Do you attend religious rituals for your family?

[Pippy]

I have trouble with policemen. I call them things like 'boy' and 'you'. I get tazed often.

[KichigaiNeko]

Thor in my opinion the church is far from a so called non-profit organization. The don't call their money revenue it's a charitable gift of love from its adherents lol. They make more money than most legit companies out there and the government by allowing them non-profit status is helping them right along.

One reason that Atheism might want to become a religion???

Ahhh the tax breaks!! OR could the governments START to tax the various "religions of the Planet" ...talk about revenue raising!! Out of the 'Financial Crisis' is one foul swoop

[Loki_999]

A bit late to the party here but i'll share my experience.

My wife wanted to baptize my son. I objected.

I basically said that if my son chooses to believe in a god when he is older then it will be his decision and that he may not even choose a christian based religion, so that she is probably jumping the gun a little bit.

Took several days of discussion and horse trading but basically she won the right to take him to be baptized as long as she did not feed him any religion, just for him to treat it as a bit of fun, and also that I did not have to attend.

My wife isn't heavily religious, probably closer to deist than theist, but she has her upbringing which influences her. I need to make sure my kids don't get influenced with the same and are brought up with a good knowledge of science and reality.

Its actually funny in a way, because after my wife's grandad died she made the mistake of saying that Grandad has gone up to the sky. Now my kids ask whether they can see Grandad if they fly in a plane etc. Whenever these conversations come up i give my wife a look that basically says "This is your mess, you fix it". When the kids ask me directly I tell them that nobody knows for sure, but that I believe nothing happens when you die, you just go to sleep forever.

Raising kids is perhaps one of the most difficult jobs in the world to do right...

[KichigaiNeko]

Raising kids is perhaps one of the most difficult jobs in the world to do right...

And yet it is one of the most important jobs on the planet.

[Xyster]

Well I think im raising mine OK. She is an overacheiver in school (not sure where that comes from I never was) and the other day we were talking at the dinner table (my wife and I) and she chimes in with " Those silly christians".. hadda laugh at that......aaah so proud of my little free thinker..


Oh and to stay on topic ... In basic traing I went to Chruch....but only to get extra sleep and the cookies afterward but like at thanksgiving i dont bow for grace or crap like that.. sometimes i stand in the kitchen

[Edwardo Piet]

I attend Pagan rituals with my mostly Pagan family. Because they're harmless.

EvF

[Thor]

but like at thanksgiving i dont bow for grace or crap like that.. sometimes i stand in the kitchen

This is something that bugs me as well. When we go over to my brother-in-law's house for a holiday they always pray prior to eating. I always make it a point to engage myself with buttering my bread or fixing my napkin while they talk to their imaginary deity. I don't want anyone (particularly their kids) to think I'm participating in this nonsense. One time, one of the kids noticed I wasn't praying and he pointed this out to his mother. She just shushed him and told him to eat. I was hoping it would lead to a discussion of why I wasn't praying, but I'm sure the parents didn't want to go there.

I'd love to ask them WHY they're thanking this deity for the food they're about to eat. They would probably say that "God" is responsible for the food on the table. I would respond that if "God" is responsible for providing them with food, that must mean that he is also responsible for denying it to others. Therefore, he is responsible when people starve to death. After all, he is either responsible for all of it, or none of it. So, if he is responsible for the food on your table, he is also responsible for denying food to people who starve to death. And if he's NOT responsible for people starving to death, he's also not responsible for the food on your table. So why are you thanking him?

I think this would be an interesting discussion...

[Loki_999]

I think this would be an interesting discussion...

Probably not. You'll probably end up banging your head against the table as they go around in circles with their circular logic or else they will get annoyed and angry and end the conversation.

[Dotard]

My experiance is they get annoyed and angry.

When holidays roll around, this past easter for example, everyone just stays quiet about family plans to get together and if I don't ask, I don't get invited.

My family will leave me behind rather than risk someone bringing up the subject with me in front of the children or young impressionable minds.

When a group of adults are having a GROUP discussion about religious beliefs and if I begin to participate, I'm usually told I'm butting into a conversation I'm not invited to. Even though I've been in the discussion group for an hour and as long as the conversation was about cars, women, economics etc. there was no problem with my 'invitation'.

So I completely ignore/decline invites to ritualistic stuff like communions/baptisms etc. but make a point to invite myself to the major holidays like easter/christmas/thanksgiving 'cause I love my family despite their idiocracy and dis'ing me for family functions and wish to see them. Oh, and the free food.

Like the poster said above, when the praying starts I occupy myself buttering some bread or making silly faces at the one or two children who are 'peeking' during the prayer.

[Thor]

My family will leave me behind rather than risk someone bringing up the subject with me in front of the children or young impressionable minds.

But yet, it's okay for the believers to fill these "impressionable young minds" with their nonsensical beliefs. Why is it not okay for you to tell the kids what your feelings are toward religion and "God"? They don't want the kids to hear different points of view? They're afraid the kids will be "confused"? Good! They SHOULD be confused when mom and dad tell them to believe things that are outlandish! It's a good thing for kids to know that not all people go along with what priests, ministers and rabbis say you should believe. It might actually cause them to think critically and be skeptical! Yeah.... can't have THAT!