"LisaKay" <LisaKay2054@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118339557.275750.194260@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Do you believe religion
is good for raising kids?

It's strange but only yesterday I was watching documentary about the life of
an English writer and apparently when he announced to his parents in his
early 20s that he was agnostic, his father became distraught, claiming that
his life had been a failure because his son was no longer a Christian. I
was stunned by that kind of reaction! How can a parent ignore the
intelligence, talent and good will of a child and claim they have failed
simply because the person has rejected the unquestioned belief in sky
fairies?

"LisaKay" <LisaKay2054@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118339557.275750.194260@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

snip

How many of you have raised atheist children? Have you had similar
discussions about the necessity of religion? Do you believe religion
is good for raising kids?

I definitely don't feel that religion is "good" for raising kids. I've
already seen it's effects on my niece and nephew - turning them into
preaching idiots.

My husband and I are both atheists, though he was raised
Catholic and we're pretty much surrounded by them family-wise. We've talked
to our daughter about religion quite a bit, explaining the different ones
and who believes what. I've already had one conflict with my mom-in-law
about having my daughter baptized (we gave in)

and there's a WWIII in our
future over first communion (which isn't happening), but that's just tough
for them. This is OUR kid, not theirs.

Anyhoo, bottom line - You can gave your kid morals and models of good
behavior without religion.

LisaKay wrote:

We

don't want to die until we're really old. We're not afraid of death
itself, though. To me it seems so rational that death will be just
like it was before birth - nonexistance. I guess, I don't know why so
many people can't accept this idea. Is it vanity that keeps them
believing that the universe couldn't exist without their soul?

It's your pride and love of secularism that makes you deny the eventual
judgement from God.

LisaKay wrote:

We

don't want to die until we're really old. We're not afraid of death
itself, though. To me it seems so rational that death will be just
like it was before birth - nonexistance. I guess, I don't know why so
many people can't accept this idea. Is it vanity that keeps them
believing that the universe couldn't exist without their soul?

It's your pride and love of secularism that makes you deny the eventual
judgement from God.

LisaKay wrote:

We

don't want to die until we're really old. We're not afraid of death
itself, though. To me it seems so rational that death will be just
like it was before birth - nonexistance. I guess, I don't know why so
many people can't accept this idea. Is it vanity that keeps them
believing that the universe couldn't exist without their soul?

It's your pride and love of secularism that makes you deny the eventual
judgement from God.

God save children from their foolish parents, who have refused to grow
up:

Prayer For Children:

of kindness, humility, peace, patience, love, wisdom and understanding.

*Let their parents and teachers be good examples for them*; let their
friendships be good and valuable. Let's hope they have a happy life -- > now, and later in life

You may now continue to play games in the cemetery.

LisaKay wrote:

We

don't want to die until we're really old. We're not afraid of death
itself, though. To me it seems so rational that death will be just
like it was before birth - nonexistance. I guess, I don't know why so
many people can't accept this idea. Is it vanity that keeps them
believing that the universe couldn't exist without their soul?

It's your pride and love of secularism that makes you deny the eventual
judgement from God.

LisaKay wrote:

We

don't want to die until we're really old. We're not afraid of death
itself, though. To me it seems so rational that death will be just like
it was before birth - nonexistance. I guess, I don't know why so many
people can't accept this idea. Is it vanity that keeps them believing
that the universe couldn't exist without their soul?

It's your pride and love of secularism that makes you deny the eventual
judgement from God.

LisaKay wrote:

On a side note, I recently talked with an atheist who was raised as a
Christian. He made the comment that he thought religion was necessary
for kids so they would have morals. I tried to explain to him that
religion is not important. My son is an honors student who frequently
gets compliments from adults on his kindness and his ability to
empathize with others. He is raised in a non-religious home (not
anti-religions, but respectful of other cultures). His parents have
been married longer than the average marriage lasts (we celebrated ten
years just the other day!) and he is a happy, well-adjusted,
open-minded person. Why is religion necessary again?!

How many of you have raised atheist children? Have you had similar
discussions about the necessity of religion? Do you believe religion
is good for raising kids?

Hmmm.. well, I guess that's it.
-LisaKay
aa #2054

My son is 16 and just finished the 10th grade. About the only exposure
he's had to religion is the prayers that are said at family gatherings
with his father's side of the family (my family is non-religious,
although I was raised nominally Christian). I often expected him to ask
us about this strange ritual that they engaged in, but he never did. So,
most of what he knows of religion he's gotten by osmosis in our culture.
He's a good student and is well liked by adults and peers alike. We've
raised him to be polite, considerate and respectful of others. My
husband and I, both atheists, celebrated our 26th anniversary last week.
So, no, I don't believe that religion is at all necessary for a good
marriage or for raising good kids. What is necessary is good values,
respect, involvement, etc.

Fortunately, although my in-laws did pressure us into having our son
baptized, they haven't made an issue of religion other than that. I'm
sure they know we don't go to church, but they may not realize that we
have no religious beliefs.

An atheist friend of mine has had a slightly different experience with
her daughter. Her daughter kept asking questions about god and religion
and really seemed to need some kind of belief system. My friend had
become an atheist in college because she couldn't go to church so she
decided to read the bible instead. As a result of finding out just what
is in that book, she absolutely didn't want her daughter to have
anything to do with the horror that is the god of the bible. So, my
friend introduced her daughter to Wicca, to give her a more benign
system to work with. Her daughter is almost 14 and I'm interested to see
what she does with her beliefs in the future.

LisaKay wrote:

Anyone around here into geocaching? (If you don't know what it is,
check out geocaching.com)

I love it. The only thing I don't like about it is when I have to
bushwhack, and someone sees me coming out, they assume I was peeing.

:-)

Well, yesterday my 8yo son and I got back to one of our favorite summer
hobbies, geocaching. We got the coordinates to a cache near our home
and after reading the logs of others who visited the cache, I figured
out that it was near or in a cemetery. As we walked around the area
looking for the cache, we began talking about death. He asked
questions like "if I die when I'm still a kid, will you invite my
friends to the funeral?" and "why do some of the gravestones have
birth years but no death years?" When we finally found the cache, it
was located at the grave of a teenager who had died in a car accident.
In fact, I knew his father and remembered when this boy died. It had
affected me deeply because I was only a few years younger than him at
the time (I was about 13 then). My son and I talked about how this boy
died because of one small bad decision he made and how his parents were
still mournful of his death so many years later (they had placed the
cache at his grave). I found it interesting, though not surprising,
that my son seems to have the same thoughts about death that I do. We
don't want to die until we're really old. We're not afraid of death
itself, though. To me it seems so rational that death will be just
like it was before birth - nonexistance. I guess, I don't know why so
many people can't accept this idea. Is it vanity that keeps them
believing that the universe couldn't exist without their soul?

On a side note, I recently talked with an atheist who was raised as a
Christian. He made the comment that he thought religion was necessary
for kids so they would have morals. I tried to explain to him that
religion is not important. My son is an honors student who frequently
gets compliments from adults on his kindness and his ability to
empathize with others. He is raised in a non-religious home (not
anti-religions, but respectful of other cultures). His parents have
been married longer than the average marriage lasts (we celebrated ten
years just the other day!) and he is a happy, well-adjusted,
open-minded person. Why is religion necessary again?!

How many of you have raised atheist children? Have you had similar
discussions about the necessity of religion? Do you believe religion
is good for raising kids?

Hmmm.. well, I guess that's it.
-LisaKay
aa #2054

Sounds like you have a smart boy there. How old is he?

I was raised Christian, so I can't use myself as an example. Nor do I
personally have children. (Women aren't attracted to me so I have a
hard time even getting to the point where it would be possible for me to
have a kid.) But, I do know several atheist familys raising their
children sans religion, and they all seem to be doing fine.