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*Religion* and kids debate....
So, I saw a post on another board, and it got me thinking, If you are agnostic, or non-religious, what do you tell LO about what happens after life? What do you believe?
If you are not, and have a faith that you follow/believe, do you raise LOs to believe the same thing?
any other thoughts without stepping on other's feelings!?
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Re: *Religion* and kids debate....
We are methodist, and our kiddos were Christened in a Methodist church, but our congregation as a whole is pretty progre ssive/liberal (for Methodists!) We almost lean toward non-denominational Christians. We are raising LOs in our faith, but encourage them to ask questions, and talk about things that may confuse them ect.
I have such a hard time imagining that there is not a higher power, and that suddenly humans just began to exist, or evolved from primates. There are too many amazing things in this world that can not be explained away. However I am not saying that I do not believe that science plays a role in our lives.
Pretty much the same as all this, though I think we're on the more conservative side. DH and I were raised Catholic and both felt a lot of anger at having our questions glossed over, so I do hope to never do that with our kids. But she's really too young to have conversations about religion with right now, so she's more or less just coming to church with us and coloring
After 7 years trying to concieve, 3 failed IUIs and 2 failed IVFs, my third IVF was a success!
My Christmas baby turned into a turkey bird! Dillon Richard was born at 34 weeks, 5 days on November 28, 2009 after 10 weeks on bedrest for preeclampsia.
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DH and I are not religious (we go back and forth between whether we are atheist or agnostic but it's mostly semantic - we don't believe in god, but I've seen arguments that to be truly atheist means you are CERTAIN there is not a god, and far be it from me to claim certainty on anything that I can't prove nor disprove). As far as what happens after we die, I don't think I believe that anything at all happens, I think you're just gone...but I would love to believe otherwise and sometimes think there's a possibility of something else based on little signs that I interpret as being from our Doodles, dreams, etc., but I definitely don't have any sort of faith in that and mostly consider it hypothetical/wishful thinking.
Anyways, I certainly don't plan to teach our children that there is no god or that nothing happens when you die - because as I said above, I don't KNOW that, it's just what I believe. Similarly, I don't plan to teach them any specific religious teachings as fact, but only as allegory or what some believe.
We celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays (in a secular manner) and when we teach them the holidays I just plan to say "some people believe that Jesus was the son of an entity they called God and Christmas celebrates his birth" or "Hanukkah celebrates the fact that when the Jews crossed the desert, their one day of oil lasted for eight days, which some believe was a miracle" and if they push further I won't lie and will admit that I don't believe it but other people do, and let them choose for themselves. We may send them to Jewish preschool but that's mostly for cultural identification as there are so few Jews in our area and Jewish holidays aren't generally as prominent culturally so it's my way of showing them that part of their heritage. When they get older, if they choose to follow a specific religion more "religiously", for lack of a better word, I won't discourage them (although I recognize it's very unlikely if they're not raised with it).
We are Lutherans, through and through, and raising our daughter that way. She already has the basics down.
I believe that if you feel something is important to you, you teach your children from when they are young - like manners and the golden rule and all that, which is why we teach our daughter about faith.
It is a natural part of our faith to teach about other religions and faiths and that will be something we do, and we'll encourage her to expore the world of religion in its many forms.
We are religious...and we are/will raise our children in the church.
I believe in God, and I pray that my children will have a strong faith.
We are both Christians. My DH was raised Lutheran and I always went to a non-denominational church as a child. My child will be raised with religion in his life. I believe in God and I believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins. While I could always improve in my faith, we live to serve the word of God everyday.
In no way, will I prevent or hinder my children from seeking other religions though. I'm sure DS will eventually ask questions and I will to the best of my ability answer them.
I'm surprised you feel this way - I'm guessing wherever you saw the post that spurred this is not at all representative of the general population. A VERY significant majority of the US believes in God/organized religion (mostly Christian). And if anything, there is a stigma against those who are not religious rather than the latter - I don't remember the exact statistic but I read something in the New York Times a few months ago that betrayed a VERY strong discrimination/judgment against the non-religious. One of the reasons I often self-identify as secular humanist versus atheist.
Pretty much ditto Schmoodle exactly, minus the Jewish part. I was raised nominally methodist and DH was raised very conservative Church of Christ for a while and is vehemently anti-religion. I'm very uncomfortable with organized religion and pretty much borderline athiest for the same reason Schmoodle is.
We'll raise her with some knowledge of religion (it's frankly a cultural requirement in the USA, we're a VERY religious nation) and won't lie about our belief, but we're going to try to keep from being negative about it (which may be harder for DH.)
And I agree, being non-religious is definitely looked down upon. It's hard for me to say it to people because people look at you like something is wrong with you. I have no problem with anybody being religious, so long as they don't try to convert me.
This exactly.
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I love that you guys are willing to celebrate both Jewish AND Christian holidays, but my only comment (said with love) is that you got the story of Hanukkah wrong. I'm a history freak, and there were 2,000 years between the story of Hanukkah and the story of Passover.
I'd love to see what your kids end up thinking about faith matters! Sounds so very interesting.