Raising Your Child as an Atheist.

[manu1959]

No.

all people should have the right to decide for themselves.

nobody should be brainwashing their children into embracing illogical and irrational beliefs and fears.

when it comes to "creationism" v "evolution" MOST cons seem to believe that children should be exposed to BOTH sides and then allowed to decide for themselves...

why not expose ALL children to all sides of EVERY issue and let them decide for themselves...

pot smoking v drug war
sex before marriage v abstinance
religion v atheism
homosexual rights v antigay bigotry

---------------

from your own personal perspective...

would you prefer to have been brainwashed into being whatever religion your parents are
or
to have been given th eopportunity to thinkn and decide for yourself?

My mother use to say it like this: "because it's my FUCKING house".

When children pay bills, rent, car notes, mortgages and buy their own food and clothes then they can decide what the Hell they believe for themselves. Until then if the cost of having a parent that loves you enough to pay your got-dayum snotty asses phone bills, put a roof over your head, put clothes on your back, food in front of you to eat, work their asses off everyday, pay taxes, stay up with your ungrateful behinds when your sick, and help you finish projects for school at the last minute is that you have to go to church once or twice a week and sit through a sermon my goodness freaking DEAL with it.

bull shit.

do you let your kids do whatever the fuck they want.....

 

[Avatar4321]

Are you condemning you child because of your beliefs? Would it not be better to let him or her experience religion on their own, without influence from the parents.

No. They will have every opportunity to accept the truth as their parents did.

 

[uscitizen]

My mother use to say it like this: "because it's my FUCKING house".

When children pay bills, rent, car notes, mortgages and buy their own food and clothes then they can decide what the Hell they believe for themselves. Until then if the cost of having a parent that loves you enough to pay your got-dayum snotty asses phone bills, put a roof over your head, put clothes on your back, food in front of you to eat, work their asses off everyday, pay taxes, stay up with your ungrateful behinds when your sick, and help you finish projects for school at the last minute is that you have to go to church once or twice a week and sit through a sermon my goodness freaking DEAL with it.

bull shit.

No, what's bullshit is accusing parents who take their children to church of brainwashing their children.

No it isn't.

 

[uptownlivin90]

No.

all people should have the right to decide for themselves.

nobody should be brainwashing their children into embracing illogical and irrational beliefs and fears.

when it comes to "creationism" v "evolution" MOST cons seem to believe that children should be exposed to BOTH sides and then allowed to decide for themselves...

why not expose ALL children to all sides of EVERY issue and let them decide for themselves...

pot smoking v drug war
sex before marriage v abstinance
religion v atheism
homosexual rights v antigay bigotry

---------------

from your own personal perspective...

would you prefer to have been brainwashed into being whatever religion your parents are
or
to have been given th eopportunity to thinkn and decide for yourself?

My mother use to say it like this: "because it's my FUCKING house".

When children pay bills, rent, car notes, mortgages and buy their own food and clothes then they can decide what the Hell they believe for themselves. Until then if the cost of having a parent that loves you enough to pay your got-dayum snotty asses phone bills, put a roof over your head, put clothes on your back, food in front of you to eat, work their asses off everyday, pay taxes, stay up with your ungrateful behinds when your sick, and help you finish projects for school at the last minute is that you have to go to church once or twice a week and sit through a sermon my goodness freaking DEAL with it.

Wow, now i understand you a little better and I'm sorry you had a shitty childhood. It sounds like why your mother I'm sure loved you she looked upon her motherly duties as something she had to do but not wanting to do it.

Not putting your mother down for my mom I bet makes Mommy Dearest look like a saint but I just wanted to say so often people have kids when they are not ready, and therefore many times they go about raising them as a Chore instead of looking at it differently.

What the Hell are you talking about?

What is wrong with people? Seriously.

My mother just doesn't raise her children to do whatever the Hell they please in her house. No, we could not cuss at her in public. No we didn't get to "decide" if we went to church or not, just like we didn't decide to take baths, brush our teeth, and go to school.

There were somethings I could not do in my house. There were some things I had to do in my house. I had to do chores. I had to clean. I had to bring home good grades. And I HAD to go to church. She went to work, paid the bills, took care of me when I was sick, while she suffered from heart disease, and still does.

There was ORDER and peace in that house, because we knew our role as children and she knew her role as a parent.

I sat in a church with a suit on every Sunday. Three hours, no air conditioning in central Mississippi, Mt Zion Apostolic Faith Church. I'm no where near as religious as she is and I'm not apostolic anymore I'm Seventh Day Adventist and attend a Shabbat Class at a WCG church instead of church on Sunday. She's fine with it. She grew up far more structured then I did. Her father was the son of a Pentecostal preacher. Her parents woke up every morning at 4 in the am and all of her 14 brothers and sisters had to study the Bible with them and pray before going to school.

You can mock that way of life and call it indoctrination all you want but it taught me and her both structure, discipline, responsibility, love and compassion for family, and respect for adults, tradition, and authority. I'm not saying you have to be religious to teach those values to your children, but letting your children do whatever the Hell they please does not teach them discipline. And to accuse parents who take their children to church of somehow brainwashing their children is bullshit. Period.

 

[uptownlivin90]

bull shit.

No, what's bullshit is accusing parents who take their children to church of brainwashing their children.

No it isn't.

Okay, so how is it that apparently forced to go to church as children (because I certainly didn't want to go) and both of us ended up having religious views that conflicted with our parent's later on?

I'll give you a hint...

...because forcing your children to go to church isn't "brainwashing" them.

 

[uptownlivin90]

Wow, now i understand you a little better and I'm sorry you had a shitty childhood. It sounds like why your mother I'm sure loved you she looked upon her motherly duties as something she had to do but not wanting to do it.

Not putting your mother down for my mom I bet makes Mommy Dearest look like a saint but I just wanted to say so often people have kids when they are not ready, and therefore many times they go about raising them as a Chore instead of looking at it differently.

What the Hell are you talking about?

What is wrong with people? Seriously.

My mother just doesn't raise her children to do whatever the Hell they please in her house. No, we could not cuss at her in public. No we didn't get to "decide" if we went to church or not, just like we didn't decide to take baths, brush our teeth, and go to school.

There were somethings I could not do in my house. There were some things I had to do in my house. I had to do chores. I had to clean. I had to bring home good grades. And I HAD to go to church. She went to work, paid the bills, took care of me when I was sick, while she suffered from heart disease, and still does.

There was ORDER and peace in that house, because we knew our role as children and she knew her role as a parent.

I sat in a church with a suit on every Sunday. Three hours, no air conditioning in central Mississippi, Mt Zion Apostolic Faith Church. I'm no where near as religious as she is and I'm not apostolic anymore I'm Seventh Day Adventist and attend a Shabbat Class at a WCG church instead of church on Sunday. She's fine with it. She grew up far more structured then I did. Her father was the son of a Pentecostal preacher. Her parents woke up every morning at 4 in the am and all of her 14 brothers and sisters had to study the Bible with them and pray before going to school.

You can mock that way of life and call it indoctrination all you want but it taught me and her both structure, discipline, responsibility, love and compassion for family, and respect for adults, tradition, and authority. I'm not saying you have to be religious to teach those values to your children, but letting your children do whatever the Hell they please does not teach them discipline. And to accuse parents who take their children to church of somehow brainwashing their children is bullshit. Period.

When children pay bills, rent, car notes, mortgages and buy their own food and clothes then they can decide what the Hell they believe for themselves.

That is looking down at the child, not talking to the child. My house has rules too, but I don't go throwing to my kids, when you can pay the bills then you decide. It is up to me as a Mother to nurture them, to give them a strong foundation, not to tell them they will believe this or that until you can pay the bills!

My kids went to church all the time with me, but if they came to me and didn't want to go, I wouldn't force the issue and let them stay home. Later I would have a conversation with that child in hopes that I could be a spring board and guide him/her through whatever he/she was thinking.

Not say "Johnny you will go to church and like it, when you pay the bills then you can do what you want." That is rather uncaring if you ask me.

I see it totally differently. Growing up as a child if you're living in a house where the mortgage is being paid, you don't have to pay for your own food, you don't have to pay for your own essentials, and you have parents that love you you're only responsibility at the time is to obey them and the law. That's it.

That's not an uncaring position. That's acknowledging that as an adult you have certain responsibilities, you have to take care of your children, pay taxes, go to work, pay your rent. You teach the children that same responsibility by bringing them up with certain routines.

As a child if I went to my mother and said:

"Mah, I don't want to go to church."

She'd view it the same way as if I told her:

"Mah, I don't want to clean my room."

Because I don't have to pay bills and don't have any responsibilities as a child but to go to school, she taught me responsibility by making me responsible for keeping my room clean. There was no if, ands, or buts. I HAD to do it. It was ALSO her belief that she as a christian was obligated to go to church on Sunday morning. Just like with me, I believe that the Bible mandates that all people keep the Shabbat or Sabbath. My children will do that, and will do so because I am responsible for them and they are responsible for nothing but to obey and respect authority. Because the child's ONLY responsibility at the time of childhood was to obey his parents. That's it. All we as children had to do. That means we did what she told us to do when she told us to do it, and everything was all good. When we didn't we got punished, and yes she gave us whoopings, it's common down south still, so we got spanked with switches. It was one hundred percent out of love, because she did not want any of us growing up to be adults who did not understand respect and responsibility. It was her way of teaching that and for the five kids she raised and is still raising it worked for the most part. She loved us, but she didn't just love us with her emotions, she loved us with her actions and her tight fist sometimes had to whoop us into shape, but you have to expect that for a single mother with three boys and two step-girls.

 

[eagleseven]

Are you condemning you child because of your beliefs? Would it not be better to let him or her experience religion on their own, without influence from the parents.

You are condemning your child to a horrible reincarnation by raising him a Christian.

All good parents raise their children to follow the Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment.

 

[Madeline]

It'd be hard to imagine anything more private than how to raise a child with respect to religious (or not) beliefs. As long as the parent does not endanger the child (e.g., handling snakes, not getting vaccinated, etc.) I don't care what you teach them to believe.

As for Creationism, it is religion, not science. Don't afflict all of the kids in a public school with the nonsense you choose to believe.

How does abstaining from immunizations endanger children?

Here's a short list of the diseases children are routinely vaccinated against in the US:

Hepatitus B, diptheria, pertussis, tentanus, rolavirus, polio, flu, measles, mumps, rubella, and on and on.

When a child is not vaccinated he or she is vulnerable to these diseases. Most can be deadly and many can maim for life. That child is also a public health threat to anyone in the community who may lack anti-bodies. This may include adults as well as children.

 

[Madeline]

Think you might be going just a *tad* overboard here?

No.

all people should have the right to decide for themselves.

nobody should be brainwashing their children into embracing illogical and irrational beliefs and fears.

when it comes to "creationism" v "evolution" MOST cons seem to believe that children should be exposed to BOTH sides and then allowed to decide for themselves...

why not expose ALL children to all sides of EVERY issue and let them decide for themselves...

pot smoking v drug war
sex before marriage v abstinance
religion v atheism
homosexual rights v antigay bigotry

---------------

from your own personal perspective...

would you prefer to have been brainwashed into being whatever religion your parents are
or
to have been given th eopportunity to thinkn and decide for yourself?

My mother use to say it like this: "because it's my FUCKING house".

When children pay bills, rent, car notes, mortgages and buy their own food and clothes then they can decide what the Hell they believe for themselves. Until then if the cost of having a parent that loves you enough to pay your got-dayum snotty asses phone bills, put a roof over your head, put clothes on your back, food in front of you to eat, work their asses off everyday, pay taxes, stay up with your ungrateful behinds when your sick, and help you finish projects for school at the last minute is that you have to go to church once or twice a week and sit through a sermon my goodness freaking DEAL with it.

I cannot believe any Mississippi lady curses out her children like this. But the sentiment is almost universal..."Because I said so."

 

[uscitizen]

No, what's bullshit is accusing parents who take their children to church of brainwashing their children.

No it isn't.

Okay, so how is it that apparently forced to go to church as children (because I certainly didn't want to go) and both of us ended up having religious views that conflicted with our parent's later on?

I'll give you a hint...

...because forcing your children to go to church isn't "brainwashing" them.

some brainwash better than others.

they have a name for that. Backslider.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Are you condemning you child because of your beliefs? Would it not be better to let him or her experience religion on their own, without influence from the parents.

How many Christian parents would allow their kids to on their own investigate atheism or other paths of spiritual practice like Buddhism without their parental influence? Is parental influence a form of condemnation for a child's spirit?

 

[Barb]

Are you condemning you child because of your beliefs? Would it not be better to let him or her experience religion on their own, without influence from the parents.

You are condemning your child to a horrible reincarnation by raising him a Christian.

All good parents raise their children to follow the Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment.

The Buddha was a deadbeat dad who left his wife and infant son to be raised by his parents so he could go out into the woods and gaze at his navel.

I'm not saying nothing, I'm just saying.

WHO defines "right thoughts?" It's subjective. I did a survey of Eastern religions, and liked the Shinto best. Pretty little shrines, appropriate to the blessing asked for, and no "voice" quoted by others to say whatever they want him to.

 

[Barb]

My mother use to say it like this: "because it's my FUCKING house".

When children pay bills, rent, car notes, mortgages and buy their own food and clothes then they can decide what the Hell they believe for themselves. Until then if the cost of having a parent that loves you enough to pay your got-dayum snotty asses phone bills, put a roof over your head, put clothes on your back, food in front of you to eat, work their asses off everyday, pay taxes, stay up with your ungrateful behinds when your sick, and help you finish projects for school at the last minute is that you have to go to church once or twice a week and sit through a sermon my goodness freaking DEAL with it.

bull shit.

do you let your kids do whatever the fuck they want.....

I raised free range children. At 21 and 17, my daughter has not yet fallen in love with the village idiot and remains childless, in college, and a teachers assistant working towards her bachelors. My son has not yet condemned himself to 21 years of child-support either, and is working mightily to get one more year of summer school in before he graduates. He's a minimalist. Neither have been charged with any crime, and they are a joy to have around.

I didn't "raise" them to be atheist (in fact my daughter attends church), but I didn't bring them to church either, but gave them a comprehensive understanding of the stories told, and my ideas on the "dad likes me best" wars of exclusive use of divinity. They make their own choices.

 

[Barb]

My mother use to say it like this: "because it's my FUCKING house".

When children pay bills, rent, car notes, mortgages and buy their own food and clothes then they can decide what the Hell they believe for themselves. Until then if the cost of having a parent that loves you enough to pay your got-dayum snotty asses phone bills, put a roof over your head, put clothes on your back, food in front of you to eat, work their asses off everyday, pay taxes, stay up with your ungrateful behinds when your sick, and help you finish projects for school at the last minute is that you have to go to church once or twice a week and sit through a sermon my goodness freaking DEAL with it.

bull shit.

No, what's bullshit is accusing parents who take their children to church of brainwashing their children.

Did the OP not charge parents who are atheist of "condemning" their children? Is it not simply the other side of a moldy and jaded coin?

 

[Barb]

Why doesn't everyone stay the Hell out of people's homes?

That goes for the liberals and they're silly little PhD wielding doctors who don't want me to take a switch to my future child for the purpose of correction.

And the religious right-winged nutjobs who think they know everything and that because they go to church they're children will be a-okay.

You're ALL a bunch of loons.

Don't you get it? People don't want you in their homes. Shit.

"Take a switch to...?!" Sweet Jaysus! Stupid people shouldn't breed. If you have no other means of communication than a "switch," then you are severely fucked in the head.

 

[del]

Are you condemning you child because of your beliefs? Would it not be better to let him or her experience religion on their own, without influence from the parents.

no

 

[Sky Dancer]

Are you condemning you child because of your beliefs? Would it not be better to let him or her experience religion on their own, without influence from the parents.

You are condemning your child to a horrible reincarnation by raising him a Christian.

All good parents raise their children to follow the Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment.

The Buddha was a deadbeat dad who left his wife and infant son to be raised by his parents so he could go out into the woods and gaze at his navel.

I'm not saying nothing, I'm just saying.

WHO defines "right thoughts?" It's subjective. I did a survey of Eastern religions, and liked the Shinto best. Pretty little shrines, appropriate to the blessing asked for, and no "voice" quoted by others to say whatever they want him to.

That's a complete misunderstanding of the Buddha's path.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

I don't buy any kool aid, but I think Religion is a good thing, but I can't make up my mind on which I like.

The kids know my attitudes. My boy is looking a bit hard for religion than I did.

One thing I did insist on was that no assertion is true just because someone says so, even if that person has a weapon. And any opinion that is coerced is most likely to be false.

 

[eagleseven]

The Buddha was a deadbeat dad who left his wife and infant son to be raised by his parents so he could go out into the woods and gaze at his navel.

<sarcasm>

And Jesus was a closeted homosexual who pretended to be God so he could leach off the earnings of his 12 sex slaves.

</sarcasm>

 

[rikules]

Think you might be going just a *tad* overboard here?

No.

all people should have the right to decide for themselves.

nobody should be brainwashing their children into embracing illogical and irrational beliefs and fears.

when it comes to "creationism" v "evolution" MOST cons seem to believe that children should be exposed to BOTH sides and then allowed to decide for themselves...

why not expose ALL children to all sides of EVERY issue and let them decide for themselves...

pot smoking v drug war
sex before marriage v abstinance
religion v atheism
homosexual rights v antigay bigotry

---------------

from your own personal perspective...

would you prefer to have been brainwashed into being whatever religion your parents are
or
to have been given th eopportunity to thinkn and decide for yourself?


do you want your children to grow up with the ability and intellect to think and decide for themselves (about ALL things including religion)
or do you just want to brainwash them?

And you're not getting a head start by automatically referring to it as "brainwashing", and "illogical"?

Did you ever stop to think that people believe what they do for reasons only *they* know, and which, quite frankly, are nobody elses business?

Hate to break it to you, cupcake, but I've stood on *both* sides of the coin.

How's about you just live, and let live without being insulting?

Just sayin...

I don't think so.

indoctrinating little children into FEARING a deranged god IS brianwashing.