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[Sirus]

It pisses me off, because I've already seen signs of my kid being slowly turned Christian by osmosis and peer pressure and even some school teaching.  Just a few days ago he came home and told me "Did you know Christmas is Jesus' birthday?"  I asked him how he learned that and he responded "We sang songs about it in music class!"  He's already told me he believes in god and asks why we don't go to church.  We need to get the fuck out of Indiana.

So how does this make you any different from her, if her kid started showing atheistic or islamic ideas?

[SalmonGod]

Explain to him your views, and explain to him his views. Neither are wrong... per se... Imho a child should be allowed to select his/her own religion, but if it's osmosis/peer/school teaching, then i'd call that tantamount to indoctrination.

What are your views, SalmonGod?

For now I'm waiting to see how this issue develops.  When he brings it up, all I do is plant questions.  I don't want to be heavy-handed about it or determine his beliefs for him, but I don't want him to be indoctrinated either.  I only want to demonstrate critical thinking.

My own views can't be summed up easily.  I have my own idea from a variety of influences.  I'm basically agnostic with some spiritual beliefs (not even beliefs, really, but ideas and leanings), but with specific disbelief in Abrahamic religions.

[MaximumZero]

The best way you can ensure he never becomes a Christian is to tell him everything about Christianity. Seriously.

This. I read the bible cover to cover, one chapter at a time, with the aid of a lot of questions, a very patient youth pastor, a dictionary, and a thesaurus at the age of six (took me the whole year.) With a sharpie, I blacked out everything that was contradictory, outright evil, or made no sense. Ripped out the page when it was all black, front and back. I wound up giving the cover of that bible to the youth pastor, because there were no pages left, and I had no belief left. I did this again as a teenager (with three bibles [KJV, NIS, and NASB], a translated qu'ran, and a translated torah,) because I desperately wanted to believe in something, as I was going through a very rough patch. No page was spared.

[Rose]

Do it with the bhagavad gita while you're at it.

[SalmonGod]

It pisses me off, because I've already seen signs of my kid being slowly turned Christian by osmosis and peer pressure and even some school teaching.  Just a few days ago he came home and told me "Did you know Christmas is Jesus' birthday?"  I asked him how he learned that and he responded "We sang songs about it in music class!"  He's already told me he believes in god and asks why we don't go to church.  We need to get the fuck out of Indiana.

So how does this make you any different from her, if her kid started showing atheistic or islamic ideas?

The difference is I'm not teaching my kid anything about religion at his age, and I'd never think about trying to influence another kid's beliefs.  I think that indoctrination of children into specific religious/spiritual beliefs is horrific.  That subject should be a personal journey that doesn't begin until such an age as they begin to question on their own initiative.

[MaximumZero]

Do it with the bhagavad gita while you're at it.

Now that I'm earning a little money, I'll probably get my hands on as many holy texts as I can (translated into English, because I suck at languages) and go through all of them, cataloging my finds and reasonings for blacking stuff out.

Also, Japa, that seems like a fascinatingly weird read.

[Sirus]

It pisses me off, because I've already seen signs of my kid being slowly turned Christian by osmosis and peer pressure and even some school teaching.  Just a few days ago he came home and told me "Did you know Christmas is Jesus' birthday?"  I asked him how he learned that and he responded "We sang songs about it in music class!"  He's already told me he believes in god and asks why we don't go to church.  We need to get the fuck out of Indiana.

So how does this make you any different from her, if her kid started showing atheistic or islamic ideas?

The difference is I'm not teaching my kid anything about religion at his age, and I'd never think about trying to influence another kid's beliefs.  I think that indoctrination of children into specific religious/spiritual beliefs is horrific.  That subject should be a personal journey that doesn't begin until such an age as they begin to question on their own initiative.

Except you are. You're deliberately trying to shield him from an ideology that you don't agree with, or at least that's the way I'm reading it.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

On the bright side, he's probably getting all of this stuff from his peers, so it isn't like he's going up against skilled theologians or anything.

[misko27]

On the bright side, he's probably getting all of this stuff from his peers, so it isn't like he's going up against skilled theologians or anything.

This seems like the opposite of a good thing. If you're son WERE to convert, wouldn't you prefer that he do so on the basis of sound theological theories as opposed to "god exists"?

[Hanslanda]

On the bright side, he's probably getting all of this stuff from his peers, so it isn't like he's going up against skilled theologians or anything.

This seems like the opposite of a good thing. If you're son WERE to convert, wouldn't you prefer that he do so on the basis of sound theological theories as opposed to "god exists"?

Resisting. Urge. To. Make. Insanely idiotic and intolerant comment.

[SalmonGod]

It pisses me off, because I've already seen signs of my kid being slowly turned Christian by osmosis and peer pressure and even some school teaching.  Just a few days ago he came home and told me "Did you know Christmas is Jesus' birthday?"  I asked him how he learned that and he responded "We sang songs about it in music class!"  He's already told me he believes in god and asks why we don't go to church.  We need to get the fuck out of Indiana.

So how does this make you any different from her, if her kid started showing atheistic or islamic ideas?

The difference is I'm not teaching my kid anything about religion at his age, and I'd never think about trying to influence another kid's beliefs.  I think that indoctrination of children into specific religious/spiritual beliefs is horrific.  That subject should be a personal journey that doesn't begin until such an age as they begin to question on their own initiative.

Except you are. You're deliberately trying to shield him from an ideology that you don't agree with, or at least that's the way I'm reading it.

I'm not exactly shielding him.  I have no problem with him being exposed to religious beliefs, so long as the framing of this exposure is "This is what some people believe" and he is not exposed to any one religion excessively.  Until children learn critical thinking, they will accept any information given to them as fact.  This is what I want to prevent.  I want whatever set of beliefs he ends up adopting to be the result of his own critical thinking and exploration.  This is my #1 concern.  I don't mind what his beliefs are in the end, even if I disagree with them, so long as his determination of his beliefs was done without the influence of indoctrination.

[Reudh]

It pisses me off, because I've already seen signs of my kid being slowly turned Christian by osmosis and peer pressure and even some school teaching.  Just a few days ago he came home and told me "Did you know Christmas is Jesus' birthday?"  I asked him how he learned that and he responded "We sang songs about it in music class!"  He's already told me he believes in god and asks why we don't go to church.  We need to get the fuck out of Indiana.

So how does this make you any different from her, if her kid started showing atheistic or islamic ideas?

The difference is I'm not teaching my kid anything about religion at his age, and I'd never think about trying to influence another kid's beliefs.  I think that indoctrination of children into specific religious/spiritual beliefs is horrific.  That subject should be a personal journey that doesn't begin until such an age as they begin to question on their own initiative.

At a very young age, I was Uniting Church tempered with a very strong belief in science. I remember telling my catholic grandparents "I think that God made the initial spark and that science did the rest", 'science' being what I defined as evolution at that age. That seemed to satisfy them. That was when I was five.

These days I'm... I don't know what one would describe it as, but I'd say an 'empirical agnostic'; that is, when indelible proof of a god exists, I would choose whether or not to follow it. Additionally, I'm buddhist of a fairly half-hearted kind.

[Skyrunner]

I thought that too when I was young.
God made the big bang! xD

[Hanslanda]

Hm. I've always gone with science. Because proof.

[Blargityblarg]

strong agnosticism is best agnosticism