Teaching Reason (to Children)

[Fidel_Castronaut]

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.

I can only tell you what my parents did, which was without the intention of producing an atheist but resulted in such nonetheless:

Give them books. Give them good kids' magazines on history and science. Encourage and foster a love of reading. Shower them with as many science books and history books as they ask for. Make that the one thing you will give them (e-books or otherwise) without reserve. If you send them to their room when they're bad, take away their toys, but don't take away their books - that's how I would get through groundings. If they're bored, make them read.

The more they read, and the more they're exposed to, the more they will realize how different cultures think and how much science HAS answered (rather than letting someone inject God into their life). At worst it will produce a liberal religious person. At best, an atheist.

I was FASCINATED by dinosaurs as a kid, and I don't know anyone that wasn't. My parents showered me with books on them. Then I became obsessed with rainforests, and they showered me with books and magazines on that and recycling. They did the same to my brother about engineering and trains. Anything your kids have an interest in, say "here's a book about it! We can talk about it too!" And incorporate them around the movies they like. Furthering the rainforest theme, I LOVED "Ferngully". So mum bought me books and magazines about rainforest animals, and I became a huge nerd about all the flora and fauna in a rainforest (aided by the computer game "The Amazon Trail" which forced you to learn about those things too).

They gave me books about greek and norse myths. They gave me books about the origins of life. There wasn't room for Judaism. I dabbled in Wicca for a while, but even that lost its luster against science.

Kindles are great for this, especially the new ones, because you could load them with as many books as you like with access to accompanying dictionaries and wikipedia for further reference. Plus the new color ones make it easy to install picture-bearing books.

Reading is truly the best gift - it will broaden their minds, expand their vocabulary, help discipline them for school, and teach them great ways to "wait" (in line, at home, etc).

Totally this. My earliest memories are of my parents reading to me and me reading myself. My mother is an atheist and my dad is a nominal Christian (although never goes to church or anything). They never spoke about religion but instead just encouraged me to read whatever took my fancy.

I think reading really developed my ability to think for myself and, importantly, understand empathy; putting myself in the other persons shoes to understand both them and their arguments, including the contexts they were developed in. Plus, reading was/is so damn fun. I wouldn't be without a book ever.