This Has to Stop

[Catholic_Lady]

I'm not sure what you mean about "teaching them as fact."

Obviously, religious belief requires a certain amount faith and hope, because there is no tangible concrete proof.

I'm not going to lie to my child and tell them that I've seen Jesus or God or whatever. But i do plan on explaining why i have full confidence in their existence.

Teaching them as fact means telling them unequivocally that the God of the Bible exists as if it is something you factually know. That would be lieing to them. Stating that it is your faith (and the faith of perhaps 75% of the population of the U.S.) is much better because that is honest. I rather doubt there are many Christian parents who phrase it that way though because they don't want their child to question it.

I'm sorry you are taking our opinions so personally but this is important. Before a child develops reasoning skills, they are going to believe anything you tell them. It could be Jesus, Allah, Vishnu, Thor or even the Great Pumpkin. They aren't going to process it through any kind of logical filter. They are going to assimilate it into their world as fact. You became a Catholic that way while others became Muslims, Buddhists or Hindus - all because of what their parents put in their heads before they had the means to critically parse it. The practice is simply unethical. If one is to truly be a Catholic or adherent of any other religion, it should be because one studied it after acquiring critical thinking skills, compared it to other schools of thought and made an informed decision that it was right for them. Otherwise, you have a person who is programmed like a robot. They are robbed of the chance to follow their own path unless they are able to overcome their programming.

People are not robbots. If they were, then our children would always end up exactly how we wanted/taught them to... which certainly isn't the case. Children grow up, become people of their own, and make their own decisions. Of course, how you bring them up plays a big role in shapping them in general, but equating teaching your child about your faith to "programming" them like computers is a bit ridiculous. No one is saying we are going to do crazy psychological conditioning to them, like in Clockwork Orange. My faith is a huge part of my life and a huge part of who I am, and something that I believe in 100%. Of course I will convey this to my children - along with all the other principles that are important to me. And again, I don't understand all this "facts" talk. It's a religion. It will be taught as a religious belief - aka, something that requires a certain amount of faith, not something that there is concrete proof of.

Also, I don't get you saying that I'm taking this " too personally." When someone says teaching religion to your kids is child abuse, and I personally plan on doing that, and my parents personally did it to me, of course I'm going to voice my disagreement. Because it is literally about me lol. I am one of the people in the group of people you are talking about.

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Teaching children to willfully ignore the evidence for God, that they are biological robots in a meaningless universe, that all the people the love who have passed will be eaten by worms, and that they should mock, ridicule and wish for the death of those who believe otherwise....

That is pure evil.

I would say the last part of that is pure evil (about mocking/ridiculing/wishing death for people of faith). But If someone doesn't think God exists then why would they teach their kids about God?

This goes both ways - atheists thinking parents are bad for conveying their faith to their kids, and theists thinking parents are bad for telling their kids that this life and this physical world is all there is.

I don't think we can really blame someone for being honest and teaching their kids what they think is true to the best of their own understanding.