get home.

Me: What's that book?
Teen: Camus's The Stranger.
Me: So what do you think?
Teen: I kinda agree. I might be an atheist.
Me: That's okay it took me 50 years to become a Catholic. Keep reading.
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#8
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
Chad, did you actually have any kids? (I've helped to parent one from the age of 6 so that kind of counts, but I hear you're more likely to act out in entitled ways if you actually contribute DNA. Doubt it though.
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#9
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
(December 5, 2016 at 5:26 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I would force them to repent and then burn them to death to ensure them a place in Heaven before they changed their minds again.

PS - I voted for the first 4.

Glad to see Literalism is finally taking hold.
 The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it. 




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#10
RE: Have we asked theists what they'd do if their kids turned out like us?
She is totally cracking me up lately. I like when she fakes (?) this dark side.
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