re: Raising a child with no religion (athiest, agnostic, etc)

Oh, and since I never replied to the OP, I am going to tell my son that god is not real... It's a story for adults who believe we have a purpose, but you don't need to believe in a fairy tale do have a fantastic life. And while people will tell me that it's "so closed minded," it makes me wonder if these same people will tell a christian that they're closed minded for telling their kids that god is real.

Quoting Kayla [ ]♥:" A lot of the time, people don't give a smurf to hear anything different from their own. I know some people ... [snip!] ... (whether or not they were born here) should not have any government power because they will make us follow shariah law. smh"

True, we are hoping to teach our kids not to hate based on religion, culture, and so forth. I actually really enjoy talking about different religions as well as cultures. Unfortunately the hate will probably always be there from someone.

I am agnostic, and I think dh is too. We don't really talk about it. Maybe that's weird? It just doesn't come up a lot. I was raised Catholic and I have a deep appreciation for certain religious things, he was raised in a Buddhist cult and taught from birth that Christianity is a giant crock of smurf. I liked the idea of taking my 4-year-old to some kind of church and I've had my eye on the local UU church, but so far I haven't bothered with it. But you can be UU if you're an atheist, so it seems like the best of both worlds to me.

I wanted to give dd a book to explain Christmas. DH's grandmother gave her a book all about how King Herod killed all the babies in Jerusalem. lol. It didn't really say much about Jesus. I got another book that was a little better, just so she would have an idea of what it's supposed to be all about. Then we talked about why we decorate Christmas trees and things like that, and why the celebration and light is so important that time of year, and the importance and specialness of family gatherings, and I tried to give her a holistic idea about the whole thing. We also talked a lot about Hanukkah. I LOVE Hanukkah.

She goes to my mom's house sometimes, and my mom is a person of great faith. When dd came home recently and said something like, "Everything happens for a reason" (one of my mom's favorite things to say), I told her that some people believe that and some people don't, and that nobody knows for sure so we all get to choose how we want to think about it. Bad things happen and good things happen, and it's just how life is.

When my nephew was little, it seemed easier to explain death with, "So and so went to heaven to be with Jesus." As a mother, I have realized what a cop-out that is. Our cat died last spring. DD asked why. I said that his body was old and sick, and we all die. She asked where he went, so we stopped at the vet clinic on the way home from her gymnastics class so she could pick up the box of ashes with me. That's where he went. And aren't we so lucky to have gotten to love him so much while he was furry and cute?

I'm not an expert on other religions, but like anything else, when she has questions I can't answer, we look it up. She's not really thinking about other religions. She's still just trying to figure out her world. I try to keep it simple.

Quoting Clk:" True, we are hoping to teach our kids not to hate based on religion, culture, and so forth. I actually ... [snip!] ... enjoy talking about different religions as well as cultures. Unfortunately the hate will probably always be there from someone."

I don't hate any religion... (well, religious cults are another thing... ) but I don't believe any of them, either. I'm all about incorperating myths in my daily lives, if my kid stares at himself too much in the mirror, I share the myth of Narcissus. If he ever asks about unicorns, I'll share the myth of noahs arc... they're all myths to me, and I'm going to treat them as such. KWIM?

I would like to raise my daughter to be agnoistic, answer her questions as she has them, and let her decide if she'd like to follow any religion.


But BD has decided she's Rastafarian (without consulting me), and now she comes back from his house talking about Jah, the magical mystic in the sky who watches all the kids and adults... not pleased. Not about him teaching her his religion (though, I wasn't aware he had one) but about not having a conversation with her sole caretaker about it beforehand.

I will teach about other religions but in the same way that I will teach about Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny. I'll tell my kids that God is not real and that sadly many people in the world believe he is, but it's foolish to believe in such things. I'm not going to "leave it up to them" as I think it's just as stupid as leaving it up to them to believe in Santa when we all know he's not real.

I am religious, but only found it in the last 2 years or so.

My mom and mil are both super hardcore christians so she's heard about that faith since she was young and she believes it. I've also talked to her about Judaism because I grew up Jewish. I just tell her that different people believe different things... like when my great-grandma died she started talking about Heaven and I told her about what christians believe, and what I believe happens after we die, and I told her a little bit about reincarnation and the physical changes a body goes through and how we bury/cremate our dead.

I have always felt that my reasons for not believing are just as good as others reasons for believing. I have friends that say they want to teach my child about God and I dont really care for that. When I was a child, my parents were catholic but rarely went to church. They never taught me to pray and never discussed God with me, so I just never had that "Feeling" that people often describe. When I asked to go to church, they took me, and when I said I was not interested after a few weeks, they left it alone. I chose not to have my child baptized even though my husband wanted it, because I could not STAND the idea of being a hypocrite and standing infront of many people and promising to teach my child about God. I do believe that every person needs to find their own way, and when my son is older, if believing in God is what works for him and fufills his life, I will help him in that. I just plan to teach him to be a good person, and when he asks me about his friends and church and God, I will see if he wants to give it a try. I guess in the end, I will present all of the info to him to the best of my knowledge and try to be as unbiased as possible. If he should ask my why I dont believe, My answer is simple, because I dont feel it in my heart. He will need to decide what he feels in his.

I'm agnostic and DH is a Christian. We teach the boys about different religions, what some people believe (and don't believe) and don't really pressure one way or the other.

Quoting Man. Bear. Pig.:" Neither me or DH are religious. I'm atheist and DH is agnostic. For those of you who are there as ... [snip!] ... about jesus and god from different sources. How do I go about addressing that with her? Do you explain different religions?"

I'm Jewish but I explain all religions to Lily and make sure she knows that all are okay. I don't raise her to fear God or believe that following Him is the only way to go. I tell her homosexuality is okay, so is having kids/sex outside of marriage. I tell her that its okay to date outside of your religion and race. Basically, what some religions look down on, we are "free form" with. She knows what we believe in God and follows it, but we arent fanatic about it. As long as shes a good person to herself and others, I dont care what she believes.

Every so often we encounter a problem or situation which allows me to talk about differences in religions. Such as some of her Islamic/Muslim friends and their beliefs with beef... we discuss it and why her friends can't eat certain things at school and also why they dont participate in some school activities. I take it as a way to teach her, not be all "Well WE believe this and THIS is right" because there are many beliefs which should be accepted, Lily must learn that just because another doesnt believe in what she does, that doesnt make them wrong.

My daughter knows about God, but I think at her age, God is like Santa/Easter bunny.

I wish that we had waited to introduce god and the bible, but her circle of friends includes a lot of Christians, and I wanted her to hear those things from me. I don't think 7 is an appropriate age for my daughter to be influenced by scripture that damns her mortal soul to hell if she doesn't believe. I don't want her to subscribe to ANY religion out of fear of damnation. I'm making the move from agnosticism to atheism, and it took me 28 years to get to this point. I wish I had been free to explore on my own, rather than be influenced by the fear mongering techniques used by my baptist church leaders.

I'm agnostic and my husband is atheist. I plan on waiting until my son brings it up and when he does I want him to know that no one knows for sure whether or not a god exists; that there could easily be a god (or gods) but there also might not be one for all we know. I would then let him know that if he ever has any more questions he is free to ask them and if he wants to learn more about any particular religion I am fine with it. My parents weren't religious but I went through a phase of going to various Christian churches and I was even in FCA and two small groups at one point. I realized it wasn't for me and moved on but I'm glad I was able to learn more about religion before making a decision. I want my son to feel comfortable and not be scared of "god" like I sometimes was. I was always worried about going to hell and that's not cool... I wouldn't want that on my child's mind. I would rather him feel safe, loved, and respected. As long as his beliefs don't harm anyone else I don't care what they are.

I am agnostic, and my kids are Catholic by choice. The rest of my family are protasten (sp?) lol sorry.

My oldest dd has a different dad then my 2 little ones. But both of their dads are Catholic, and enjoy going to the Catholic church with their Grandmothers.

I have spent time with my kids (on google) I know nothing about religion at all. lol Telling them and teaching them about God etc......They talk to my mom about religion when they want to and I am glad that they have decided on their OWN to have a religion and a faith and so on.

They tease me for not being religious all the time and thay have taught me some things they have learned in church.

If they decided tomorrow to want to change religions to something else, I would find out as much as possible about it, to teach them.

So I guess my kids are not raised without religion. at all. lol They are 4 and 10 and lo is only going on 1 (the 4th)

Oh and both dads are Atheist.