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Helping children be skeptics. My grandsons are my reason for living and we spend a lot of time together. They know I'm atheist and what that means. We've had many discussions on faith and religion (they asked, I answered truthfully). I have often used Thor as an example of a myth that was once thought to be true as he's a god they can relate to from the movies. My main theme has always been think for yourself, don't take what others say as absolute, not even me. Reason it out for yourself, demand evidence.

I feel it's more important to teach them to be skeptics and critical thinkers than it is to try and make them atheists. If they are skeptics and critical thinker then atheism will most likely be the result. They are skeptics and I'm very proud of that. Their critical thinking skills are developing nicely too.

This morning my middle grandson (will be 9 in 2 weeks) and I were watching cartoons and in the cartoon a girl was blowing bubbles and counting them out loud. As she blew the bubbles the bubbles rose over her head and lined up in a row until she was done counting.

By the second bubble my grandson says, "That is not how real bubbles act." I ask, "How?" He replied, "Real bubbles would not rise up above her head and line up in a row. I know it's cartoons but even if it wasn't I wouldn't believe that." I laughed and called him my little skeptic. He asked what that was and I explained what skepticism was.

"Yep, that's me. I'm not believing just any old thing. People say fake things all the time." Man, I love that boy!

mzbehavin 8 Mar 17
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10 comments

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First off how do the parents feel about you interacting thus with the kids?

My late partner's mother (even though she was a Moslem) fostered her daughter (she had 4 brothers) to question everything. The stories I have heard about her mother supported her when she got in trouble for asking the wrong questions at school. She saw how silly religion was from the time she could reason. Unfortunately, when she came to this country hr 2 oldest children got hooked on religion (S. Baptist). The youngest son was gay and had no time for religion. One son is a doctor married to a doctor from the bible belt and the fact that her mother-in-law was an atheist (the they had 3 kids) bothered her so a rift was built and my late partner told her son she would not return to their home (Richmond VA).
Later she became a teacher and realized critical thinking actually has to fostered and taught. Question everything and look for reasoned answers.

@mzbehavin Then you have it easy. The one thing my partner regretted was that her 2 kids let religion poison their minds and the one sons relationship with his mother. (oh and money was also a big part of this poisoning).

0

You are doing him a life long service.

2

I would so much rather have questions that cannot be answered, than answers that cannot be questioned.

A perfect philosophy!!

I prefer living in a time when we still have so many unanswered questions. I like being able to still feel some of the wonder of when I was a boy.

1

Nicely done. Skepticism is what allows us to filter out bad ideas to the best degree that we can.

1

I asked a friend how I could help direct my grandsons to be skeptics? "Buy them science kitsch for Christmas ".

1

Wonderful!! Thanks for sharing!

2

I instilled sceptism into both my children, by using the example of Father Christmas.
My son is a regular churchgoer, because he is on the choir. As he says, why should good music be the exclusive preserve of Christians?
The vicar often remarks that all churches should have an atheist, it stops priests getting over-zealous.
My grandchildren love learning about all religions and mythologies. Scepticism is abundant in our family!

2

Good for you, you’re an inspiration to me, as I’m a grandmother too. I don’t see mine too often, as they live in England, although I’m just back after a visit. Next time I visit again I will have to have a talk with the elder one, who is nearly eight, along the same lines!

2

Smart kid. A great example of parenting done correctly.

2

Wow, I never thought the "fake news" narrative could ever amount to anything good. But yes! It's teaching children to be skeptical of what they hear at a very young age. Very encouraging. And that's not to take anything away from you. Great job, Grandmom!

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