My children are 49 an 50 now - they are quite exceptional and have lived all over england and been to many schools and lived in communes when they were younger they have had lots of experiences adn are thoroughly nice decent human beings - My daughter is the elder by 15 months and always found a way to fit in and her younger brother managed well enough and they were both capable of making their own life decisions at a pretty early age. religion was never any part of their life .
My wife and I actually belonged to Jewish temple when our kids were growing up. My wife grew up Jewish but was not religious. I was never Jewish but not religious at all but was didn't care if she wanted to raise the kids Jewish. As the kids got older my thinking changed from not caring about religion to being full on Agnostic. My wife and our two kids seemed have had the same transition in thinking even though none of us encouraged others in the family one way or the other. The difficulty in raising kids Agnostic are the society influences that definitely still exist (even well out of the Bible Belt) that people are bad or immoral if they are not Christians. If they are other religions they will, of course, go to hell but they are a little less evil. It would seem necessary raising Agnostic kids to do a lot of reinforcing that it is necessary to be a good and moral person is as important for an Agnostic as it is for a Christian. And any assertions that Christians are any better people or more moral than non-Christians are flat out wrong.
Why would anyone want to fit in with the believers in the absurdly impossible??
My ex took my children to a traditional church. I took my children to a Unitarian Universalist church. It was a good balance given the situation and time. Both children have chosen not to take their children to churches. Cool....
Well....
When my daughter was born, I was attempting to be religious myself, sincerely seeking to believe (or seeking something to believe in). By the time I realized I was an atheist, she was already going to Sunday school and enjoying it, making friends, appearing in plays, etc.
These days I just model atheism for her, providing logic and science and making sure she understands that religion can't be literally true. She's already there, realizing that evolution happened, the world is much older than the fundamentalist sect I used to belong to says, and so on. I just have to make sure she has the tools to make up her own mind.
No, I am open about my atheism. They are free to choose their own path.
Absolutely not. I raised by daughter by giving her a label, like her friends had. Only our label was Humanist and our credo was that we believe in the goodness of humanity and the celebration of people and their right to be unique.
It worked fine for her and for my two grandchildren, who are fine, loving, creative, productive -- and funny -- humans.
No I love my son but he’s intellectually a little like me but smarter. I’ve asked him to respect others beliefs it I told him he may chose any path. I’m a Jew and my wife is a Christian so I don’t discuss religion much but my wife I’m a religious illiterate and have no real beliefs other then the World Cup and I’ve asked her to allow our son to explore... she gives the demonically possessed but tells me the power of Christ compels me. No she is going to have to get use to her sons non beliefs
No and fuck no. Not wholly responsible, but it is that line of thinking that allows religion to linger on, IMO. I teach my children to be open and understanding of other beliefs and actually go into the mechanics of how they possibly ended up in that belief.
No. I Teach my son of my beliefs but I also try to teach him to keep an open mind.
Should he decide to follow any faith that choice is for him to make when he feels ready