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I feel bad for the kid. Why not at least let him form a decision on it? That's not very open-minded of you.
You don't have to let your brains fall out to have an open mind.
If you read the original post he said: "I told him the truth, that God, "is not real"; and I explained that some people believe very strongly that God does exist but that my personal belief which I feel to be true is that God does not exist."
So he stated it as his personal belief and that allows his son to question if he wishes.
Interesting, the problem is a 5 year old does not believe everything the parents tell them and understands they can be moody, wrong and confused, even though at that age the parent is generally the hero , but not always in the expected and assumed way. Easily I remember the parents getting things in a fuss for Santa Claus, did not believe a Santa Claus existed in the told story for 1 second and never did. Five year old's are very capable in what's called testing the water and cannot be exactly translated as some may think in what they say , or do and behave. In this one the parent is -telling the youngster-I report to nothing, good luck with that one.
You don't have to let your brains fall out to have an open mind.
If you read the original post he said: "I told him the truth, that God, "is not real"; and I explained that some people believe very strongly that God does exist but that my personal belief which I feel to be true is that God does not exist."
So he stated it as his personal belief and that allows his son to question if he wishes.
But wouldn't the first line in this quote contradict the rest? Telling a kid "God is not real" is not conducive to the kid forming their own opinion. Idk if this has been clarified (haven't read the whole thread), but it's the first line I take issue with.
My son is 5 years old. Ever since he was born I have been asking myself how I am going to educate him in regard to religion...My wife's side of the family are fairly Catholic. My mother-in-law had my son baptized when he was a baby (I did not protest). Well, I had finally decided that what I would tell my son regarding "God" would be that I would just avoid the subject and/or "play it off" like I was a believer when the subject came up...
Well, today, for the first time ever, my son started asking me questions about God. I just couldn't make myself betray my son by feeding him lies. I told him the truth, that God, "is not real"; and I explained that some people believe very strongly that God does exist but that my personal belief which I feel to be true is that God does not exist.
Well, he was okay with it. He said, "Okay, God isn't real. Only Santa Claus is real and he is the one that takes care of us, right?" So, I had already broken the news to him about God (the big lie), so I broke the news to him about Santa Claus as well. I told him that Santa Claus is not real either and that the presents are from me and my wife. I told him that the only people that will "take care of us", are us; and that is why we must be good people and value and appreciate each other and our families. He seemed very understanding and none of it seemed to upset him the slightest.
Long story short, did I just mess up?? Should I have let the facade carried on for years??
What do you think? How have you handled raising children being an Atheist? Please just share some thoughts on this topic because it has really been bothering me....
Barrett’s publications include Psychology of Religion (ed., 2010) and Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (2004), along with the forthcoming book, Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology. His most recent book, released in the spring of 2012, is Born Believers: The Science of Children's Religious Belief. He has also published academic articles and book chapters across several disciplines.
Completely unbiased "research", I'm sure.
Look, we are all born believing in the Flying Spaghetti Noodle, you can stop denying that now.
But wouldn't the first line in this quote contradict the rest? Telling a kid "God is not real" is not conducive to the kid forming their own opinion. Idk if this has been clarified (haven't read the whole thread), but it's the first line I take issue with.
But I wonder if telling the kid "God IS real." would cause you to "take issue". In other words, are you really taking issue with the contradiction or the content? Most people wouldn't "take issue" with the contradiction. They would just point it out.
It would be easy for someone who wants to see that to see it, because children are at the behest of their parents, teachers, and mentors, and they have the same cognitive quirks that all humans have, the desire to explain things whether or not they are explicable with available evidence. So if you study children who live in a society where religion predominates, and you don't structure your study very carefully, yeah, it will look like children have a built-in faith in god.
The inconvenient thing about that is that a child born into a Hindu family will believe in Krishna, not Jesus, and a child born into a Buddhist family will be, technically, an atheist who believes the Buddha is the source of enlightenment. And we have in our midst many, though a minority, who never really understood or believed the religion in which they were raised (my wife is one such and I've met others). And it would stand up to scrutiny, I think, that a majority of children raised from the cradle by unbelievers will themselves be unbelievers, and of course, there are deconverts like myself. Then there are my children, raised evangelical but never embraced it for themselves. And lastly there are my stepchildren, who were raised by an unbelieving mother but allowed to explore religion for themselves -- a not at all uncommon phenomenon by the way. She enrolled them in a church-run day care and took them to church. One chose not to explore it anyway, the other got as far as catechism class at age 16 before figuring out on their own that it was all baloney.
And you won't deny the disappointment of sound evangelical parents who have one or more children who stray from the faith.
The truth is that each child makes up its mind and can take virtually any path, and there is no dominant decision that can't be entirely explained by cultural conditioning and social pressure. Which is exactly what we would expect if there were no particular "right" conclusion to draw about deities, moral conundrums, etc.
Observation in these area's require talent. Translation and perception is a gift and special. People can get educations, read books, think, but its a waste of time without talent.
For example : a rational place to begin alongside fundamental givens, that way there is whats called foundation available for whatever finding.
The human is all about exploring, straying from things is normal and what growing learning people do.
Making a declaration from a place of guiding authority, telling growing people I believe there is no creator has no comparison to making a declaration , I believe in a creator.
But I wonder if telling the kid "God IS real." would cause you to "take issue". In other words, are you really taking issue with the contradiction or the content? Most people wouldn't "take issue" with the contradiction. They would just point it out.
As an atheist, I don't believe telling a kid "God is real" is conducive to letting them make up their own minds, either. The difference is, as atheists, we're the ones talking about giving them a choice - Christians aren't. So we should practice what we preach (no offense to the OP, especially if I'm simply misreading/misinterpreting what they typed.
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