Being an Atheist parent in a Christian land

[Cinjin]

Children trust their parents to give them an accurate view of things religious and moral. You say you explain things in a way that your children can understand and help them choose for themselves, then you show them a verse in the bible about dashing the heads of children on stones. If you were truly being fair, perhaps you would share the verses that you exposed your children to with their father and he would counter with something like this: "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserveres." 1Corinthians 6-7.

Fair enough. Tell you what I'll pledge right now to make that a practice in my home if all your Sunday school teachers do the same thing. Every time they teach about the sweet love of god saving Noah and his family or Jesus suffering the little children, I want them to tell a story about the Biblical atrocities peppered throughout both the old and new testaments. What?!? They won't do that?!?!? shocking.

What is the reason for encouraging a 4 year old to demand proof? Does your 4 year old have the ability to define proof? Won't the child come and ask you what proof means and see if the answer that was given to them, would satisfy you?

Really? That's like asking what is the reason for encouraging a child to recite letters and numbers. Because his future counts on it! No, he probably will not grasp the concept in whole, that doesn't mean that the lesson you are attempting to teach is not taking hold. Actually, your whole point is entirely hypocritical because everyone knows the very reason for having Sunday school teachers is to begin the process of indoctrination. If anything, christians are many times worse that any atheist every could be about attempting to teach concepts far above the level of preschooler. (By 100 fold!)

Will your children admire you when they learn from someone else they love and respect that you scared them away from the bible, for the sake of your own beliefs and not because you actually wanted them to choose?

You made a classic mistake here when you wrote "for the sake of your own beliefs" and you added "not because you actually wanted them to choose", which of course is your own bias leaping up out of your own judgmental condition. There is no way you can possibly know what anyone's true motivations are, and yet because we don't believe in your god, you assume that all our motivations are somehow related to his undoing. MAYBE we just simply want our children to look at things as objectively as possibly - and that of course includes your silly Bible.

What is the best way to make sure they are not forced to believe if they don't want to?

Don't let them go get brainwashed week after week in a religion that can't even agree on dogmas inside their own community!

And shouldn't you let them believe if they do want to?

Absolutely, and someday, when he tells me what he believes, I will love him no matter what. Meanwhile, I will teach him to analyze and deem worthy that which he is to encounter throughout his life.