RE: Teaching Reason (to Children)
July 8, 2013 at 10:57 am
(This post was last modified: July 8, 2013 at 10:59 am by FallentoReason.)
Speaking from my own upbringing, I'm eternally grateful for my parents' approach to teaching me how to think. They're non-practising Catholics and they made me go through the motions (baptism, first communion, confirmation) but after that point, they saw their job done. Now, you might think this is the *worst* upbringing, but the catch is that to this day they tell me that I have the right to make up my own mind - that I need to decide for myself despite what they made me go through and what anyone else says. Such is their emphasis on wanting me to seek truth for myself that when I deconverted, I asked my dad what his thoughts were (seeing as though their wishes were most likely for me to stay Catholic) and he just looked at me... and said "I can't answer that. It's *your* choice what you decide to believe". As his son, I desperately wanted to know how my decision to leave the faith impacted him, but he refused to answer and kept telling me he can't make me believe or not believe - it's my choice. All he did say, though, was that he (and my mum) were proud to see me make my own decisions and not let anyone else decide for me.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
