Religion

cbayer

(146,218 posts) Tue Mar 31, 2015, 09:53 AM Mar 2015

10 Commandments for talking to your kids about religion

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/10-commandments-talking-kids-religion/

BY WENDY THOMAS RUSSELL March 31, 2015 at 12:00 AM EDT

Wendy Thomas Russell’s book, “Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious” comes out today. Image by Dana Tezarr

Secularism is on the rise. Between 2012 and 2014 alone, some 7.5 million Americans lost their religious faith. And a great many of them are parents — or will be someday. So how do we, as first-generation secular parents, go about talking to our kids about God and religion? What do we tell them? When? And how?

Secular parents are by no means a cohesive unit; our struggles are hardly singular. But most of us — whether we consider ourselves atheist, agnostic, humanist, deist, or nothing at all — do share a common goal: To raise kind, happy, tolerant kids capable of making up their own minds about what to believe.

What many of us lack, however, is a clear path for how to get there. We can’t always rely on what we were told as children. We can’t always trust ourselves to handle things gracefully. Where our parents or grandparents were guided by the well-defined teachings of their faith — whether it be Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, folk religions, or the great wide panoply of Christianity — we are left to chart a new course for our families.

The good news is that when we approach these conversations with compassion and open-mindedness, the “God Talk” is not nearly as challenging as it seems. Here are my 10 Commandments.

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8 replies

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10 Commandments for talking to your kids about religion (Original Post) cbayer Mar 2015 OP

wow imagine that, you can't just say 'because god". Warren Stupidity Mar 2015 #1

This person is a fucking idiot. AtheistCrusader Mar 2015 #2

What is the moral of the Adam and Eve story? DetlefK Mar 2015 #4

Which one happened first? Leontius Mar 2015 #5

Neither. AtheistCrusader Apr 2015 #7

That ... LiberalAndProud Mar 2015 #6

I like evoman's version better: beam me up scottie Apr 2015 #8

"God is a part of our culture’s language, its songs, its poetry, its monuments and its works of art" AtheistCrusader Mar 2015 #3

Warren Stupidity

(48,181 posts)

1. wow imagine that, you can't just say 'because god".

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Tue Mar 31, 2015, 09:56 AM

Mar 2015

Western civilization has a history of atheistic philosophy that goes back to ancient times. How to live a good life without god is not a puzzle invented in 2001.

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)

2. This person is a fucking idiot.

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Tue Mar 31, 2015, 10:24 AM

Mar 2015

3. Don’t saddle your kids with your anxiety over the word ‘God’

The Pledge of Allegiance. The Girl Scout Promise. The motto written on American money. There is religion all around us, even in school. But it need not be a crisis. Let your kid know that God is a part of our culture’s language, its songs, its poetry, its monuments and its works of art. God is a part of human history, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not everything needs to be loaded with meaning. Kids may pledge their allegiance “under God” not because of religion but because of tradition, the same way they may sing Christmas songs or say “Bless you” when someone sneezes. If your kids prefer to draw battle lines for themselves on these matters, great! Just be sure you’re not nudging them toward the battle.

I'm sure in the 1960's, creatures like this author existed, explaining to black people how 'the water fountain on the right is just fine, you know, it puts out water just like the one for white people, what's the problem?'.

Fuck that bullshit, the constitution prohibits it. Clearly, unambiguously, and in small words. I never said 'under god' during the pledge, and I will encourage my son to 'skip it' too.

One of the many problems with ardently opposing religion is that it’s so damn boring. If you’re preoccupied, for example, with explaining to your kids that Adam and Eve weren’t the first humans and that those who believe such things are irrational, you’re probably not telling the Adam-and-Eve story very well. And that’s a shame. Because it’s a really great story!

It's a great story? A great story? Fucking MORON. The story of Adam and Eve is steeped in patriarchy, and since adam and eve are without knowledge of good/evil, it's basically child abuse too. Let me get this straight. Leaving two ignorant, unarmed, wholly dependent people alone in the room with the ONE THING THEY MUST NOT DO, and also with the most evil, devious creature god himself ever created, whose only goal is to convince them to do the ONE THING THEY MUST NOT DO, and then when they do the ONE THING THEY MUST NOT DO, you punish them with suffering, death, kick them out on the street, curse women to suffer in childbirth forever, etc... Yeah, it's a real 'great story'.

It's about as great a story as some dickhead parent chaining a jaguar to a wall in the living room, leaving a toddler in the room alone with it, drawing a line across the floor and telling the toddler not to cross it. And then when coming back later, the kid is a pile of bones, kicking and stomping on the bones as punishment for petting the kitty.

The story of adam and eve, noahs ark, etc, is wholly fiction, but it sets up the concept of god as a vicious, megalomaniacal, genocidal psychopath.

That's not a great story. That's shit you tell kids if you want them to have nightmares.

DetlefK

(16,423 posts)

4. What is the moral of the Adam and Eve story?

Reply to AtheistCrusader (Reply #2)

Tue Mar 31, 2015, 10:56 AM

Mar 2015

DON'T. DISOBEY. GOD.

This is it.

This is the very first sin in the Bible. The original sin.

Not Cain slaying his brother Abel. Not murder. Nonononono.

Disobeying God!

Leontius

(2,270 posts)

5. Which one happened first?

Reply to DetlefK (Reply #4)

Tue Mar 31, 2015, 10:36 PM

Mar 2015

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)

7. Neither.

Reply to Leontius (Reply #5)

Wed Apr 1, 2015, 01:16 AM

Apr 2015

LiberalAndProud

(12,799 posts)

6. That ...

Reply to DetlefK (Reply #4)

Tue Mar 31, 2015, 10:47 PM

Mar 2015

and does anyone really think the story of the fall is about fruit? There isn't a child older than eight who doesn't understand it's about sex. Eve was the first seductress and Adam the first man to fall prey to feminine wiles. It was all Eve's fault ... because the serpent fooled her.

Now you've got me started on the detestable treatment of women in the "good" book. Best to leave it here.

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)

8. I like evoman's version better:

Reply to AtheistCrusader (Reply #2)

Wed Apr 1, 2015, 04:01 AM

Apr 2015

Evoman: *to his 12 year old cousin* Hi Chantel. I'm glad your housesitting for me while I'm away at a conference

Chantel: Sure thing, Evoman.

Evoman: Now, you can go everywhere in the house except that third closet in the hallway. YOU MUST NOT GO IN THERE.

Chantel: Um..okay.

Evoman: Here, I'll give you the keys to that closet. BUT YOU MUST NEVER GO IN THERE.

Chantel: Uh...sure.

Evoman. The key goes in upside down. And that closet is full of knowledge. YOU MUST NEVER GO IN THERE.

Chantel: sure sure

Evoman: Okay *leaves*

*knock on the door*

Snakeman: Hey, whats up chantel baby.

Chantel: Oh nothing snakeman. Just watching my cousins house.

Snakeman:Whats that key for.

Chantel: A closet. My uncle doesn't want us to go there.

Snakeman: Sure he does. Why would he give you the key if he didn't want you to go in there. He was probably just joking with you.

Chantel: You think? Okay. Lets go open the closet

Chantel opens closet* OH MY GOD. THIS CLOSET IS FULL OF TRANNY PORN. EWWWW.

EvomanL *comes in* Oh chantel...I forgot to tel....WHAT THE HELL!!!!

Chantel: GROSS

Evoman: YOU DISOBEYED ME. First, I'm going to throw you out in the streets. Then I'm going to stick a pain probe in your uterus so you'll feel agony when you get pregnant and have kids. Then I'm going to make sure all of your kids, if they survive birth, will starve and kill each other. They build a house, I'll knock it down. They have girlfriends, I will inject them with AIDS. SUFFER!!

Chantel: Really *sniff*....why..

Evoman: No, I'm just kidding. What, you think I'm god! HAHAHA

Chantel: HAHAHA

Snakeman: HAHAHAH *look at audience and winks*

END OF SCENE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x23435#81723

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)

3. "God is a part of our culture’s language, its songs, its poetry, its monuments and its works of art"

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Tue Mar 31, 2015, 10:38 AM

Mar 2015

The concept of 'god' is wholly unnecessary to the concept of 'our culture's' language, songs, etc. Wholly unnecessary.

And to dig a little further, what is 'our culture'? Some petty provincial 'the folks I can see from my doorstep' local culture? Humanity? America? What's the scope of 'culture' here?

I can find plenty of non-religious music out there.

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