Guess I'm a little unique here and I'm sure to get some frowns for this (it happens).
I'm married to a Catholic. I lost my faith after my first was born. I now have two kids. Both of which were baptized. Why not? It's deeply cultural for my wife's ethnicity (Filipino) and the both of us were baptized. Neither of us were ever devout. Easter Catholics is what they would call us.
Anyway, I made it clear to my wife that I will never lie to my children. If they ask me about my belief, I'm telling them straight up. I am going to raise them with their scientific mindset intact. If you take a look at my house, almost all of our walls have crayon markings (dammit, someone slipped my son some non-washables). I don't ever scold my son for it. If he's holding a non-washable, I ask him to give it to me so I can swap it out for a washable. I let him tap tap away as long as he isn't disturbing his sister's sleep or isn't going to potentially break something like glass. I sit back and let him figure stuff out like how to reach something (booo, sometimes I wish i didn't haha).
When he's older, I'm going to see if he likes astronomy. I plan on buying a telescope when he's older to take him out for some viewing. Same will go for my daughter. I can't wait to take him to different types of museums. I'm going to teach them to question everything and never to take something at face value. I look at Facebook these days and it disgusts me just how many people will believe a story under a picture without any evidence to back it up whatsoever. I do not want my kids to be one of those people.
And in the end, after all this... if they still end up as believers, I won't be upset. Because at least they will be the Kent Miller type religious. I can live with that.
I'm married to a Catholic. I lost my faith after my first was born. I now have two kids. Both of which were baptized. Why not? It's deeply cultural for my wife's ethnicity (Filipino) and the both of us were baptized. Neither of us were ever devout. Easter Catholics is what they would call us.
Anyway, I made it clear to my wife that I will never lie to my children. If they ask me about my belief, I'm telling them straight up. I am going to raise them with their scientific mindset intact. If you take a look at my house, almost all of our walls have crayon markings (dammit, someone slipped my son some non-washables). I don't ever scold my son for it. If he's holding a non-washable, I ask him to give it to me so I can swap it out for a washable. I let him tap tap away as long as he isn't disturbing his sister's sleep or isn't going to potentially break something like glass. I sit back and let him figure stuff out like how to reach something (booo, sometimes I wish i didn't haha).
When he's older, I'm going to see if he likes astronomy. I plan on buying a telescope when he's older to take him out for some viewing. Same will go for my daughter. I can't wait to take him to different types of museums. I'm going to teach them to question everything and never to take something at face value. I look at Facebook these days and it disgusts me just how many people will believe a story under a picture without any evidence to back it up whatsoever. I do not want my kids to be one of those people.
And in the end, after all this... if they still end up as believers, I won't be upset. Because at least they will be the Kent Miller type religious. I can live with that.
"We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
