Someone here once made the great statement that believing life is pointless without an afterlife is like thinking a car is useless because it will eventually end up in a junkyard.
Ultimately, life as an atheist is about determining your own purpose, which is something that comes through much self-reflection. I know some people can just live, but I have to have goals in mind to keep me going or I get a bit existentially lost. Goals give us focus and something to put our energy into.
As for my children, my oldest son is just getting to the age where he can start understanding things like this. I won't teach him an opinion on the existence of god, but I will teach him what other people believe and then give him the critical thinking skills to come to his own conclusion. Atheism isn't something that needs to be forced onto someone, because it has reason on its side.
Ultimately, life as an atheist is about determining your own purpose, which is something that comes through much self-reflection. I know some people can just live, but I have to have goals in mind to keep me going or I get a bit existentially lost. Goals give us focus and something to put our energy into.
As for my children, my oldest son is just getting to the age where he can start understanding things like this. I won't teach him an opinion on the existence of god, but I will teach him what other people believe and then give him the critical thinking skills to come to his own conclusion. Atheism isn't something that needs to be forced onto someone, because it has reason on its side.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
