I did it with all three of mine. One of them turned religious. You can only do your best.

Check this out and see if it could be helpful.

I trusted my own children to be able to figure out these minefields for themselves they seemed pretty capable and apart from some strange tea time discussions when they came back from school having misunderstood the jargon - they seemed to handle everything pretty well. I think I wanted to know that they were robust enough to counter anything they imagined to be outrageous to then = we lived in a commune and they got many different ideas from listening to other people speaking who lived with us..

You are the perfect mom.... Keep up the proofs about religion being bogus....

Good for you give it all you have.

I agree with your sentiments but also think it is important that they are well informed about the basic "principles" behind the various religions and thereby make real choices as adults. As someone commented earlier, it important that they are able to act appropriately and intelligently in any given situation - unfortunately the world is full of religious zealots who will set out to harm them if they are too outspoken.

I hear what you're saying. I'm concerned that if I don't teach my kids to despise the very concept of religion, they will grow up at the very least accepting it as a "legitimate" idea that should be taken into consideration or given the time of day, since so many people follow it.

Seems to me that this would come close to indoctrinating the children in the other direction. I wonder if honest inquiry--even if it should lead to a false conclusion--might not be preferable to an indoctrinated truth.

While I certainly think it is great to be realistic when talking to children about religion and belief, the approach of allowing them to speak openly with disdain and derision regarding the topic in the public square may not serve them well in future endeavors.

Religious people of all creeds exist everywhere on the planet, and we all have to deal with them on a one on one basis every single day. Be it through our employer or as a part of our interactions with strangers in the street.

You might as well be trying to teach your children to stop the flow of a fire hose with their face. When they grow up, they will need to interact with all sorts of people of varying beliefs, and they will need to do so cordially. Even if they do not share in thos beliefs.

Making public statements such as, "we don't believe in Jewish zombies" may fly ok on a place like Agnostics.com. But that kind of statement could lead to unneccessary and avoidable trouble in the real world.

I don't want to be as big of a dick to my kids about having no religion as my parents were to me about having a religion.

I simply state that I don't believe in the supernatural. This is a very broad kind of catch-all that does not diminish any of the documented history(in the bible for example), but effectively negates anything that is hocus pocus. My kids went to a Catholic school when they were you
nger, but now completely understand the agenda some teachers were pushing. We celebrate Christmas. Why not? We are not trying to remove all religious exposure from their lives, but rather set them on a path where they can cleary see that scientific knowledge has no equal.

Different approaches can work for different people. I always let my kids go with their friends to any kind of service they wanted. My boy went to a bunch: a megachurch, a Mormon Temple, a synagogue, a Catholic Church, and a Buddhist temple. He liked the Buddhists the best, he told me, because the food was "awesome". They both turned out more or less like me, compassionate humanists who are atheist af.

Influence them to read. The history of the inquisition, history of the crusades, VOLTAIRE , and Epicureus, maleus malificarum, you tube videos of the sentencing to prison of Jim baker, you tube videos about crimes committed by cults,

That is awesome you're taking action and will guide them appropriately as you see fit. You're right, times of crisis really can turn people to a multitude of religions, but if you guide them right, teach them about self-reliance,responsibility and compassion, then with friends & family included it's all they'll need to help them get through anything, no religion required.

Kids love presents. We aren't religious at all, but we don't even associate (or care) that the holidays relate to religious beliefs. They're just fun for the kids. Religion plays zero part in our lives.

You can educate your kids but that still doesn't mean they won't make blunders or go against your judgement. Religion is deeply personal and a decision we all have to make for ourselves.

"as they grow up and experience life, they will certainly have moments of crisis, sadness, anger and anxiety, and those are the exact times that so many people "find faith"." I would note that these challenging times are also when a lot of people lose faith.

For us, we have encouraged our kids to investigate and learn about all religions. We have lots of casual talks about the similarities, differences, where customs come from, how religions often borrow traditions from other religions, science, math. How illogical some of the stories are, the good lessons, bad lessons, just everything but casually and respectfully.

Once they're old enough to handle the violent, racist, and incestuous themes. Have them read the bible without any apologetic BS to rationalize its message.

That's the KJV.

Start with "The Demon Haunted World" - Carl Sagan
"God Is Not Good" - Christopher Hitchens
"The God Delusion" - Richard Dawkins