(November 23, 2019 at 1:54 pm)Southern Atheist Wrote: Thanks and I see where you are coming from with the kids thing I believe that is her biggest concern because we have a 3 year old and she is worried about how we will raise him,Same here. My position was simply that I would not outright lie to support a religion I considered to be outright baloney. Ask me to blatantly lie to my kids? Hell, as early as possible I was warning them about what the priesthood would do to them at the drop of a hat.
(November 23, 2019 at 1:54 pm)Southern Atheist Wrote: I've told her that I am not against letting her take him to church or whatever,Same here. But I realised that the very act of me staying home watching TV or cooking dinner or whatever would prompt those young enquiring minds to ask questions. Questions to which she had no valid answers.
(November 23, 2019 at 1:54 pm)Southern Atheist Wrote: I went so far as to suggest that i'm not even against going to church myself if she wants as i'm not afraid of hearing that stuff.Sure. The standing thing here is Births, Marriages and Deaths. You get the picture. One shows up at such occasions out respect and those occasions are not the time or place to start some theological debate. Been there done that.
(November 23, 2019 at 1:54 pm)Southern Atheist Wrote: But it old her that when he ask me about it I am going to tell him the truth about what I think of the subject, I feel like when he gets older he can make his own decision and I will certainly do my best to try and teach him critical thinking and logic.I didn't even ask. I led by example. End result? I have two critical thinking heathens as a result with little effort from me beyond simple questioning. Is that a bit cynical? No, not at all. I simply allowed space for questions to be asked. If I knew the answer, then I provided it. If I didn't I said "I don't know. Let's see if we can find out."
The thing here is that children, given some space and some honesty, ask the most amazing questions that are so unexpected that they will derail any parent. How does the parent deal with that? It is only in one of two ways. Either curiousity about the world at large, or a nose dive into the ignorance of religion.
