Where do I go from here? What do I do with my children? Do I continue to teach them about a God that I don't feel is really here? People tell me that children need religion in their life. Is this so? Do children who don't grow up with a religion end up dysfunctional? Does it all really matter?
I would simply say, tell them the truth. That you don't really know.
As for the dysfunctional thingy, first I have to laff cuz you are asking US, HERE, if growing up without religion makes people dysfunctional? lol. Then I'd say dysfunction comes more from being lied to than from being told truthfully to the best of your knowledge and ability. Even if the truth is, "honey, I really don't know".
Better to teach a child awareness of various questions and tolerance for various opinions?
Show them how to question, investigate, discover! How to weigh the pros and cons and make the best decisions they know how to. Allow them the dignity and self-respect to investigate and discover "truths" for themselves, as part of their life course, rather than to expect yourself capable of handing them all "the" "right" "answers" on a silver platter.
How does that saying go?
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.
Somethin like that.
SPAZ