Hellobee Boards

That's a great parable (not sure if that's the right word?)!

DH is a pretty ardent atheist, so I think he would prefer to teach LO that God does not exist, and that science and reason rule all--another words, if you can't prove it, it doesn't exist. I'm more of an agnostic, so would probably approach it as there are people around the whole who have all different kinds of beliefs, and some of them believe in a greater power/spirit, and that might be true and it might not (I'm not really sure), but the important thing is to always respect others beliefs and learn from each other.

I personally grew up without any religion basically and don't feel it negatively affected me at all, so I would be fine if LO grew up the same way.

@irene: "going to a Utilitarian church which she likes"

Do you mean Unitarian?

So DH and I are atheists, but I find religion fascinating. We have also talked a lot about how we will "deal" with religion because DH's family is very religious (Catholic).

Our plan is to teach our LOs about all the major religions, and some smaller ones as well. We have talked about approaching it factually and academical, ie: like some people call themselves Christians and they believe this, some people call themselves Jewish and they believe that, etc. We won't tell them one is "right" (obviously).

I want our children to have a lot of knowledge about different religions so 1. they don't feel left out if they have religious friends and can participate in conversations, and 2. I think knowledge is power and the more the know, the better.

If our kids ask us what we believe, we will tell them about the scientific method and admit that we don't know everything and you have to believe what feels right to you.

I also think teaching morals is separate from religion.

I don't even know what I believe in so we will learn as we go...if they have questions.

@TemperanceBrennan: Yes, this. I was raised loosely Church of England (Episcopalian) but with very open minded parents who encouraged me to question. I'm now firmly atheist. DH had Catholic schooling and went to bible camp, but had a less religious family and has ended up in the atheist camp too via a bit of agnosticism.

LO isn't here yet, but we have agreed to present them with the facts and the options and make sure they are well educated and can make their own decision.

One of my best friends and her husband are bringing their daughters up to question things and are open about what they (don't) believe. The funniest thing is that their eldest (now 6) is absolutely convinced that Santa and the Tooth Fairy are real, and that the Disney Princesses at EuroDisney are actual princesses, but doesn't currently think she believes in God. Because she "hasn't seen any evidence of that, but the tooth fairy always takes the tooth and leaves 50p, doesn't she mum?" Adorable.

I'm a Christian, DH is somewhere between Christian and agnostic. I enjoy my church upbringing, but we weren't strict about going and I have always believed that we are like the blind men in @irene:'s story (great one, by the way, I'd never heard that!), and that we can follow what we believe but still be tied to others who may believe in the same thing, just in a different way.

Whatever level of church attendance we end up with, our children will be taught morals as well as religion, because I feel like @TemperanceBrennan: in that regard, and that you are no better or no worse than anyone else because of what you or they do or don't believe. That's the part of Christianity I've encountered that generally grinds my gears, and I want to be sure that attitude doesn't pass to my children through religious education.

DH and I are both Christian and it is a huge part of our relationship and the way we want to raise our kids. They will be raised in the Christian faith, but I'm also not going to bury their noses in it either. I believe that a relationship with Christ is one of an individual/personal nature. I can only hope and pray to raise them in my faith and that they will develop their own relationship.

@travellingbee: I share your concerns about our kids telling people "there is no God". Although, it makes me kind of sad, because I doubt a lot of religious people have concerns about their kids talking about God on the playground.

I think we are going to try to stress that it is ok that people believe different things. We plan to say something like grandma and grandpa believe in God, mommy and daddy don't. And stress that they and their friends get to believe whatever they want. Hopefully that will translate to the playground.

@lawbee11: haha that is absolutely perfect and right in line with our beliefs and teachings. I am going to have to look into this new show of his! I love Ricky!

@lawbee11: oh! I will have to look. I hope it is on my netflix, there is a lot of differences between canada and USA! Unfortunately.

@lawbee11: You've been watching Derek?!! It's brilliant, isn't it! Gervais is actually a philosophy graduate and a militant atheist. He spends most of his Twitter time baiting Christians and arguing that there is no God! DH thinks he's brilliant but it just grates on me!!

Personally - I don't know. I really don't know. I was once a very devout Christian; I studied Theology at University! But I lost my faith for a while and now.... I don't know what I believe. Some days, I believe in God. I still pray.... but I don't always know who to. DH is an atheist and a pretty passionate one at that. He refers to my Bible as my "book about magic" and doesn't want me to tell LO that there is a God..... it's a tough call, really.

@Cherrybee: Yes! DH and I have already watched all the episodes And we both follow him on twitter. I love that his tweets are either about the non-existence of God or pictures of his cat.

I'm not atheist but I am trying to figure out what we are going to teach our daughter. I don't want her to grow up completely ignorant of other religions like I did (because Catholicism is the one and only religion that matters...) We haven't even taken her to church yet other than her Baptism. Once she gets to an age where she can go to the children's service, we will start going more regularly. For now, I don't want to go to church and send her to the nursery, I'd rather spend that time with her at home. Once she is learning something, then I'll send her. I'll continue the teachings at home but also have open discussions about all religions.

@mediagirl: So, I have a question for you (I am gathering you are Catholic)...did you baptize your daughter Catholic? Because this is what stresses me out, once you are baptized Catholic, I kind of feel like that's what you "are," if that makes any sense.

@MsLipGloss: I feel the same way. My DH is firmly athiest; I'm about 98% athiest but in the unlikely event there really is some higher power out there, I wouldn't change anything about the way I lead my life so it's a non-issue to me.

I think we will take a similar approach as @TemperanceBrennan. IMO, it would be doing our kids a disservice to pretend religion doesn't exist, in all contexts from friendship to academic subjects like history and critical thinking to the child's own eventual character development. I don't want them growing up to think one is any better than another, though I know I can't control what they eventually come to believe as adults.

We will be teaching values like kindness, honesty, patience, etc separate from any discussion of religion.

@mediagirl: Big ditto about being raised ignorant of other religions--I was raised Southern Baptist and the only other religion I was ever taught about was Catholicism, and then only as an example of a "wrong religion" full of people that we needed to save because otherwise they were going to hell*

(*I really, really, really mean no offense to Catholics. This is not what I believe now, obviously, as I don't believe in hell. Just what I was taught as a child.)

We are personally atheist, however; my husband is extremely familiar with the Bible (enough so to teach college level courses on the Bible), and with what it actually says, so we won't stick our heads in the sand about religion as it's all around us all.

We plan to explain that different people believe different things, and so while some people believe in God, we don't for x, y, z reasons. We also don't belong to any church for x, y, z reasons.

Morals and living an ethical, positive life is completely separate for us from any religion; and we don't need religion in order to know our right from wrong, and what sort of life to lead. We will talk about the historical Jesus, the actual person and his deeds.

I haven't quite worked out yet what we'll teach DS about religion. I consider myself to be pretty much an atheist - I don't have any believe in God. *But* I'm not going to argue that for sure there isn't one, how would I know? I just don't have the belief that there is. DH is a lapsed Catholic who does believe in God, but to him it's more a personal thing.

We've talked about joining a local Unitarian Church because they are very inclusive and their Sunday school classes are focused on the more academic side of teaching about world religions - not indoctrinating or teaching any one religion's dogma.

Religion is just not a huge part of our daily lives and while I'm sure some questions will come up, I'm more concerned with teaching DS other things that are important to me. Like tolerance for cultures, races, and sexual identities; and being a good person even when circumstances are hard.