This question is more applicable for Atheist parents. :)
Are you forcing or imposing your children to be atheist too? Anyone here with kids with different beliefs compared to you?
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I think you should never force anything on your children.It would kind of beat the whole purpose of being an athiest in the first place.
I think the main thing we need to teach children is not that if god is real or fake. In my opinion, the best thing is to teach them how to figure out if something is true so that they can figure it out themselves. And we can do that by teaching them to value evidence and also teach them how to detect logical fallacies.
Here are some great resources for atheist parents: http://www.atheistrepublic.com/blog/makeesha/resources-atheist-parents
Basically, kids will acknowledge and believe what they see on their parents, so whether we impose our belief or not, we can highly influence our children thoughts. When time comes that our children are old enough to distinguish complex stuffs, then we should respect any decision or belief that they would want.
No I would not force such a thing, I would rather teach my kids reason and logic and let them come to their own conclusions.
I have always believed that organized religion is one's own personal choice and I would never want to interfere with that.I wouldn't try to sway my own children's beliefs on the subject, that's organized religion's and their zealots' job.
I don't think atheist parents are forcing their children to be atheists to *nearly* the same degree as I see children of theists forcing their children to obey their beliefs.
Agreed, nobody ever says, you better not believe in God or your going to hell!
Nice thoughts and opinions.
I have a follow up question.
What would be your answer if your kid ask you if there is God and/or what is God.
My child knows I am an atheist, and she is not. If she asked, I would tell her my own view and also common views so she could have enough information to reach her own conclusion. I'm happy to share my own journey from belief to lack of belief with her, but as long as I instill critical thinking and she uses it, I cannot in good conscience interfere with her decisions in that regard.
I did ask my parents those kinds of questions, probably because I was going to Catholic school and exposed to religion a lot.
They did what rational people do. They took out a few different versions of the bible, and we talked about it. It's not like they live in an atheist box or anything, they had Bibles. And Torahs. And Qur'an, and even that ridiculous thing that the Latter Day Saints dropped off. And way more than that. Oh, and the internet :) I still did my stupid little teenage rebellion thing and pretend to be Catholic for a few years, but their extremely detached nature from the subject quickly made me realize how dumb I was being.
If I had a child, I'd probably do exactly the same thing. Present the information, and let them make up their own mind.
I'll be teaching my children to think and reason for herself, based on available evidence. I'll tell them why I don't believe, and what religions are and who believes them and why. The important thing is I'll stress there are many, many religions, and many, many alleged gods. If they have any intelligence at all and are protected from the more insidious aspects of religion (which is of course, all of it), they'll be fine.