One of my more recent (and more-or-less ongoing) conversations with my spouse is how to raise my daughter and any future children we have. We agree on a number of things, such as education, morality, family values, discipline, and much more.
Still, there are some things that we don't always see eye-to-eye on. My wife is agnostic, leaning more towards spiritualism, whilst I am pretty much a full atheism, unable to fathom the idea that there is a supernatural anything. (What can I say? I'm a sucker for the laws of physics.)
One of my fears is that any one of my children might decide to have a belief in a higher power. I understand that this could be inevitable, considering that the rest of our family and friends are more or less religious (we have a number of Mormons and Roman Catholics to boot). All I care is that he or she grows up with an understanding of reason and that it's important to strive for truth, as well as knowing when to say, "I don't know enough, and that's okay for now".
My wife agrees with that to a point, but she's worried that I may force-feed atheism down my children's throats. This worry is not unwarranted, as I have a knack for being outspoken about my unbelief. The other worry is that my children might rebel against my determinations the same way a child would rebel against a parent's religious beliefs.
Does anyone have any insight on how to lead a child to deciding on his or her own about how to keep an open mind and use reason in answering these hard questions? I see more articles/writings/blogs out there concerned with keeping children in the faith while maintaining an atmosphere of love, as opposed to keeping children out of faith.
Also, one thing my spouse suggested was to have our children attend other churches at some point when they're searching. Well, I'm sure some of you can imagine the big red flag that went up in my head as I heard this. How do I keep this from happening too, or should I not worry about this so much?
Still, there are some things that we don't always see eye-to-eye on. My wife is agnostic, leaning more towards spiritualism, whilst I am pretty much a full atheism, unable to fathom the idea that there is a supernatural anything. (What can I say? I'm a sucker for the laws of physics.)
One of my fears is that any one of my children might decide to have a belief in a higher power. I understand that this could be inevitable, considering that the rest of our family and friends are more or less religious (we have a number of Mormons and Roman Catholics to boot). All I care is that he or she grows up with an understanding of reason and that it's important to strive for truth, as well as knowing when to say, "I don't know enough, and that's okay for now".
My wife agrees with that to a point, but she's worried that I may force-feed atheism down my children's throats. This worry is not unwarranted, as I have a knack for being outspoken about my unbelief. The other worry is that my children might rebel against my determinations the same way a child would rebel against a parent's religious beliefs.
Does anyone have any insight on how to lead a child to deciding on his or her own about how to keep an open mind and use reason in answering these hard questions? I see more articles/writings/blogs out there concerned with keeping children in the faith while maintaining an atmosphere of love, as opposed to keeping children out of faith.
Also, one thing my spouse suggested was to have our children attend other churches at some point when they're searching. Well, I'm sure some of you can imagine the big red flag that went up in my head as I heard this. How do I keep this from happening too, or should I not worry about this so much?
