I was raised as a Christian and only recently became an atheist. It's been just a few months. I agonized over telling my husband. He was initially in denial but, ultimately, there was no major fallout.
Now I am concerned about how to approach the fact that I no longer believe with my older of two sons. I am teaching him, our six year old, about other religions. Our other boy is only one year old. I am not sure when to openly let him know I no longer believe and how to best approach it without saying that it's stupid since Daddy still believes and likely always will. Anyone else here lose their faith after already indoctrinating their child(ren)?
"faith" as a noun, lol, yeh. First i would reflect a little, and understand you are not in the default position at all, but rather forgot your first love prolly, which after all, was never religion anyway, right? There is no judgement for beliefs in the Bible, is there?
Do your older two sons believe? Have they told you what's their opinion of atheists in the past?
My older son believes. He did not know there were people who don't believe in God until I told him. His initial response was, "They should go to church." He's only six and he has accepted that there are different religions and that we shouldn't criticize people for following any of them or none at all. My great concern has been mainly the thought of him thinking that I, his mother, would go to hell. My younger son is just one year old and likes to dance to the worship music. I imagine he'll be fine since he hasn't been indoctrinated and isn't as sensitive as his brother.
@Colibri that sounds very promising. He is young enough to not have his.cognitive biases instilled in him yet I think if you start with the basics, what is truth, what is science, why it's important, watch documentaries about the cosmos, ask him what are the stars, the planets, how they were formed etc and then let him research and become hungry for answers and the truth in a playful way,in the long run he will back you up. I wouldn't try to focus on short-term solutions as to not traumatize him. Does this sound good to you?