What do atheists tell their children

[downbeatplumb]

I have chosen to put this article from the Huffington post here.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/james-co..._hp_ref=uk

[Jacob(smooth)]

That's rather nice.

Some of us choose never to grow up...

[Alex K]

I LOLed:

"Okay, I think it's time to say goodbye to Titman now"
We take Titman up the garden and delicately lower the corpse into the bin. We both stand over it for a moment of solemn reflection. My son looks sad so I squeeze his shoulder.
"He's in a better place now son" I say
"What, the bin?"
"No, not the bin," I say "bird heaven"

Anyhow, tough call. Will I tell my children that they and I and mummy are going to heaven when we die. No I won't, sorry, they'll have to deal with it. I won't plant this seed of delusion, it is too important to learn a healthy relationship to life early on, and too dangerous to go down that road with young impressionable children. If you give them the heaven copout that early in life, how are they supposed to learn how to truly cope with loss and grief?
I'll surely tell them that some people think that it is so, and that I am pretty sure that it is not so.
Animals and Pets are an entirely different story, of course they go to bird/hamster/guinea pig/rabbit heaven.

One more thing. I would never tell my children that birds are stupid. What folly!

[pineapplebunnybounce]

hmm ... Don't you think believing in heaven can't be equated to believing in Santa? It's telling someone they would live forever, not that they would get gifts once a year if they're nice.

Anyway, don't have children so I'm not really qualified to say what he should or should not do.

If you tell them heaven is real, what do you say when they ask you about hell? Isn't it better to tell them that you get recycled when you die and you will live on forever in that sense?

[Alex K]

If you tell them heaven is real, what do you say when they ask you about hell? Isn't it better to tell them that you get recycled when you die and you will live on forever in that sense?

And you snuck in a valuable lesson about resource management and separating your garbage as well! That's efficient parenting


But seriously, yes absolutely. One can find more positive aspects. I will tell them that when you die, you live on in the people you have met. They all form an image of you in them that will stay with them and will influence them for having known you. It even goes so far that they will have conversations with you in their head after you are gone.

[Chad32]

I'd tell them that their loved one is gone, but they can always remember the good times, and try to live a good life like their loved one would want them to.

[Minimalist]

I think the best thing to tell them is never to be alone in a room with a catholic priest.

[pineapplebunnybounce]

Oh I meant recycled as in your atoms go into other things: the air, earth, even other lifeforms. And when our sun dies, our atoms potentially gets incorporated into new stars and new planets. But yea in this sense, the people you love are literally all around you after they die. You may have to wait a while for them to decompose, faster if you go for other methods.

But yea garbage recycling is important, too.

[Alex K]

Oh I meant recycled as in your atoms go into other things: the air, earth, even other lifeforms. And when our sun dies, our atoms potentially gets incorporated into new stars and new planets.

That should score some serious poetry points with the wee ones, seriously. It's a really cool thought. And it has the bonus to be true.

[Faith No More]

I plan on telling my kids that some people believe we go on to heaven after we die, but their father does not.

That way I'm not being too blunt but am also not encouraging them to believe in fairy tales.