I ran across this letter Richard Dawkins wrote to his 10 year old daughter some time ago. I thought it was an excellent way to go.
question for Atheists with children?
by unbeliever 24 Replies latest jw friends
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Beardo
ghosts are fake
You'd like to think so.
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awol
My kids use their heads and reason it out with me. My daughter doesn't have any particular interest in religion at all. I leave her to use her own brain and thoughts.
My son, however, who is 11, believes in God and Jesus. He prays to God. He likes to talk to me about God, Jesus, Creation, evolution, Satan. He has NOT been brought up in any religion (was 1 when I left JWs). He is just interested. I let him tell me his thoughts and I tell him it is up to him to research and find out what he believes in.
I don't know what I believe in myself. Having a nightmare at the moment really. If all that they taught me is NOT true (JWs). Then what is. Thing is there has to be some purpose. Doesn't there? What I worry about most, is about all the bad things that are going on right now. I avoid the news as it depresses me. I don't get it all. No wonder they just focus you on all this and then say the end is nigh!!!! Good way to blot out "thinking" about it all isn't it!
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jwfacts
I have no concrete belief to tell my children, but they don't care. I do lots of research on all sorts of concepts of God and pass on what I am learning to them. If something attracts them I am happy for them to follow their hearts.
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Narkissos
My daughter is 9 years old.
Over the years we have discussed a lot of mythology -- the gods, goddesses, heroes of Antiquity who, unlike the monotheistic "God," were great narrative characters -- and some Bible stories within the same general frame.
We have also discussed the idea of "God," how it came up, its beauty and its logical problems.
We have visited a lot of churches, and a few synagogues and mosques. She enjoys that.
I guess to her religions are essentially stories, dramas, which one can step into (in provisional "belief," much of the same kind as when you get caught into a fiction) and out. They do influence us in many ways, as every other bit of culture we are exposed to does. To them the question of "truth" is simply not relevant.
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lovelylil
Although I am not an athiest, I would like to offer some advice.
My kids are 12 and 14. While I am a Christian believer, I am open minded about other religions. I taught my kids, especially since leaving the WT that there is truth and good in all religious belief systems. And that Christians although they would like to believe it - do not have a corner on God. Like Narkissos I have talked with my kids about the good and the bad things about religions and believing in God.
I have been letting my kids explore what they want. As of now my daughter 14 believes in a higher power but is not sure if it is a personal God. She does not call herself Christian and has no interest in church. My son believes in a personal God but feels he can pray to him anywhere anytime and also does not believe he has to join a group for access to God. I agree with him there.
I encourage them to explore everything and provide a non-judgemental environment for them to do so. They have looked into aliens, the paranormal, ghosts, stories of life after death, evolution, nature, and lots of other things.
Whether you believe in God or not, I think it is important to let your kids explore all things and allow them ample opportunity to do so. Of course you want them to use critical thinking skills and check all the facts rather than believing what they read at face value alone. Lilly
P.S. I don't really agree with Dawkins writing a letter to his 10 year old disproving the idea of God. I believe he should allow her time to grow up and look into it herself without trying to persuade her as to what to believe. He can teach her to be a critical thinker but I found that letter a little controlling and disturbing. Of course all parents want to mold their children but I think he goes a little too far. I find Dawkins very obnoxious at times and self exalting. Also, he has some information in the letter wrong. When he refers to the "bible" he means the book we had handed down to us that the early church fathers agreed upon. There are a lot of other writings not included in our bible that the early Christians read and that the ancient Jews read. Such as the Didache, Books of Enoch, Book of Jashar, books by Solomon, some of the Apostles wrote "books" (letters actually). There are books that talk about Mary in more detail. It is debatable whether they are trustworthy or not but I think we should view them ourselves and decide. He also mentions Catholic teachings that are not beliefs of other Christian groups. In doing so, he is distrorting information for his own benefit. He is using them to show how some beliefs have evolved in thier religion. I agree with him somewhat but just because some beliefs evolved does not mean the main substance or message of the bible has been changed. That being said, he makes some good points for those who can stomache listening to him.
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TopHat
One can always tell their children what they believe and then leave it up to them to make their own choice.
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daystar
My son is 5. He has his own system of beliefs about things. I don't challenge them. But I will explain to him that people believe all sorts of things.
In fact, this morning, he was telling me that when we died we didn't come back, that we were just dead. I acknowledged and explained that that is what some people believe, and that others believe that we go to heaven to be with God when we die. Others believe we come back to life as new people (babies) or as animals, etc. And yet others believe our souls are energy that just go back to the energy of God, where we came from to begin with.
He's a very thoughful boy and I'll let him come to his own conclusions, with some small guidance from me. He says he believes that God is a woman and that she has a counterpart that is a male wizard with a wand made of rainbows.
I don't know where he got all that, but it sounds about as rational as any of the other myriad beliefs about gods.
I'll let him believe that sort of a thing until I feel he's ready to discuss unconscious archtypes, etc.
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lovelylil
daystar,
your son sounds like a real cutie pie. Lilly
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jstalin
From an atheist's point of view, I don't understand the desire to let kids "make up their own minds" when it comes to religion. Would we let them make up their own minds about what is right and wrong? How about what color the sun is? Do we let them make up their own minds about what two plus two equals? These are all just statements of fact, not to be "decided" upon.