Atheist Dad Seeking Answers

[pocaracas]

My wife is Catholic and wants our children to be raised Catholic, but I just want them to be able to think for themselves. I hate the idea of them being taught such stories as Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac and the global flood myth like I was. Religion teachers always gloss over the death aspect and focus on "the glory of God." But perhaps I can explain that God killing people or telling others to kill people doesn't make him a good God.

My atheist father allowed me to be raised catholic by my irish roman catholic mother. As a result, I have deep-seated neuroses that I still struggle to overcome, even in my late 30's. Don't be fooled; catholic memes are invasive, pervasive & damaging.

So, do you have any examples of what should be countered/explained from an early age?

[Ben Davis]

So, do you have any examples of what should be countered/explained from an early age?

My indoctrination used guilt as the emotional lever (common in catholicism). A couple of current symptoms as examples: 1. I find it almost impossible to lie convincingly; 2. simple accusation can trigger guilt responses.

If I knew how that indoctrination could be effectively countered, I think I wouldn't suffer the problems I do now (I never got therapy). My advice would be not to allow those lessons to be taught in the first place. Thinking it through for a moment, exercises in establishing & building self-esteem would be helpful as would constant reassurance that there's no supernatural 'judge' of their every thought.

[Mxwll]

I am fortunate in that I was raised in a free thinking household and I plan the same for my kids. They have encountered some fundamentalism at school, but nothing to bad as of yet. We live in the North East and in a mostly liberal area.
My mother, who raised my siblings and me alone, had her faith beaten our of her in Catholic School and my father was a deadbeat dad and did not give a damn about much of anything in those days. Imagine no religion.
I am an level 6-7 on the Dawkins scale and Mrs. M. is a Buddhist but will not say so because she feels claiming to be a Buddhist in anti-Buddhist.
Our hoase is all about knowledge and the kinder side of human nature.

[Doubting Thomas]

My atheist father allowed me to be raised catholic by my irish roman catholic mother. As a result, I have deep-seated neuroses that I still struggle to overcome, even in my late 30's. Don't be fooled; catholic memes are invasive, pervasive & damaging.

I know how you feel, I was pretty much the same way. If not for the "you must go to church every week or else you'll end up in Hell" belief, I'd have stopped going to church a lot sooner. I was always bored by it and never got anything useful out of it, and only went because of that lingering guilt.

It was that same guilt I always had over premarital sex or masturbation. I honestly think that the Catholic church wants to destroy people's sexuality unless they can make more little Catholics.

[Zazzy]

My mother, who raised my siblings and me alone, had her faith beaten our of her in Catholic School

My father is the same way- the nuns literally beat his faith out of him. Beat him bloody for things like having comic books in school.

The result is a man in his 70s who hate nuns and Catholicism with an almost unreasonable zeal. He never really got over the beatings and the mindfucking.

Nuns don't beat kids anymore, do they?

[Mxwll]

Nuns don't beat kids anymore, do they?

I have no idea, but it would not surprise me in the least.

[Ben Davis]

Nuns don't beat kids anymore, do they?

Nuns don't kill people, rappers do.

[Brian37]

Be sure to barbecue kittens, record the NFL without their permission and rip the tags off of your mattress.

[KichigaiNeko]

Something has recently happened, and has occurred before, that makes me think otherwise. My older one has been boasting about material possessions to a younger and (perceived by him) as a less well off child.
Given that this has happened more than once and is not in any way how Mrs M. or I lead our lives, living solely by example is not working.

Don't be too quick to doubt yourself here Mxwll. You could always ask said 11 year old if he would like to have his possessions given to said 'Less-well-off-child' and that way they can both play?

Yeah I know, it seems to be the age group where "I have such and such and you don't" is the mantra of the day. Hopefully he'll grow out of it. Have you and Mrs M. made a display of giving away some of your things to the "less-well-off". I did that with my two at least once a year. I gave things away to make room for more newer things to come in.

Anyway

i'll get out of your way now.

[The Reality Salesman01]

I do that same thing with my son. He's so incredibly charitable that last night, as I'm going over the trick or treating instructions one last time, he told me I had it wrong.

He said that we're supposed to go door to door and give the OTHER kids OUR candy. Lol...He is hilarious.