A little tactic I used to help develop this was to occasionally give them an outlandish lie while they were real young and questioning things. At first I'd get a response like "Really?!" to which I'd respond "Nope". Then we could go into facts about things, I could look things up online and show them things... soon enough they were easily distinguishing between bullshit and not bullshit. I still do it on occasion and as teenagers I really can't fool them anymore. My daughter is considering astrophysics or cosmology as a career, by son definitely wants to be a paleontologist (taking him on a couple dinosaur digs has helped reinforce that), and not to toot my own horn they're turning into a couple amazing young adults.
Even better : Parents that go out of their way to actually search the answers for the questions of their kids. A plus when they do the search WITH the kid. Thank you, Mom, you did a wonderful job.
Jyoeru Zaberu yes, if you throw enough ideas at a wall one of them will stick, you seem to be completely ignoring all the completely unscientific claims in all scriptures that have been disproven.
Jyoeru Zaberu and it would be an active debate whether or not there was any scientific merit to most of the bible. The central idea is rediculous to some people and completely reasonable to others. Simply put, no one gives a shit about the scientific merit of the bible. The denate is does god exist or not? Yes some people pretend the scientific content of the scripture matters to proving/disproving god, but there is so much incorrect and also a fair amount correct that it basically cancels out. Each side will ignore the other side in this argument.
Jyoeru Zaberu actually, you are correct generally. Proportionally more scientists are atheist, there is a decent correlation between happiness and quality of life in a country and its lack of religiosity
I agree with these parents so much. I grew up in a christian household and the discouragement of critical thinking and inability to challenge authorities has really limited me as an adult :(
Greer Borthwick-taylor true, but I carved out my own "metal detector balance" system, where I only believe in hard facts and things that are dissected to hell by unbiased sources while the facade of belief and faith disguised it, completely from everybody else, however, this took so much blood and sweat, also I really am trying to develop my critical thinking and am questioning authority, but my christian connection in my household at least isn't forced down my throat, my parents understand that these things are very important and encourage me to develop them, but before I used to have this passiveness problem and avoidance to critical situations
Greer Borthwick-taylor I grew up in a religious family too, and one of the weirdest things I've noticed now as a newer atheist is that when I'm anxious, by instinct, I feel the need to pray. It's the way I was raised, and it's how I've always dealt with my personal issues, but now I need to find new outlets for that sort of thing.
@@ramentaco9179 I know you wrote this comment quite a while ago. But do you ever feel like you would want to call your parents when pressured. But feel like they would just say something about praying or laying it on god?
I’m an atheist, my wife is probably agnostic, I can’t really say what my daughter is... she’s definitely not Christian, probably atheist. My daughter and I discuss religion quite a bit, mostly discussing their beliefs, history, how they shape public policy. I am definitely critical about organized religion, I don’t believe in giving a religious group a pass just because it’s something they believe. I’ve also encouraged my daughter to find these things out for herself, and she’s attended a few different Churches with friends and family members. Her reaction has mostly been along the lines of “these people are nuts”, which I tend to agree with.
Evolutionary: Many people wish they had a college education; being married with children is so depressing and exhausting when you only have a blue-collar low-paying job in today's high-info, high-tech, high cost world!
Hey! My name is Tori Christensen! I’m part of a research project called America Families of Faith that is studying the relationship between personal beliefs and family relationships. We are looking for approximately 30 non-religious couples in happy, stable marriages with at least one child to participate in our study. I was wondering if you might be interested in participating? Participation involves being interviewed together as a couple and it will take approximately two hours of their time. The interview will be conducted via Skype and will involve questions about personal beliefs and family dynamics. Each spouse will receive $35 as compensation. Also, if you might know of anyone else who would qualify and be willing to participate we would greatly appreciate your help in identifying families who might qualify and be interested in participating. If you are interested in participating and/or know of any couples who would be interested, please let me know and send my information onto them. Thank you for your assistance! If you have any questions, I can be reached at affparticipants@gmail.com. Thanks again in advance and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Tori Christensen American Families of Faith Project affparticipants@gmail.com
ghostlylover99123 honestly it sounds like he wouldn’t have a problem with her saying that she believes some diety is out there. His wife is agnostics she even more would not mind. I’m not sure what your belief system is but just because someone is against organized religion and feels it’s detrimental doesn’t mean they think belief in a higher power all together is
@@affteammember6455 so this project is run by a couple of professors who are from Brigham Young University. That should tell you all you need to know. BYU, Bob Jones, Liberty. Your fake degrees from your fake universities don't impress any of us. Especially those of us who actually earned real degree. Nobody is interested with your school of magic. Hilarious.
I feel like, when a kid questions your authority, you should tell them why it's good for them. "Why do I have to go to bed now?" "Because going to bed at the same time each night is good for you. It makes your body strong!" Or "Because we have to wake up early tomorrow." No need to just keep pressing them to do as they're told....
In short: teaching kids how to think, not what to think. I went to an incredible school that put a lot of emphasis on creative, critical thinking and logic. It really taught me to think outside the proverbial box.
Kid of atheist parents here! How I grew up and learnt about religion was actually a bit unusual I think. My father is extremely sceptical of organized religion and has always had the opinion that religious folk are crazy and said as much to me, on the other hand my mother is agnostic. She used to be sort of vaguely theistic but not so much anymore, she grew up in a very religious family and was never really critical of religion, it was just something she didn't really care about and that was that. My parents actually bought me children versions of different religious texts as I was young because they do think that the texts, foundations of civilizations and beliefs, albeit untrue, are very important So I knew many stories and basic principles of religions from a young age. One could say I dabbled in Christianity when I was 10?.. I was in a private Christian school and when a family member started having some serious health issues, trying to convince myself that someone or something could help them was a comfort of sorts. It never really stuck though. I questioned the texts, the beliefs, the people. It was only when I was 11 that I found out that atheism was a thing. My parents hadn't introduced me to any such labels because they thought it would only create an unnecessary division between myself and my classmates. I found like-minded classmates, an internet community and most of my friends (with the exception of 2) ended up drifting away from religion at some point too. I genuinely believe that in a few decades, atheists will be a significant proportion of the inhabitants of developed countries. Ps: feel free to point out any spelling mistakes! I'm actually a French teenager so the opportunity to improve my English would be greatly appreciated! :)
I was born in the early 70s The Netherlands back then was still very Christian and the Protestant and Catholic divide still existed among people. So when I was born my grandma forced my 20 year old mother to baptise me. When my mom remarried to (whom I consider my father) who is an atheist I too started to ask questions. My dad and through him my mom too, taught us to think for ourselves and more importantly be critical and ask questions. When I for example found a hiatus in the Bible I asked why that was (I think it was other people being there when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the paradise that were as old or older and why this wasn't mentioned). My dad explained that this book was written over a period of a 1000 years by stories that went from mouth to mouth and therefore they are obviously error prone. He explained this by asking what has happened with the "telephone game" at school. When the first person gets a sentence and they need to whisper it to the next and next to the following etc etc. He also said that history is per definition biased because it's recorded through the eyes of the victor. So we were taught to be critical and treat another like you want to be treated. I think these are the core values that every person should be raised with.
If a child asks you "is God real?", your answer shouldn't be "no". It should be "what do you think?" Do not reveal your position at least until they give you an answer (*any* answer!)
Your children are asking because they want to know what they *should* think. They're too immature to understand the nuances of religion or the social effects of their beliefs.
@@Gustavo_Perez_ I propose one ought to tell their kids the truth to the best of one's knowledge. Allow your kids to all questions and use the Socratic method to help them along in formulating ideas
Bluemonsoon, I have a question for you. Does faith aid in your attempt at justifying true beliefs? Or does it aid in verifying if knowledge is correct or incorrect?
Bluemonsoon , I appreciate the response. However, I'm a little bit confused about where the content of the response came out of. None of it answered my two questions, and I didn't intend to imply anything deeper than those two questions. Would you mind answering them first before defending your stance? I just want to clarify your position on some key concepts before starting the conversation
+Bluemonoon Very simple.. Person A claims that Zeus is the one true god to person B and tells him he has to believe with all his heart and all he has to do is have faith, Person B accepts person A's claim without any evidence so person B is gullible for accepting person A's claim so therefore faith and gullibility does not lead to knowledge. btw you can stick any of the gods in place of Zeus
I'm an athiest and I have a daughter she's a newborn but as she grows I won't say anything about religion I think it's up for her to decide weather or not she believes in a god I will answer any of her questions with the most factual answers that I have
I can see what you're saying and this is 2 years ago I hope you see this religion preys on the vulnerable and weak minded teach your kid to identify manipulations religion or not
I never referred to my kids as anything at all. I simply didn't mention religion of any sort. As they got older, I then responded to their questions with the most factual information that I was able to provide. It wasn't until their late teens that they asked about religion. I simply responded to those questions with the prefix of "Some people believe ....". That was enough for them. When they got to their early 20s, they were virtually thinking totally for themselves anyway. From that point on, it was up to them, whether they wanted to believe in what religion was trying to convince them of. They have looked into it but have rejected it completely. If children are not brainwashed at an early age to accept what religion teaches, it's unlikely that they will accept the stories when they mature.
jusfugly I agree with you but i think it's important for the kids to know a little something about religion because it's general knowledge. My parents used to read the bible to me when I was little and said it's like a fairytale but some people are naive enough to believe it.. 'if you don't mention religion of any sort..' that doesn't mean they have never heard of Jesus until they're teenagers, does it?😅🤦🏻♀️ would be a little embarrassing for them
Yes, I was much the same with my children, even using the phrase, "Some people believe ..." or, "Many people believe ...", to explain things to them as young children. My eldest was 13 before she realised that I didn't believe in God, and then only because she overheard a discussion I was having with some Christian friends. When, years later, this subject came up in conversation, my youngest confirmed that she hadn't realised either until she was told by her older sister. I explained that I had consciously tried to avoid indoctrinating them with my atheist beliefs but had instead tried to teach them to think critically. My daughter, with a laugh, suggested that perhaps teaching critical thinking amounted to much the same thing as atheist indoctrination. Both, as adults, have science degrees and both are atheists (though none of us, beyond defending our corner, are "evangelical" atheists).
@@person10 I have to point out that one does not need evidence to disbelieve in religions. The whole point of atheism is that we don't accept god claims because there is not sufficient evidence for them. You mindset of "having enough evidence to not believe" is a dangerous one.
I love doing these kinds of interviews. I am an atheist parent and I agree with these guys on parenting. They are awesome. What was your set up for doing the interviews?
I used my iphone to film and just had a lavalier mic plugged into the jack. Very cheap. I'm hoping to at least get a couple decent lavalier mics for future interviews.
Godless Engineer i was raised secular. I became athiest early in life, my sister became religious. We both had catholic high school education. I love that my parents raised us to make our own decisions regarding religion. Agnostic Athiests unite. Haha
In Russia & the former Soviet-Union for 75 years the Bible was banned & illegal to teach it to kids. Bibles were smuggled into Russia. Atheism/communism/evolution/secularism was taught daycare-university. Within months of the fall of the U.S.S.R.in 1992, the post communist government in Russia put the Bible back in Russian schools & now over 600 Bible verses will be memorized by graduation. This was done because the post communist government saw how Christianity was part of Russian culture over 1000 years back to 989 A.D. BTW Russia back then almost went muslim/islamic.
No, we did not teach our children that there was no God. We didn't teach them that there was a God. We didn't take them to church except for weddings and such, but we did not prevent them from going to their friends' churches.
Exactly. I’ve even been taken to religious events by my atheist parents for my education, and also for the food. (mainly the food, Passover food is SO good.) we do the fun parts of many religious holidays, we just get to skip straight to the food. (Mmmm foooooood, I am way to hungry to be commenting on RUclips)
Hi. I really like you channel and have started listening to it often when I’m driving. I just have a small request: in the future with another video like this one, would you mind saying the questions out loud as well as writing them on the screen. That would be awesome, and I think blind listeners would appreciate it as well. But anyway keep up the great content. Thanks!!
I'm a father of four children, I've raised my children without any "God" or religion. But all of them went to a Catholic school here in the Netherlands. And now you have to know that in our Catholic schools the religion isn't at the top of studies they have, the teachers weren't priests or nuns, and I even don't know if they were Catholic themselves at all. Some might, and they had even an openly gay male teacher/ass. principal working there. My children are "freethinkers", but don't call themselves that, and as far as I know, they all reject all "Gods", including the Christian one. On a side note; my grandchildren are also raised without any believe in "Gods". I know the situation in the US differs much from ours, here we atheists aren't rejected by society, I even have worked as a sort of custodian in a Remonstrant church for a few years. Atheism isn't an issue here.
Bluemonsoon I find it interesting that you'd define atheism by what you think the atheists that you've met believe, rather than how the word is actually defined, etymologically. By the way, teaching your children from a default position on religion is not idiotic. Teaching them to follow a religion and deny everything we know and observe about the universe, however, is.
Bluemonsoon nice try, but there is no logically sound process by which you can come to the belief that God exists, despite what your favorite apologists or theologians tell you. Your appeal to metaphysics is futile here; there are no known scientific methods for testing or verifying the existence of any supernatural happenings, realms, or entities. The goal of science is to discover the truth about the nature of reality, and as it happens, no supernatural claim has been able to stand up to the methodological approach that science uses. These claims aren't substantiated and shouldn't be considered true until they can be (if they can). Period. In this respect, science in no way supports metaphysical claims of any kind. Atheism is NOT the "denial" of a god, it's a lack of belief, a rejection of the assertion that a god exists. Are you denying Vishnu, or do you reject the assertion that he/she exists for a lack of evidence? Some people might make the assertion that no god exists, which is entirely different. You'd have to add words to the title "atheist" for you to rightly assert that people make that claim. *Gnostic* atheism is just as idiotic as gnostic theism and should not be taught. I'm obviously an atheist, so I am a part of atheist communities and have atheist friends, but I don't know a single one who says that NO gods exist. Philosophy is certainly interesting and has been useful, but it holds no bearing on what is and is not true in reality. This is about raising children to think critically and not to follow any belief blindly, or even just because it "makes sense." Teaching that Christianity is true is pure idiocy, as it is by logical standards alone, demonstrably ridiculous. The mountains of contrary evidence to the biblical claims and claims of professional apologists over the past few millinea make it even more justifiable to assume that the religion is a false one.
Bluemonsoon *Unlike you, I didn't **_unwittingly_** invoke any specific metaphysical pressuposition about reality* The fact that you're arguing from a position of theism is, in itself, invoking a metaphysical presupposition about reality. You also brought up Christianity, which would give anyone the impression that you're partial towards that particular religion, and that's pretty damn specific. Not to mention metaphysical. *pseudoscientific gibberish that science, the methodological enterprise of observation and experimentation regarding the physical realm of being, is the beginning and end of knowledge* I never said that. My position is that absolute belief in anything that cannot be shown to be true is ridiculous. Science doesn't presuppose naturalism. Of course the supernatural may exist, but until it's verified, there is absolutely no reason to believe it does. What we DO know, is that many claims about supernatural happenings have been made, and none have been able to withstand the viscous scrutiny of the scientific method. Is it still possible? Sure. Is it likely? Not even close. *metaphysics and logic necessarily precede and have primacy over science* Congratulations, you're an idiot. Metaphysics by definition is "above nature." Metaphysics cannot precede science as a path to knowledge. It's not possible to prove something as abstract as that, much less place it BEFORE the most reliable method of learning about the universe. Logic precedes science. At least you got that one right. As far as that last part, instead of regurgitating that clearly rehearsed word salad, explain what the hell you're asking. Of course it's a FACT that something exists rather than nothing. Aristotelian philosophy has nothing to do with verifiable truth in this matter, so you aren't helping your case with your little bread crumb trail of a question. Sure, they begin with the fact that something exists rather than nothing. I'll bet that's the answer your looking for. Now, your philosophical soap box won't further this discussion in any useful way, so I'd suggest defending your beliefs (since you've taken to doing that) with arguments that are a bit more substantial. Abstract "god" thought had no bearing on what is and isn't true in reality.
Plastic Bacteria I bet if you grew up Christian, you’d be Christian. If you grew up Buddhist, you would be Buddhist. You simply were indoctrinated and you cans get out of that mindset.
Joseph Stalin The Bible isn’t a science book, it is more of a book for spiritual matters. As a Christian I am not sure on whether I believe in evolution or creation, because I haven’t done much resource to understand it. But I do believe that the Bible is true and I have experienced Gods grace in my life. God has changed me and still is changing me. Should you believe in Him? Well it’s your decision... ...Sorry for the way I switched subjects, ***switches to sarcasm *** if it offended you, because you felt like I was trying to force you to believe...
I think the most important lesson I may have taught my kids is to simply not accept what someone tells you without verifying it, and the more ridiculous it sounds, the more verification you need. They both wear the "atheist" label proudly, it's not something they hide from their friends, and both are eyeing careers in the sciences (astrophysics or cosmology for my daughter, definitely paleontology for my son). They've learned to see through bullshit at an early age (not just religious, but other pseudo-science as well... anti-vax, anti-GMO, etc.) which helps considerably. Mainly, they learned to question, even me.
do you know what is stupider? people who call themselves stupid by saying they werent intelligently created w/o knowing they are calling themselves stupid
You probably put a lot of effort into trying to appear clever. Keep working at it, you may succeed some day. There is neither evidence nor need for an "intelligent creator" with regards to explaining any aspect of the natural world.
@Grumpy Santa Though I may not have children, this is beautiful advice that i'll take with me. A more independent way of thinking, but also when opposed with religious thoughts from others to give true evidence and if not to find ways, and I mean ways with relative ease, to debunk what is supposedly in mind, or have been for years. To be absolutely duped for years is it saddening by far and it's respectable with your direction when it comes to your children. Again, will I say, beautiful.
To listen to clear stupidity will only give sensible children a true edge to slay that heavily influenced christian's way of thinking and really use what is taught by their parents be it through conversations and even silence alone. It's amazing really how with absolute ease can it come to a simple close. I've seen it myself.
I went to a YMCA as a pre school because it was the best and closest choice. I loved the stories about the ark and told my parents (who are atheists) about it. I was like 4 and all my dad said was, “do you have any proof?” And then I realised, I didn’t. Later on I did some research and found out how much of a joke it is.
UltimateHan01 I think that’s intellectually lazy of your father to ask a 4 year old if they have proof of a story (I assume) you were just told yourself by the ymca teachers, leading to the view that if YOU don’t have the proof, it can’t be true. Mind that I’m saying this as a general statement not specifically to the Noahs Ark story
I am not religious, but my wife is. She taught my son there is a god, but a non-specific one. My son as he got older started to question. I encouraged this, not by telling him what to think, but by encouraging him TO think. I praised him for asking questions and answered as honestly as I could and always asked him "What do you think?" whenever he would ask me a question. He came to the conclusion there was no god on his own, much to the dismay of my wife, but then again her faith is also not what it once was and she understands why we both don't believe. She still clings on mostly out of tradition, but teaching your children to think for themselves is the most important thing, because I was raised in a christian home and community and they always told me what to think....and when I found out those things were mostly platitudes, not things supported by scripture or reality, that was far more impactful in my deconversion, than was studying, because I lost trust in the people who taught me everything I knew.
7:43 Then explain WHY they have a bed time; Critical thinking requires a large amount of energy. Physically growing requires even more energy. Sleep allows us to "recharge our batteries." Since they are both growing AND thinking critically, the require more sleep. We have tasks that must be completed tomorrow. In order to complete all of them, we must start in the morning. Therefore, you must go to sleep now in order to be able to do those things tomorrow. EDIT: I hindsight, I didn't consider the possibility, that indeed, it is probably this is exactly what she did and was simply trying to construct and example the demonstrated the child's reaction. The subject, of course, was the child question authority. So...yeah...derp.
I totally agree with the labels, I don't call myself an Atheist. I don't have a title for everything I don't believe in. As for my kid, all I did was make sure he was an educated, rational thinker. Then I let him come to his own conclusions, did not push him one way or another. If he came to me with a question I would then tell him my opinion on the subject. He eventually came to me and said that religion makes no sense and that he did not believe in religion or god, and he asked if I was ok with that. I told him I was proud of him for researching the topic rationally and coming up with his own conclusion. I did send him to Sunday school because he asked if he could go so he could learn what religion was all about. I wanted him to know both sides of the debate. Now he is an educated non believer. I did not have to steer him away from religion, religion did it on it's own. All I did was allow him to become an educated, rational, free thinker.
Well, even though labels are often seen as baggage, I still embrace being called an atheist. Especially since the only times me being an atheist comes to conversation is in a religious one. The only way to lose the baggage of atheism being X and Y is having everyone that is an atheist claim they are. It loses the value people gave it and keeps the one that stays true for every single one that claims it: non belief in god. Being an atheist doesnt affect my personal life in any way except when I decide to join in a religious based debate and even then im not always an atheist. I sometimes defend christians or muslims when they have a lot of false accusations, which would make me a humanist in that perspective. People need to know that labels dont affect you untill the topic is about that label.
@@Tinkler9000 Labels certainly don't define you in any way, they are just useful shorthands in conversation. For example, if you are a Catholic, you can just say that rather than explaining all of your specific religious beliefs in detail and wasting time.
HELENO HENZO I did a 3 year stay in catholic school, I had to regurgitate the bullsbit they fed me, but I never believed it, i fought them every chance i got tok
They will fail you if you don't learn the subject material, as they should. If you're learning about biology and write on your test that evolution isn't real because god or something you should fail.
What is a fact? Why should you only rely on teachers? What about your parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters and friends? (These are rhetorical questions.) Anyone can learn knowledge, it's the messy stuff, the unknown stuff, that makes life hard. Start by reading more, it increases you vocabulary and helps with structuring your thoughts in a more coherent way. _"If only my teacher's had taught me how to understand what a fact is, then I could've made up my own mind more readily, using evidence based knowledge on different topics."_
As an atheist parent I feel like answering these questions. 1. No I haven't labeled my son. I don't feel he's old enough with enough information to make a firm choice yet. When he is he'll tell me. 2. Teach what? Science, math, literature? How to be a good person? None of these things need god. Teach him about religion? To do this I bring him to churches and we sit threw a service and I talk with him about it. From his perspective first, then the churches, lastly my own. His thoughts come first, the church come second since they don't matter to him, and I come last because my word has the most weight to it. I don't want to sway his opinion and therefore keep mine until after I've heard his and we've talked about the churches. 3. So far the biggest problem is the few times my Christian fiance and I don't agree on an approach. I'll tell my son that doing something is right because of god and I don't really like that. Because I think doing something right is good because it's right. Whether god exists or not whether my son believes in god or not. I just hope he doesn't have the same problems I did when I was a child and had born-again Christians wanting to beat me up because I wouldn't tell them my name so they could pray for me. Jamye is a hundred percent right on top of what I just said. The questioning authority is certainly a problem but one I expected. 4. Well I don't tell my son he can do anything to be tortured for eternity. I don't tell him that there's some reward at the end of life. I don't tell him that he's being watched by someone who really cares what he does with his penis. I don't tell him that a Supreme Being hates him if he loves someone if he's gay. I don't tell him that women are innately lesser than men. I don't tell him that a worldwide flood that never happened happened. Basically I don't lie to my son unlike theist parents. Although I will admit I did let my son believe in Santa. 5. By not teaching dogma. It's a lot easier then this question makes it out to be. 6. Socrates Cafe sounds incredibly awesome! While I am not 100% on the exact same page as these parents I absolutely love what they have to say! As an atheist parent I don't want to force my son to not believe in a god I just want him to think for himself.
I never talk to my daughter about religion, her mother wanted her to be catholic but at 13 she told us she didn't believe in god and I laughed.. I'm so proud
Well that's a very stupid thing to be proud about and that is Not a good thing to say that you are proud of your daughter for dishonored the creator the one is able to give her breath to her for her to breath with and you were laughing with with her when she said that she didn't believe in God well you what you my dear are a Lazy parent and you are still going to be judged for your miss parenting and giving false encouragement and if your daughter ends up going to Hell it will only be because of you because you didn't teach her about anything about God and you didn't teach her about salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will join her into the Lake of fire of Hell with your daughter as well and if you loved her you would have taught her that there's a creator that loves her so much but Now because of your foolish beliefs you will cause her to be put to Hell because of your stupid beliefs and and what do you have to say for yourself and what kind of a mother are you
There is one good way to educate your kid about religion - tell him about all the religions both long gone (like Greek or Egyptian mythology) and active (like Buddhism and Hinduism). My mother did that for me thus I actually consider the story of Jesus Christ resurrection to be as valid as the story of Hercules fighting Hydra!
I agree with the final analysis, but a bit worried about the "mom told me this, so now I believe it too" angle. To me, how my children come to an answer is more important than what they end up believing
@@travelinghermit "mom told me this, so now I believe it too" To be clear she never told me anything about those religions to be false or true so no, you're clearly missing the point of what I wrote! (unless that was your goal from the start - then shame on you!) My point was - if parents actually want their children to know about religions but they don`t want them to fall victim to some vicious one - they should tell the children about ALL the religions there are on earth that they could find. That`s it! I`ve never talked with mom about wether god exists or not until I was like 15 or 16 - again all she did was read books on different myths and religions to me when I was small - she never said wether or not those religions were true...
@@Boris99999 Really? My kids asked me in preschool/kindergarten. You can't really explain that in a way that satisfies them because they're too immature to really understand.
travelinghermit You can tell them you don’t know and that is the question that they themselves must find the answer - that’s what my mother said to me by the way! And I believed her not because she was my mother but because the statement “I don’t know” doesn’t need any proofs! Amazing, right? No need to lie, manipulate or misinform them - just tell the truth: you don’t know and no one does and just assumes things that are more comfortable for them or chooses not to come to premature conclusions and just observes from afar!
As an atheist parent, I have had to work gain and and maintain my children’s trust so that they will trust that the advice or directive I am giving them is important to follow. My own parents just used the “I said so” reasoning, didn’t always practice what they preached, and resorted to manipulative behavior rather than being straightforward with me. I often felt both suffocated and unseen. With my own children I have to be trustworthy, and I have to be transparent about my motives because I don’t invoke authority. Unless it’s an emergency, I don’t make my children do anything that I can’t justify asking them to do. I ask them to feed the dog, for example, and if they don’t want to, I accept that. I do it myself. Leading by example is also crucial. But the next day I will say I’m in the middle of another task or I did it yesterday; it’s your turn today. Sometimes it takes a few days, or weeks, or even years, but eventually they decide they can handle it. And then they take on the task themselves. They understand that they are a useful member of the household. It continually amazes me how “obedient” they appear to be. But they aren’t obeying me. I never invoke any authority. They just trust that whatever I ask of them is justified and in their best interests one way or another. Even my teenagers - really, especially my teenagers - are this way. They ask my advice about things and care what I think! I never imagined such a great payoff when I first set out to parent with respect and true love toward my children. I have a friend who, like me, grew up Catholic and is now an atheist. Her views on parental authority and her style of parenting are similar to mine. The trust she built with her child became a matter of life and death when her oldest suffered depression. The child, whose grandparent had died by suicide, began cutting themself and experiencing suicidal thoughts. My friend said that she was so grateful that her child told her about all this very early on and worked closely and transparently in partnership with their parents to get safely through that time of crisis. Which they did. They got through it and became even closer as a family. So many atheists have true family values . We place relationships between family members first, before fealty to any authority, real or imagined. We prioritize our lives together here and now. We don’t worry about dressing up and parading to the front of the church on Sunday mornings, instead sleeping in and enjoying being together.
Good thing my mom never talked to me or my siblings about religion at all. It leaves a lot of room for us to come up with our own ideas. The result of that? Well, let's say that we are a very religiously colorful family...
This is awesome. My dad was a hardcore believer, but as we had no Catholic church near our home he stopped caring after her decided to hate the Baptist church I went to near our house. My mom is still a die hard christian as she was born into a Pentecostal family. My brother always asks what god anytime anyone refers to the Lord or the Father. He used to be extremely abusive to me both emotionally and physically because based on the bible he was in the right. Things like this would have been wonderful. I find myself questioning it more and more, but I still pray. I pray more so with the knowledge that no one can hear me or to anything or anyone other than god. I made my own moral code and started seeking parental figures outside of my home. I think we should work harder as a community to educate children in different beliefs. That's why I am working towards becoming a teacher myself. I've seen so many crazy things happen, but I think the worst was when my mom was acting like a child and throwing a fit because my brother said God isn't real.
He would be agnostic and an atheist. I suggest you check up some videos on this. You seem to have fallen prey to a common misconception. Here i'll find one for you: ruclips.net/video/qeFjLcQNqV0/видео.html It's hard to explain in text and normally just starts an argument. Alex has a really nice video on this!
It is difficult when your children have a well put together argument, even if the premis is messed up. I'm proud and frustrated at the same time. And I have conceded sometimes. But mostly I'm excited to see them growing and being awesome. Our family does have a core beilfe to support each generation on thier journey to self actualization.
I am an atheist. I have no clear memory of ever believing, although I'm sure I must have at some point. When I was in basic training, I got in the habit of going to church because it got you out of work for a couple of hours. I alternated between Catholic and Protestant services. After basic was done, I kept up the habit because I got something out of it. I have been very curious about religion and got to know Sikh's, Muslim's, Jew's, Native Canadian's and others. My children go to a Catholic school, and have friend's from many different races and religions. We grew up in an area surrounded by immigrants and families from many Embassies. I have tried to teach them to be as open minded as possible. I bought books on many different religions as well. One of my daughter's got an award for top mark in her religion class. This is a girl who proudly identifies herself to her teachers as an atheist.
My 7 year old has always been like this and it definitely has been the reason for a lot of difficulties, especially in school. The best thing is to keep a close relationship to gain cooperation and not focus on compliance. I wish I found this video 3 years ago!
My parents just told me that many people believe in many different things, and that as long as these people are not causing you any harm, people can believe in whatever they would like to believe, there is nothing wrong with it
My pare ts didn’t need to tell me anything about religion because as a kid and even now I get bored fairly easily and church was always the most boring thing for me and since my parents thought so too we never went to church on Sunday’s or on any other days. It was mostly the school that had some church services. But I only went to two or three the other ones I mostly skipped because the school was not allowed to force anyone to participate in them but it was mostly frowned upon but I didn’t care. I could often sleep longer and go to school later that day. So I was mainly an atheist because I was just so bored during church service that I never wanted to go. And I thought if that’s Christians daily life I do t want to do that I want to have fun and not be bored all my life. You know the reasoning of a child. And that made it very easy for parents since I never asked any religion based questions.
Hi! I’m 17, so please keep that in mind when you’re reading this, I still have a lot of life to experience and learn. Thank you! I was raised simply with the absence of ANY religion, thought, theory. I was, as a baby, baptized Lutheran. It was important to my great grandmother, that’s who raised my mom. After that, I didn’t have nearly anymore church experience until age 9. I will tell you how I was raised, after I explain why my mom did this. It was kinda an accident. My mom grew up in a really catholic household. She went to catholic school, at home her grandmother said the rosary every night, read thought about and wrote about the bible every night. Just very religious. She had some problems with the church. She was never allowed to ask questions and if she did, she was in trouble. She didn’t understand much of why things were the way they were. So, she left. She decided she’d raise me with the absence of religion. I come along. My mom looks into schools. I go to a charter school that teaches the in the Charlotte Mason method of teaching. If you’re not aquatinted with that teaching method, it’s pretty much teaching kids the ability to teach themselves. I’m going to give you an example of how we learned. We would pick our own subject. Our teacher would give us 3-5 subjects to pick from, the subject wasn’t the important part. Once we picked the moon. The teacher then asks us what questions we have. We write them all down, and find out what questions were really trying to ask (why isn’t the moon pink, and have heart shaped craters turned into why is the moon grey? What is it made of? What type of craters are on the moon? How were they formed? You get the idea). Then our teacher would find books that had the answers to our questions and we’d spend the next few weeks answering them ourselves in our group for that subject. We had to answer them all on our own. We’d spend the next few weeks going places, answering questions, doing experiments, maybe asking questions about the answers, etc.. We questioned our teacher everyday. Sometimes we wouldn’t get any work done because we’d be so crazy that day and we’d have three recess. It was the best education I got. My mom had an EXTREMELY similar teaching method, so when I had to be homeschooled due to health issues it was the same. When I had questions such as “Jewish people believe in God did you know that?” Yes, babygirl. “Do you believe in God?” I am not sure what I believe, would you like to learn more about Judaism? My answer was always yes, questions and like that came often as I met people of other religions. Growing up like that I learned to respect all religions, and knew some knowledge about lots of religions. I knew people believed all different things and that was okay. I was always brought up also as questioning my mom ALL the time. “Why do I have to hold your had at this festival” Until she would go in-depth about ALL of my questions, I wouldn’t be satisfied. My mom also allowed me to have different opinions than her, and that made her happy. It meant she didn’t influence me in a way she didn’t want to. This also made me independent and able to solve my own issues. I think my mom brought me up incredibly well, especially as a single mom. I’m not saying her way was the only way, not at all. I’m thankful for the way I was brought up and was sharing my experience. This wasn’t even all of what I wanted to say, but i figured if anyone has any questions they can ask!!
When I was younger, I asked my dad to read me something from the bible, I don't remember what exactly, but after words my mum and dad tell me that I said, and I quote, "Harry Potter is more believable then that."
I would have loved that, my dad is agnostic and never really said anything relating to what existed outside our observable universe because like the rest of the human race, he doesn't know. my mom on the other hand, is a pentacostal cultist and raised me teaching her beliefs as fact (parents are divorced), luckily it backfired, when you teach me something so stupid that as a 12 year old, I could poke holes in it, it didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that it was BS and end up being agnostic/atheist.
My dad read the Bible to us as children and told us the simplified story if Adam and Eve,I also had a book a bout Noah.I started asking a lot of questions pretty clearly and while my dad had answers he also said that when it comes to the Bible there isn’t a lot space for logic and that you can’t take it literally.He is an atheist hehe.My mom is Christian but she doesn’t believe in hell and besides all of this “Christmas-Easter-Jesus-love”she never really told is much about Christianity. All the horrors of the Bible are occurring to me now when I’m also atheist.Luckily I was never forced to believe in god and never scared by hell
How SOME atheists teach, my old man was a preachy almost militant atheist and authoritarian. I am only an atheist now because the religions of the world posses ideas that are incredibly shallow. Try discussing how the world and humanity began and you will struggle to reach 3 mins of content. There's now how god did it or any internal monologe detailing the why's the deliberation of the so called intelligent design, except when they hit humanity they describe some form of artifice. We know (in a fictional sense) that god formed us from clay and breathed life in to Adam. But that's the most explanation we get. Parents like the ones shown sound pretty neat, that camp looks interesting too.
Excellent video Drew! Everything said was extremely wise and important. It's always good to hear that others reject the notion of authoritarian parenting. Thank you for contributing to the edification of humanity 👍
*What you do is part of who you are.* If you make and tend to a farm, you are a farmer. If you play the piano well you are a pianist. If you take corporate money as a senator and then push legislation for that corporation, you are a corrupt politician. What you do is in fact one of the only ways to define who you are as a person.
I like how they say that we are not supposed to put labels on people based on their beliefs. You have no idea how many times my ideas have been rejected because I'm a Christian
If you're saying that your ideas have been rejected based on others' judgement of you rather than on your ideas' merit, that's unfortunate. It sounds like we're on the same page as far as accepting/rejecting others' ideas based on the merit of the ideas rather than the identity of the person proposing them.
Genetically Modified Skeptic yep, that where getting bullied for 10 years got me. (The merit part, not the people rejecting my ideas due to the identity of the person)
I grew up with a Christian mom and I am so lucky she let me decide my own beliefs. Sometimes she'll enjoy listening to my deep atheist theories, sometimes I'll enjoy listening to her prayers. This is how it should be, people accepting one another and not enforcing opinions down other people's throats.
This is such an important topic!! I would love to see a round-table discussion about this topic. I'm not sure who I would include of the top of my head. But it would be a worthwhile discussion.
Children should be taught the dangers and the negative things about religion You can still have a belief that a God exists Without subscribing to the worlds religions.
The "secular kids might be excluded" sounds really weird from where I am (France). My mother is catholic (but in a very little way, she don't believe in genesis for example, which I think not a lot of French do btw) and my father atheist. I didn't attend any church, and I had the choice to attend catechism classes. Most of my classmates didn't, but no one really care about if you did or not. I feel like the excluded would be the very faithful kid.
When I was a young boy my parents took the family to a Unitarian church next door to Cal University in Berkeley California. They wanted us to be open minded about religion. Then we move to Martinez, a tiny town in a valley by the Carquinez Straights east of the bay area. It was a conservative town and we started going to a First Congregational Church. Something changed and when I turned eighteen I told both my parents I was no longer going to church, and my mother was beside herself with anguish that I chose not to believe as they did. As it turned out my mother was not as terribly enthused with us making up our own minds if it countered her belief system. She was raised by a rip-snorting Methodist minister in the south who had nine children who live on hand me downs. What came to light is the old adage; "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." No matter what my mother said about us making up our own minds, she did not really believe it because she was still caught up in the admonitions of her father, who by the way was a lost cause. who in their right mind would have nine chilren on a ministers salary during the Depression. That is exactly how delusional belief systems can lead a person to become totally disconnecting from reality. By the way I am now a devout Anti-Theist !!
Hey I grew up in Berkeley and my grandparents were members of that church! My mom and aunt got married there. The Unitarians in the Bay Area are so adorable. Silly, but adorable. You didn't even have to believe in "God" or that Jesus was real to go to there - it was so warm and fuzzy. In fact, it's pretty hard to make them mad at you as an atheist, which is kind of annoying. And most of the ministers were gay or lesbian. If you ever go back and see a short old lady with dyed brown hair playing an oboe, that's probably my mom. Beautiful place, no?
During the fifties some of our best friends were a Jewish family whose Matriarch was the head of the psych department at Cal University and we were all Unitarians. They had kids the same age as we were, and I had a real crush on their daughter at the time. The fifties were great years to be a young boy exploring the world.
Make distinctions as a Parent, based on Critical thinking but Teaching Children at a Very young age to question all authority can be a slippery slope towards excessive disrespect, I think the right age to instill the importance of questioning authority is around 4th or 5th grade. Just my subjective view as a Parent, that's what my Mother did and I followed suit when I became a Parent
Mediocrity's Maze yeah, you should never drop religion down on your child when they're very young. My opinion, you should be very vague when talking to them about religion. Let them form their own opinions and be a free thinker. As long as they know what's right from wrong, I don't see the problem.
Look at Sudbury schools, which let all students, even five year olds, have as much say in the running of the school as the staff. If you expect your kids to take responsibility for as many things as they can handle, by and large they really will rise to the occasion and be much better off throughout their lives. Kids forced to be responsible at a young age, for example, are the recipients of almost all of the highest honours in every military in the world, many of the most successful entrepreneurs, and more generally most of the most successful people in any field of endeavour society values, including the basics like civil responsibility, getting along with the boss, and parenting, in all cases by about two standard deviations over the mean.
Being born and raised in Sweden this is interesting to hear. Over here religion is something people keep to them self unless asked for the most part. We have religion taught in school as part of history classes but it's more a walk through of the big religions and their rise and fall throughout the ages and of course how some are still around and why that is. No one cares if you are religious here unless you go all "vegan" and just have to talk about it all the time. Great video, keep up the good work!
Can't believe I missed this one. I don't agree with the first person interviewed. I think she's fooling herself if she doesn't think our beliefs shape who we are as individuals.
I never said that they don't shape who we are. I just said that they don't *define* who we are. Just like being an atheist doesn't make you a nice person any more than being a Christian would. Behaviors and beliefs are very different things. I have years of experience in cognitive theory and education, and I'm not about to fool myself by thinking that my children will be better people because they are atheists.
I’m going through this right now with my 9yo and my basic answers are no one knows the truth so you believe what you want to believe. Not one person on Earth knows, but just spread positivity not negativity
I keep hearing all kinds of reasons why people don't use the label "atheist" to describe themselves. I get it, a lot of those reasons make sense on the arguments which they are based, and I won't bother to list them all here. However, based on my knowledge of humanity for most its simply camouflage. Atheism has bad connotations attached to it. To bad, fix it by being the best atheist they've met. When you label yourself as an atheist it's clear. People know what you don't believe in. When you say your an Agnostic, Secular etc. you just camouflage yourself, and your safe in your closet. The ones who should be ashamed are those who still hold on to myths. Look at the crusades, the hundreds of years of witch trials etc. They ( the religious ) should be humble and ashamed of church history but let's face it, most don't know the bible or the church's history. However by contrast we should be proud atheists. In the "real" world everyone knows I'm an atheist. Come out of the damn closet . Unless you live somewhere that it would jeopardize your life... I get it . Otherwise, you agnostics, humanists, free thinkers, etc. fuck you. Your all atheists.
I have no problems labeling myself as an atheist, because that is a choice I have made. The question was what do we label our *children*. And I believe we wait until they decide what they would like to be called. Even if that's something we don't agree with.
+Irish I am not an a-dragonist because that is already the assumption of society, same with most stuff we don't believe. But people assume we are religious, just like how people assume that we are fine with -having the ten commandments in courthouses -giving churches tax-exempt status even though the 1986 American study showed religion had an income for that year about five times greater than the five richest corporations put together -giving tax money to churches in the form of grants -giving "equal time" to science and religion in science classrooms etc...
Atheist Meme: One of the reasons people don't want to call themselves atheists is because they don't actually know what the word means, nor what agnostic means. They think atheist is hard core, closed minded, attacker of religion, and agnostic is a more open minded, not denying anything, just don't believe, label. Atheism light, without all the certainty and arrogance. These are both false definitions. There can be many different personalities and approaches for atheists, but the word simply describes someone with a lack of belief in a god. Agnostic is not a part of a continuum between atheist at one end and extreme religious zealot at the other. Agnosticism simply refers to one's position regarding the knowability of god. The vast majority of both believers and atheists are agnostic, atheists because the rational among us realise that we cannot know for certain that anything does not exist, and the more thoughtful religious believers because they recognise that faith cannot exist without uncertainty, that there must be occasional doubt, and the willingness to admit that a thing cannot/should not be proven, or else the word faith loses its meaning. A person who categorically KNOWS that his god exists cannot by definition have any faith, which is belief in spite of a lack of certan knowledge or proof. I think the reason that people like Humanists and free thinkers do not make a big fuss about atheism as a term of self description is because it is a very limited, or should be a very limited part of anyone's identity. If you don't belive a thing exists then why spend time on it? To be fair I do find it as frustrating as you clearly do, that so few people actually understand the terms, and are so unwiling to call themselves an atheist, or at least admit that the term describes their lack of belief. Many use the term agnostic as a sort of badge of honour, as if it signals them as an open thinker. Cenk Uygur of TYT is particularly bad for this. He is an atheist, but will never admit to being one, because he intentionally or unintentionally does not know what the word actually means, but instead identifies it with a caricature version of Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris. All this said, I watched a recent video, can't remember who by, (Sam Harris?)in which the person hoped for a day when the term atheist would no longer be needed, as it is such a limiting thing to call oneself, for something that ought to be of so little consequence.
Cosmic Skeptic said something similar in "ATHEIST, KNOW THYSELF" about how he was looking forward to a day when the term atheist was no longer needed because it would be the social norm. He got the idea from David Silverman, head of the American Atheists society who was saying how important it is for people to use the label atheist because it gives us philosophical and political weight by becoming a recognized demographic, there are many times as many atheists as there are LGBT people, but LGBT people have much more weight as a demographic in political and philosophical discussions
If there's hope for humanity's continued existence, IMO it's this. I was especially struck by the parents saying they'd encourage the religious to use these methods with their own children while continuing to maintain their own various faiths. Another thing the video got me thinking about was how this kind of upbringing would probably empower these kids with a far greater ability to control their emotions, directing their passions through reasoned thought. Should the ghastly day arrive when civilization breaks down, this would give them a huge survival advantage. Thanks for this video, as always.
As an Italian, I grew up in a country where you can’t dodge religion even if you want. It’s just impossible, even if you come from a family like mine, where my mom is agnostic and my father is an atheist. When I was little (like very little, 4 years old) I was really into discovering things about religions, I loved the mythology around it and it was something that was not imposed on me. Of course in the 90’s we didn’t have internet and my researches were limited to the children’s books we could find in the bookstore so it was mainly about Christianity and the greek’s pantheon. I soon found out that I knew more about New and Old Testament than most of my friends that used to go to masses and frequent oratorio (I don’t know if it's called like that outside Italy, but basically is after school or summer camp lead by a priest). Fortunately, I usually didn’t feel left out because of my non-religious background (childs my age didn’t really care) but sometimes it happened. Like when I was in kindergarten and the teacher had the brilliant idea of asking the class if everyone was baptized and if everyone did go to church (actually, it happened at middle school and high school too). Of course, I was the only one who responded “no” and “no”. Then I came home confused and asked my mother why I wasn’t baptized and why we didn’t go to church on Sunday. She told me that if I wanted we could go to the church and have me baptize anytime. It was my choice. I thought about it a while and then I decided that it was a big decision that would influence my whole life and I was too small and unprepared to take it. I stayed agnostic ‘till the end of middle school and then decided I was atheist. I'm very thankful to my parents for letting me choose.
I am a Sikh, and my wife practices Cao Dai. Our daughter makes us proud as she respects both religions, but the schools get upset sometimes because they think she takes too many _Sik Dais_ Ah? Ahhh?? 😀
I actually found out through the Internet that I'm considered an Atheist. Both my parents dropped their belief, and educated my brother and I to think for ourselves. They probably don't even know the term "Atheist". Now that I think about it, it's actually pretty funny how I learned at home: as soon as we had Internet, my father told us to "google it" when we wanted to know something. It led to some very interesting conversations during dinner, because of course we had to "inform" our parents of what "they didn't know". We learned in time to pick our sources.
I actually never thought of atheists parenting I always thought atheists were created by being from religious families and felt dissatisfied after growing up.
Very good video, As a King James Bible believing christian, I will teach my kids the gospel and God's word, but I would also raise them to be free thinkers. I wouldn't approach them with ''believe this because I say so'', but I would rather explain why something is true. I would especially teach my kids on salvation so that they have assurance and know they are saved. I'd also give them room to make mistakes, so I wouldn't be an authoritarian parent. Regarding dogma's, I know religious parents take a very large share in those, but they don't have a monopoly on them. Don't forget politics for example! ;)
"I will teach my kids the gospel and God's word, but I would also raise them to be free thinkers. I wouldn't approach them with ''believe this because I say so'', but I would rather explain why something is true. I would especially teach my kids on salvation so that they have assurance and know they are saved." The contradictions here will confuse their minds. You can't raise "free thinkers" if you're forcing the concept that your one religion out of all of them is "true". If you're hanging the threat of eternal torment over them (which your "salvation" argument does) then you're coercing their minds, not teaching them to think freely.
Faith alone 1611, why is something true in your mind? Clearly, the evidence isn't required in your mind, simply because Christianity is completely unsubstantiated. So, how do you determine what is true?
I'm also a free thinker and I ended up being a King James Bible believer. Ofcourse I'm going to teach my kids the gospel, because I don't want them to go to hell. The Bible teaches that as soon as you believe the gospel, you have eternal life. Once saved is always saved. From there on I teach them to think freely. I'd teach them to question every man (including religious men and me). If they ask questions about something, I'd explain them why something is true rather than: ''shut up and believe it because I say so.'' I would also expose them to different ideologies like evolution, but ofcourse I would explain them why it's an error. Also, I wouldn't punish my kids for each and every sin, because they are responsible for their own choices. Being a free thinker doesn't equal being an atheist that believes in evolution. The evolution theory gets shoved down your throat in each and every public school.
"I would also expose them to different ideologies like evolution, but ofcourse I would explain them why it's an error." So you openly admit you're going to lie to them. Think about that. All of the evidence demonstrates the fact that evolution occurs, but you're going to ignore that and lie to them.Free thinking involves the ability to change your mind as new evidence comes in. You, my friend, are not a free thinker.
Grumpy Santa: Macro evolution has never been proven. An animal giving birth to another animal has never been observed. All the evidence evolutionists provide is in favour of micro evolution, which is an observable fact. I'm always willing to consider new evidence. The fact that you insist macro evolution to be true eventhough it has never been scientifically observed shows that you are the one who isn't a free thinker. Agnostic Atheist: Something is true, because you can conclude it with logic. Now true christianity is substantiated. The source of our faith is the King James Bible.
I really enjoyed this. I'm also thrilled that you did not forget to ask about the challenges of being an atheist parent. Theists sometimes forget to face both the pros AND cons.
Wow, how sad, do you really have such closed views of people who follow their chosen religion. Yes, I’ve met atheists who are cruel, selfish and egocentric...I don’t link their views or approaches with all, or even most atheists. I know religious people are out there who generally give answers of “because I said so” or “because God/Allah made it so”, but that is generally, from those I’ve experienced, based on educational shortfalls...by the way, I’ve known atheists to use the first one, guess there all just authoritarians...nah, said I wouldn’t go there. My s that God made a spectacular universe to experience and learn/learn from; that a day to God is not remotely associated with one revolution of the Earth on its axis; and that there is meaning to all things, and gave us the tools, to include intellect and curiosity, to unveil the answers. Pardon if I don’t give you props for the learning environment for your kids, as this is the norm from my experiences in this nation and a few others. Sure, some religions are a bit more authoritarian; e.g. Islam and Sharia Law, but you look over time and even in these cultures scientific questioning has been encouraged and has resulted in scientific advancements. Kids need structure as much as they need encouragement. Teaching other cultures is unlikely to be done without bias, regardless of how good the intentions of the teacher; e.g. I am a staunch Constitutional Conservative, I taught some political concepts and activities to college students, several students came later and asked my affiliation as they weren’t sure, but once I told them, some would, when looking back, be able to see my bias, whether it be knowledge of representatives of the party, taking longer to think when discussing liberal platforms... Experiential education is far more valuable. Encourage kids to have friends with differing views based on commonalities and, if invited, let them go to religious activities (Catholic, Protestant, Shi’a, Jewish, Buddhist...) and have them feel free to ask followups with their friends and you. Never say no for a disingenuous reason, should they start show affinity toward or even start following one of these religions. Oh yeah, and never speak ill of any religious person using the over generalization fallacy of a small, observed sample can be used for the whole or, as you and the interviewees try to hedge your bets by using “most”. I’ve heard second hand of religious people who meet your characterization and seen enough evidence to know they are out there in general numbers...but I did notice your arguments and even title jump to the alternative...three do not equal all, and your title isn’t how “some” or even “most” atheists teach; the atheist population isn’t bound at all by your title. Sadly, I’ve met some atheists who do not follow your proposals...should I say now that your video is proof that all or most atheists are liars?? No, of course not, you’re just trying to sell your belief system with a bit of misleading advertising which you may not even notice without it being pointed out...don’t worry, we all have natural biases, but it is important to be aware of this.
The learning environment they gave their kids doesn't reflect on their ideas about religion, in fact it's the opposite they don't give them their opinion on religion but a range of opinions and let them think for themselfs. Are you against free thought?
"God made a spectacular universe to experience and learn/learn from; that a day to God is not remotely associated with one revolution of the Earth on its axis; and that there is meaning to all things, and gave us the tools, to include intellect and curiosity, to unveil the answers." Or you can say the same things without lying: There is a spectacular universe to experience and learn/learn from; Things do not have inherent purpose, but you can understand how they work; because evolution gave you the intellect and curiosity that allows you to unveil the answers. Also this way you don't need to make excuses for some nonsense written 2000 years ago by an archaic civilization.
Sometimes, even instead of teaching me to learn, they would simply let me fail and learn by myself. For example, if I was doing something stupid, they would say “that might hurt” instead of “don’t do that.” Of course, this was only in situations that didn’t put me of anyone else in serious danger, I think full free-range parenting is plain reckless.
My dad is an atheist, and very critical of religion, but he allowed me to go to church with my grandparents and didn’t even speak a word about religion to me until I was around 11 - by which point I wasn’t going to church anymore because my grandparents were too far away and I was no longer very interested. I did end up becoming an atheist, but that was because I kept reading fantasy books and the Bible just sounded too much like them (also, I didn’t have a very good attention span, so I didn’t exactly care about whatever the Bible told me), not because of anything my dad said to me.
I just want to thank you deeply for this video. As atheist parents to a first and only child, this can be very daunting! Since he was 2, he has adored Neil DeGrasse Tyson, I can't count how many times he's watched Cosmos, and he listens and learns so well. I have wondered, are we indoctrinating him? I mean, I certainly am not going to be sending him to Sunday school, but I do want him to understand religion and the part it plays in people's lives and history, and I think that will help him navigate this world much easier than, say, sheltering him out of fear he might actually end up a believer. So how much do I expose him to religion and how do we do that, you know? I appreciate this video and advice, because I want my child to make his own decisions about these things, yet I am often uncertain as to how to proceed.
I love your balanced and reasonable approach in your videos. Live and let live. I'm an atheist, raised as a christian. My dad died at 14 and my mom got breastcancer a year later. I had a couple of years of resentment towards god and church after that. Then came to the conclusion that i couldn't believe in a system that claimed to have a loving god, but be so brutal to the people that loved him so much, which finally brought some peace in that area. I don't tell my kid to be an atheist. My mom is still a christian and occasionally takes him to church on sunday, which i consider a good thing. Let him experience for himself. I'm lucky with my mom though. She'll never try to convert him, but will answer any question he has from her viewpoint I never had to ask her for that. She respects my choice and i respect hers. We can talk for hours about our differing or same viewpoints. And learn from each other along the way. Well, that's enough rambling for today, i think. Thanks for all the excellent work you do here and keep it up! :)
Thanks for the video, I found it very interesting. As a parental unit with two grown children, I did as these guys said and didn't teach religion. I tried to teach them critical thinking. As a young adult, my son decided to look for God. He started reading the Bible, and then his critical thinking kicked in. He's now identifies as an atheist.
My parents definitely encouraged me to ask questions, and never told me about "Santa" so I wouldn't think they were lying when they told me about another character
I told my kids about Santa and tried to keep the story going as long as I could. It amused me and let the kids learn by question things that didn’t made up.
Atheist here! I worried a lot about indoctrinating my daughter, actually. We hold a lot of sway over our children, & it's important to not abuse that. My husband (who didn't subscribe to any particular religion, but, up until around 3-4 yrs ago, believed that "intelligent design" made the most sense) & I believed that the most important thing to develop was trust. This meant we needed to be willing to back up our claims, as well as admit our mistakes & not be ashamed to say, "I don't know, but let's try to find out." When she would ask my opinion on religious &/other controversial issues, I would give her my point of view, but then also give her two or three examples of how other people believe differently from me, as well as one another, & just as passionately, if not more so. The trust we developed (& consciously work to maintain) helps regarding the issue of "questioning authority." For example, take getting to bed &/ doing homework by a certain hour. When she'd balk at what her dad & I felt was appropriate, we'd ask her to take a week & follow, without complaint, the schedule we believed best; paying attention to how she felt physically, mentally, etc. during that period. After that week, we allowed her to follow the schedule she felt was more fair & beneficial, then we honestly compared the two, different weeks. She discovered that starting her homework earlier was much less stressful. We learned we could allow her to stay up a little longer before bedtime. We combined the two, & came up with a brand new schedule. No matter the result, the process allowed us *all* to feel heard & considered. It also required patience & integrity (two incredibly important attributes) from all parties involved.
I was discussing this video with a religious friend of mine and they objected to the teaching without indoctrination part by saying ‘well in teaching them to question authority and make their own decisions and beliefs that’s basically indoctrinating them into atheism’. They then refused to see the irony in that comment and I found that very funny. Just thought I’d share that here
We don’t talk about religion much in our household, and I try to answer any question to the best of my ability, but, in general I have made it clear that I don’t have all the answers, will answer, “I don’t know” sometimes, and encourage self exploration. Due to part of my university education, I was exposed to at least superficial information about most religions that currently exist (this is was a first step on my journey away from religion), and I always come at religion from this perspective when religions questions come up. I like to contrast the beliefs of different systems and cultures to give a different perspective then the purely Christian one my children are getting from most of their peers (and sometimes teachers).
My ultrareligious grandparents still respected me and discussed their views with me, even when I was an atheist. I now believe in God for different reasons, but I respect them for not letting me down even when I was an atheist.
Probably the biggest thing that led me away from Christianity was questioning certain things. Like "why is it wrong to be gay?" When the answer was because "god said so," that wasn't enough for me. Some people said it wasn't natural but then it happens all the time in nature, so are animals sinning? I almost overshared haha. In conclusion, question everything. except your emotions! validate your emotions first as they are natural and then question their logic.
I am a Christian, yet I whole-heartedly agree with this video. I want to teach my kids HOW to think, not WHAT to think. My church really is adamant about that, at around the 7-8th grade range. They tell the kids that those years are extremely formative, and that this is the chance for Christianity to move from your parent's religion, to yours. The church recognizes that most kids are just there because their parents told them to be, and aim to change that. That's the mark of a good kid's/students ministry, to me.
My parents were both atheists, when I was old enough to discuss the topic of religion and God, my parents just sent me to speak to my great aunt, who's a fervent Catholic, I was about 7 the first time the questions I had were formulate enough to bring a good discussion forward, my aunt explained to me what she believed in, I didn't feel "pulled in" by her explanations, so I didn't become a believer, not that she tried to convert me either. We had many discussions like these, as I was growing up and learning about a lot of different things, I became an atheist myself, as I didn't believe that there was a god. With time the discussions with my aunt shifted a bit, I was more interested by the mythology of christianism and she was a wonderful source on that account. My parents and I talked about religious beliefs too, but as we were all atheists, it always shifted more towards philosophical questions than passing down "Knowledge". I wasn't raised an atheist, I was simply presented with answers to questions I had, and formed my own conclusions thanks to the answers I received. I guess there are still a bit of "inherited" beliefs from my parents in my upbringing, since I think subconsciously, I may not have been swayed by the Catholic religion arguments simply because I couldn't believe my parents could reject it if it was true. But in the end, I still think I was fortunate in that I was never forced to be this or that.
My Mother was a very traditional Roman Catholic; my Father had converted in 1949 in order to marry her. We grew up in the post-Vatican II period, but my parents were very much in favor of actually thinking our way through life. A frequently heard statement in our house was "Figure it out!" for which I am very grateful. By the time I was out of high school, almost none of my siblings were attending Church and Mom was fully accepting of the fact that she had no right to control our choices once we were adults. Her funeral was the last time I attended a Mass, and it was only out of respect for her memory, period. She had by the end of her life, pretty much only attended Church out of habit, I think. So in one generation we went from an ancient, established religion, to eight separate versions of atheists, semi-theists, and outright Pagans. But we all had actual reasons for our stances. We did our best to 'figure it out', and I still use that as my everyday approach to life. Thanks, Mom.
Awesome video, dude. While I do follow religion, Its super important as to what is said in this video about teaching kids how to think so they can explore the world. I think this presents a challenge that I could see from a household with religious parents but wanting to have your child be a freethinker and have the opportunity to religion. However the challenge then is doing activities related to religious practises while simultaneously not indoctrinating.
Yeah, my mom definitely taught me to not be afrqid to question authority. As she would put it, "if I can't give a logical explanation of why you should do something, why on earth should you have to do it?"
Normal kids do hit a point when they question everything, it is a brave parent who encourages that the child continue to question.
that is against free thinking, if you want the kids to b free thinker, u cant say anything to them. i bet you dont allow your kids to question u
A little tactic I used to help develop this was to occasionally give them an outlandish lie while they were real young and questioning things. At first I'd get a response like "Really?!" to which I'd respond "Nope". Then we could go into facts about things, I could look things up online and show them things... soon enough they were easily distinguishing between bullshit and not bullshit. I still do it on occasion and as teenagers I really can't fool them anymore. My daughter is considering astrophysics or cosmology as a career, by son definitely wants to be a paleontologist (taking him on a couple dinosaur digs has helped reinforce that), and not to toot my own horn they're turning into a couple amazing young adults.
Of course. Feral children are the ultimate freethinkers. :)
huh?
Even better : Parents that go out of their way to actually search the answers for the questions of their kids. A plus when they do the search WITH the kid. Thank you, Mom, you did a wonderful job.
Science asks questions that may never be answered; religion preaches answers that may never be questioned.
Religions preaches answers that must never be questioned.
Jyoeru Zaberu yes, if you throw enough ideas at a wall one of them will stick, you seem to be completely ignoring all the completely unscientific claims in all scriptures that have been disproven.
Jyoeru Zaberu and it would be an active debate whether or not there was any scientific merit to most of the bible. The central idea is rediculous to some people and completely reasonable to others. Simply put, no one gives a shit about the scientific merit of the bible. The denate is does god exist or not? Yes some people pretend the scientific content of the scripture matters to proving/disproving god, but there is so much incorrect and also a fair amount correct that it basically cancels out. Each side will ignore the other side in this argument.
Jyoeru Zaberu neither am i. I am using one commonly used example of theism, the argument can be applied to every religion.
Jyoeru Zaberu actually, you are correct generally. Proportionally more scientists are atheist, there is a decent correlation between happiness and quality of life in a country and its lack of religiosity
I agree with these parents so much. I grew up in a christian household and the discouragement of critical thinking and inability to challenge authorities has really limited me as an adult :(
Greer Borthwick-taylor true, but I carved out my own "metal detector balance" system, where I only believe in hard facts and things that are dissected to hell by unbiased sources while the facade of belief and faith disguised it, completely from everybody else, however, this took so much blood and sweat, also I really am trying to develop my critical thinking and am questioning authority, but my christian connection in my household at least isn't forced down my throat, my parents understand that these things are very important and encourage me to develop them, but before I used to have this passiveness problem and avoidance to critical situations
Greer Borthwick-taylor
I grew up in a religious family too, and one of the weirdest things I've noticed now as a newer atheist is that when I'm anxious, by instinct, I feel the need to pray. It's the way I was raised, and it's how I've always dealt with my personal issues, but now I need to find new outlets for that sort of thing.
@@ramentaco9179 I know you wrote this comment quite a while ago. But do you ever feel like you would want to call your parents when pressured. But feel like they would just say something about praying or laying it on god?
Christianity doesn't correlate to levels of critical thinking
Same, most my family is Cristian and the younger kids aren't. I kinda hate super religious people, because they spout nonsense with out evidence.
Wait. There's a non Jesus camp in Texas? I did not know that.
Hahaha, there actually is! Camp Quest, Texas is actually one of the largest freethinking camps in the nation!
Cool!🌈
I'm from Texas and I didn't know that
Zane Stigler Texas is too big to know what’s around. You have to split the state up in multiple sections.
@@zanestigler3729 Well, Texas IS pretty big.
I’m an atheist, my wife is probably agnostic, I can’t really say what my daughter is... she’s definitely not Christian, probably atheist. My daughter and I discuss religion quite a bit, mostly discussing their beliefs, history, how they shape public policy. I am definitely critical about organized religion, I don’t believe in giving a religious group a pass just because it’s something they believe. I’ve also encouraged my daughter to find these things out for herself, and she’s attended a few different Churches with friends and family members. Her reaction has mostly been along the lines of “these people are nuts”, which I tend to agree with.
Evolutionary: Many people wish they had a college education; being married with children is so depressing and exhausting when you only have a blue-collar low-paying job in today's high-info, high-tech, high cost world!
Hey!
My name is Tori Christensen! I’m part of a research project called America Families of Faith that is studying the relationship between personal beliefs and family relationships. We are looking for approximately 30 non-religious couples in happy, stable marriages with at least one child to participate in our study. I was wondering if you might be interested in participating? Participation involves being interviewed together as a couple and it will take approximately two hours of their time. The interview will be conducted via Skype and will involve questions about personal beliefs and family dynamics. Each spouse will receive $35 as compensation.
Also, if you might know of anyone else who would qualify and be willing to participate we would greatly appreciate your help in identifying families who might qualify and be interested in participating.
If you are interested in participating and/or know of any couples who would be interested, please let me know and send my information onto them. Thank you for your assistance! If you have any questions, I can be reached at affparticipants@gmail.com. Thanks again in advance and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tori Christensen
American Families of Faith Project
affparticipants@gmail.com
Thomas Binney she probably does believe in some deity but is probably unsure about how to approach it with you as her parent
ghostlylover99123 honestly it sounds like he wouldn’t have a problem with her saying that she believes some diety is out there. His wife is agnostics she even more would not mind. I’m not sure what your belief system is but just because someone is against organized religion and feels it’s detrimental doesn’t mean they think belief in a higher power all together is
@@affteammember6455 so this project is run by a couple of professors who are from Brigham Young University. That should tell you all you need to know. BYU, Bob Jones, Liberty. Your fake degrees from your fake universities don't impress any of us. Especially those of us who actually earned real degree. Nobody is interested with your school of magic. Hilarious.
I feel like, when a kid questions your authority, you should tell them why it's good for them. "Why do I have to go to bed now?" "Because going to bed at the same time each night is good for you. It makes your body strong!" Or "Because we have to wake up early tomorrow." No need to just keep pressing them to do as they're told....
Or: “Because your parents are tired and need some time to ourselves!” which is usually the most accurate answer.
right? that's some "i wanna live in a nursing home" type shit
Yeah! Just shows being an atheist doesn't automatically make you a good parent.
I'm not a freethinker...but you can get my thoughts at a 20% discount for Price Club Members!
BionicDance, LOL!
...and here you have the basic conflict between capitalism and free thought. :p
BionicDance You’re funny...
This comment is golden
In short: teaching kids how to think, not what to think.
I went to an incredible school that put a lot of emphasis on creative, critical thinking and logic. It really taught me to think outside the proverbial box.
@@person10 that's what "teach them how to think" means.
Kid of atheist parents here! How I grew up and learnt about religion was actually a bit unusual I think.
My father is extremely sceptical of organized religion and has always had the opinion that religious folk are crazy and said as much to me, on the other hand my mother is agnostic. She used to be sort of vaguely theistic but not so much anymore, she grew up in a very religious family and was never really critical of religion, it was just something she didn't really care about and that was that. My parents actually bought me children versions of different religious texts as I was young because they do think that the texts, foundations of civilizations and beliefs, albeit untrue, are very important So I knew many stories and basic principles of religions from a young age.
One could say I dabbled in Christianity when I was 10?.. I was in a private Christian school and when a family member started having some serious health issues, trying to convince myself that someone or something could help them was a comfort of sorts. It never really stuck though. I questioned the texts, the beliefs, the people.
It was only when I was 11 that I found out that atheism was a thing. My parents hadn't introduced me to any such labels because they thought it would only create an unnecessary division between myself and my classmates. I found like-minded classmates, an internet community and most of my friends (with the exception of 2) ended up drifting away from religion at some point too.
I genuinely believe that in a few decades, atheists will be a significant proportion of the inhabitants of developed countries.
Ps: feel free to point out any spelling mistakes! I'm actually a French teenager so the opportunity to improve my English would be greatly appreciated! :)
@@person10 Can you stop being a jerk?
Im English and i spell worse😅
I was born in the early 70s The Netherlands back then was still very Christian and the Protestant and Catholic divide still existed among people. So when I was born my grandma forced my 20 year old mother to baptise me. When my mom remarried to (whom I consider my father) who is an atheist I too started to ask questions. My dad and through him my mom too, taught us to think for ourselves and more importantly be critical and ask questions.
When I for example found a hiatus in the Bible I asked why that was (I think it was other people being there when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the paradise that were as old or older and why this wasn't mentioned). My dad explained that this book was written over a period of a 1000 years by stories that went from mouth to mouth and therefore they are obviously error prone. He explained this by asking what has happened with the "telephone game" at school. When the first person gets a sentence and they need to whisper it to the next and next to the following etc etc.
He also said that history is per definition biased because it's recorded through the eyes of the victor.
So we were taught to be critical and treat another like you want to be treated. I think these are the core values that every person should be raised with.
Mooi verhaal ^-^
If a child asks you "is God real?", your answer shouldn't be "no". It should be "what do you think?"
Do not reveal your position at least until they give you an answer (*any* answer!)
Why? The correct answer is "which god are you asking about?"
Your children are asking because they want to know what they *should* think. They're too immature to understand the nuances of religion or the social effects of their beliefs.
@@travelinghermit what do you propose?
@@Gustavo_Perez_ I propose one ought to tell their kids the truth to the best of one's knowledge. Allow your kids to all questions and use the Socratic method to help them along in formulating ideas
@@person10 You're saying your views are consistent. With what are they consistent? Why do you feel justified believing in Islam?
Knowledge is power... faith and gullibility are not.
Bluemonsoon, I have a question for you. Does faith aid in your attempt at justifying true beliefs? Or does it aid in verifying if knowledge is correct or incorrect?
Bluemonsoon ,
I appreciate the response. However, I'm a little bit confused about where the content of the response came out of. None of it answered my two questions, and I didn't intend to imply anything deeper than those two questions. Would you mind answering them first before defending your stance? I just want to clarify your position on some key concepts before starting the conversation
+Bluemonoon Very simple.. Person A claims that Zeus is the one true god to person B and tells him he has to believe with all his heart and all he has to do is have faith, Person B accepts person A's claim without any evidence so person B is gullible for accepting person A's claim so therefore faith and gullibility does not lead to knowledge. btw you can stick any of the gods in place of Zeus
so gullible, we use faith 99..% of the time, like for example, right now, you had the faith by typing that comment, it will reach its destination
every day when my kids go to school i always tell then to lean something new and then i say to them, knowledge is.... then they answer ''POWER''
I'm an athiest and I have a daughter she's a newborn but as she grows I won't say anything about religion I think it's up for her to decide weather or not she believes in a god I will answer any of her questions with the most factual answers that I have
Canyon That is a very good choice. I congratulate you.
I can see what you're saying and this is 2 years ago I hope you see this religion preys on the vulnerable and weak minded teach your kid to identify manipulations religion or not
@@savagechicken4518 doesn’t every religion?
I never referred to my kids as anything at all.
I simply didn't mention religion of any sort.
As they got older, I then responded to their questions with the most factual information that I was able to provide.
It wasn't until their late teens that they asked about religion.
I simply responded to those questions with the prefix of "Some people believe ....".
That was enough for them.
When they got to their early 20s, they were virtually thinking totally for themselves anyway.
From that point on, it was up to them, whether they wanted to believe in what religion was trying to convince them of.
They have looked into it but have rejected it completely.
If children are not brainwashed at an early age to accept what religion teaches, it's unlikely that they will accept the stories when they mature.
I agree.
jusfugly I agree with you but i think it's important for the kids to know a little something about religion because it's general knowledge. My parents used to read the bible to me when I was little and said it's like a fairytale but some people are naive enough to believe it.. 'if you don't mention religion of any sort..' that doesn't mean they have never heard of Jesus until they're teenagers, does it?😅🤦🏻♀️ would be a little embarrassing for them
My mom did the same. And I’m an atheist right now
Yes, I was much the same with my children, even using the phrase, "Some people believe ..." or, "Many people believe ...", to explain things to them as young children. My eldest was 13 before she realised that I didn't believe in God, and then only because she overheard a discussion I was having with some Christian friends. When, years later, this subject came up in conversation, my youngest confirmed that she hadn't realised either until she was told by her older sister. I explained that I had consciously tried to avoid indoctrinating them with my atheist beliefs but had instead tried to teach them to think critically. My daughter, with a laugh, suggested that perhaps teaching critical thinking amounted to much the same thing as atheist indoctrination. Both, as adults, have science degrees and both are atheists (though none of us, beyond defending our corner, are "evangelical" atheists).
@@person10 I have to point out that one does not need evidence to disbelieve in religions. The whole point of atheism is that we don't accept god claims because there is not sufficient evidence for them. You mindset of "having enough evidence to not believe" is a dangerous one.
I love doing these kinds of interviews. I am an atheist parent and I agree with these guys on parenting. They are awesome.
What was your set up for doing the interviews?
I used my iphone to film and just had a lavalier mic plugged into the jack. Very cheap. I'm hoping to at least get a couple decent lavalier mics for future interviews.
wanna chat muahahahahah
Bluemonsoon I'm sorry you feel that way.
Godless Engineer i was raised secular. I became athiest early in life, my sister became religious. We both had catholic high school education. I love that my parents raised us to make our own decisions regarding religion.
Agnostic Athiests unite. Haha
In Russia & the former Soviet-Union for 75 years the Bible was banned & illegal to teach it to kids. Bibles were smuggled into Russia. Atheism/communism/evolution/secularism was taught daycare-university. Within months of the fall of the U.S.S.R.in 1992, the post communist government in Russia put the Bible back in Russian schools & now over 600 Bible verses will be memorized by graduation. This was done because the post communist government saw how Christianity was part of Russian culture over 1000 years back to 989 A.D. BTW Russia back then almost went muslim/islamic.
No, we did not teach our children that there was no God. We didn't teach them that there was a God. We didn't take them to church except for weddings and such, but we did not prevent them from going to their friends' churches.
Exactly. I’ve even been taken to religious events by my atheist parents for my education, and also for the food. (mainly the food, Passover food is SO good.) we do the fun parts of many religious holidays, we just get to skip straight to the food. (Mmmm foooooood, I am way to hungry to be commenting on RUclips)
@@ocean6828 Oh, yeah. We did take our kids to a friend's seder one year. Food was amazing.
shammy dammy SO DAMN GOOD!
Hi. I really like you channel and have started listening to it often when I’m driving. I just have a small request: in the future with another video like this one, would you mind saying the questions out loud as well as writing them on the screen. That would be awesome, and I think blind listeners would appreciate it as well. But anyway keep up the great content. Thanks!!
Good idea! I listen while cooking or doing dishes.
Great idea! I listen while I paint so the verbal cue would be great!
I'm a father of four children, I've raised my children without any "God" or religion. But all of them went to a Catholic school here in the Netherlands. And now you have to know that in our Catholic schools the religion isn't at the top of studies they have, the teachers weren't priests or nuns, and I even don't know if they were Catholic themselves at all. Some might, and they had even an openly gay male teacher/ass. principal working there. My children are "freethinkers", but don't call themselves that, and as far as I know, they all reject all "Gods", including the Christian one. On a side note; my grandchildren are also raised without any believe in "Gods". I know the situation in the US differs much from ours, here we atheists aren't rejected by society, I even have worked as a sort of custodian in a Remonstrant church for a few years. Atheism isn't an issue here.
Atheist mom here. I agree with these two. Well said.
Thank you!
(Bluemonsoon) Fuck god, does that trigger you? oh wait he isn't real.
Bluemonsoon I find it interesting that you'd define atheism by what you think the atheists that you've met believe, rather than how the word is actually defined, etymologically.
By the way, teaching your children from a default position on religion is not idiotic. Teaching them to follow a religion and deny everything we know and observe about the universe, however, is.
Bluemonsoon nice try, but there is no logically sound process by which you can come to the belief that God exists, despite what your favorite apologists or theologians tell you. Your appeal to metaphysics is futile here; there are no known scientific methods for testing or verifying the existence of any supernatural happenings, realms, or entities. The goal of science is to discover the truth about the nature of reality, and as it happens, no supernatural claim has been able to stand up to the methodological approach that science uses. These claims aren't substantiated and shouldn't be considered true until they can be (if they can). Period. In this respect, science in no way supports metaphysical claims of any kind.
Atheism is NOT the "denial" of a god, it's a lack of belief, a rejection of the assertion that a god exists. Are you denying Vishnu, or do you reject the assertion that he/she exists for a lack of evidence? Some people might make the assertion that no god exists, which is entirely different. You'd have to add words to the title "atheist" for you to rightly assert that people make that claim. *Gnostic* atheism is just as idiotic as gnostic theism and should not be taught. I'm obviously an atheist, so I am a part of atheist communities and have atheist friends, but I don't know a single one who says that NO gods exist. Philosophy is certainly interesting and has been useful, but it holds no bearing on what is and is not true in reality. This is about raising children to think critically and not to follow any belief blindly, or even just because it "makes sense."
Teaching that Christianity is true is pure idiocy, as it is by logical standards alone, demonstrably ridiculous. The mountains of contrary evidence to the biblical claims and claims of professional apologists over the past few millinea make it even more justifiable to assume that the religion is a false one.
Bluemonsoon *Unlike you, I didn't **_unwittingly_** invoke any specific metaphysical pressuposition about reality*
The fact that you're arguing from a position of theism is, in itself, invoking a metaphysical presupposition about reality. You also brought up Christianity, which would give anyone the impression that you're partial towards that particular religion, and that's pretty damn specific. Not to mention metaphysical.
*pseudoscientific gibberish that science, the methodological enterprise of observation and experimentation regarding the physical realm of being, is the beginning and end of knowledge*
I never said that. My position is that absolute belief in anything that cannot be shown to be true is ridiculous.
Science doesn't presuppose naturalism. Of course the supernatural may exist, but until it's verified, there is absolutely no reason to believe it does. What we DO know, is that many claims about supernatural happenings have been made, and none have been able to withstand the viscous scrutiny of the scientific method. Is it still possible? Sure. Is it likely? Not even close.
*metaphysics and logic necessarily precede and have primacy over science*
Congratulations, you're an idiot. Metaphysics by definition is "above nature." Metaphysics cannot precede science as a path to knowledge. It's not possible to prove something as abstract as that, much less place it BEFORE the most reliable method of learning about the universe.
Logic precedes science. At least you got that one right.
As far as that last part, instead of regurgitating that clearly rehearsed word salad, explain what the hell you're asking. Of course it's a FACT that something exists rather than nothing. Aristotelian philosophy has nothing to do with verifiable truth in this matter, so you aren't helping your case with your little bread crumb trail of a question. Sure, they begin with the fact that something exists rather than nothing. I'll bet that's the answer your looking for. Now, your philosophical soap box won't further this discussion in any useful way, so I'd suggest defending your beliefs (since you've taken to doing that) with arguments that are a bit more substantial. Abstract "god" thought had no bearing on what is and isn't true in reality.
I was a Christian about 2 years ago and then I read the Bible and became an athiest
Plastic Bacteria Christians haven’t read the Bible all the way through, atheists have
Plastic Bacteria I bet if you grew up Christian, you’d be Christian. If you grew up Buddhist, you would be Buddhist. You simply were indoctrinated and you cans get out of that mindset.
I’m in the middle ground. The Bible does teach good morals, but is an acid trip of facts
@@person10 Sorry to hear you can't comprehend even a single English sentence. I don't care what you can do in Islam.
Joseph Stalin The Bible isn’t a science book, it is more of a book for spiritual matters. As a Christian I am not sure on whether I believe in evolution or creation, because I haven’t done much resource to understand it. But I do believe that the Bible is true and I have experienced Gods grace in my life. God has changed me and still is changing me. Should you believe in Him? Well it’s your decision...
...Sorry for the way I switched subjects, ***switches to sarcasm *** if it offended you, because you felt like I was trying to force you to believe...
I think the most important lesson I may have taught my kids is to simply not accept what someone tells you without verifying it, and the more ridiculous it sounds, the more verification you need. They both wear the "atheist" label proudly, it's not something they hide from their friends, and both are eyeing careers in the sciences (astrophysics or cosmology for my daughter, definitely paleontology for my son). They've learned to see through bullshit at an early age (not just religious, but other pseudo-science as well... anti-vax, anti-GMO, etc.) which helps considerably. Mainly, they learned to question, even me.
@HELENO HENZO Congrats! You win the prize for the stupidest thing said on the internet today!
do you know what is stupider? people who call themselves stupid by saying they werent intelligently created w/o knowing they are calling themselves stupid
You probably put a lot of effort into trying to appear clever. Keep working at it, you may succeed some day. There is neither evidence nor need for an "intelligent creator" with regards to explaining any aspect of the natural world.
@Grumpy Santa Though I may not have children, this is beautiful advice that i'll take with me. A more independent way of thinking, but also when opposed with religious thoughts from others to give true evidence and if not to find ways, and I mean ways with relative ease, to debunk what is supposedly in mind, or have been for years. To be absolutely duped for years is it saddening by far and it's respectable with your direction when it comes to your children. Again, will I say, beautiful.
To listen to clear stupidity will only give sensible children a true edge to slay that heavily influenced christian's way of thinking and really use what is taught by their parents be it through conversations and even silence alone. It's amazing really how with absolute ease can it come to a simple close. I've seen it myself.
I went to a YMCA as a pre school because it was the best and closest choice. I loved the stories about the ark and told my parents (who are atheists) about it. I was like 4 and all my dad said was, “do you have any proof?” And then I realised, I didn’t. Later on I did some research and found out how much of a joke it is.
UltimateHan01 I think that’s intellectually lazy of your father to ask a 4 year old if they have proof of a story (I assume) you were just told yourself by the ymca teachers, leading to the view that if YOU don’t have the proof, it can’t be true. Mind that I’m saying this as a general statement not specifically to the Noahs Ark story
I am not religious, but my wife is. She taught my son there is a god, but a non-specific one. My son as he got older started to question. I encouraged this, not by telling him what to think, but by encouraging him TO think. I praised him for asking questions and answered as honestly as I could and always asked him "What do you think?" whenever he would ask me a question. He came to the conclusion there was no god on his own, much to the dismay of my wife, but then again her faith is also not what it once was and she understands why we both don't believe. She still clings on mostly out of tradition, but teaching your children to think for themselves is the most important thing, because I was raised in a christian home and community and they always told me what to think....and when I found out those things were mostly platitudes, not things supported by scripture or reality, that was far more impactful in my deconversion, than was studying, because I lost trust in the people who taught me everything I knew.
This was so wonderful to watch I wanted to cry. So happy for these children. I will share this with my children. Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed it! 😊
7:43 Then explain WHY they have a bed time; Critical thinking requires a large amount of energy. Physically growing requires even more energy. Sleep allows us to "recharge our batteries." Since they are both growing AND thinking critically, the require more sleep. We have tasks that must be completed tomorrow. In order to complete all of them, we must start in the morning. Therefore, you must go to sleep now in order to be able to do those things tomorrow. EDIT: I hindsight, I didn't consider the possibility, that indeed, it is probably this is exactly what she did and was simply trying to construct and example the demonstrated the child's reaction. The subject, of course, was the child question authority. So...yeah...derp.
@@person10 Sources? Because I find it contradictory that not eating food is somehow helpful for the human body?
I totally agree with the labels, I don't call myself an Atheist. I don't have a title for everything I don't believe in. As for my kid, all I did was make sure he was an educated, rational thinker. Then I let him come to his own conclusions, did not push him one way or another. If he came to me with a question I would then tell him my opinion on the subject. He eventually came to me and said that religion makes no sense and that he did not believe in religion or god, and he asked if I was ok with that. I told him I was proud of him for researching the topic rationally and coming up with his own conclusion. I did send him to Sunday school because he asked if he could go so he could learn what religion was all about. I wanted him to know both sides of the debate. Now he is an educated non believer. I did not have to steer him away from religion, religion did it on it's own. All I did was allow him to become an educated, rational, free thinker.
kosys good job
Thanks man.
kosys No problem, you’re an inspiration
Well, even though labels are often seen as baggage, I still embrace being called an atheist. Especially since the only times me being an atheist comes to conversation is in a religious one. The only way to lose the baggage of atheism being X and Y is having everyone that is an atheist claim they are. It loses the value people gave it and keeps the one that stays true for every single one that claims it: non belief in god.
Being an atheist doesnt affect my personal life in any way except when I decide to join in a religious based debate and even then im not always an atheist. I sometimes defend christians or muslims when they have a lot of false accusations, which would make me a humanist in that perspective. People need to know that labels dont affect you untill the topic is about that label.
@@Tinkler9000 Labels certainly don't define you in any way, they are just useful shorthands in conversation. For example, if you are a Catholic, you can just say that rather than explaining all of your specific religious beliefs in detail and wasting time.
If only my teachers thought me how to see how factual evidence is so I can make my own mind much easier on different subjects
make your mind, teachers are the enemies of free thinking, if you dont do what they say or question them, they will fail u
HELENO HENZO I did a 3 year stay in catholic school, I had to regurgitate the bullsbit they fed me, but I never believed it, i fought them every chance i got tok
They will fail you if you don't learn the subject material, as they should. If you're learning about biology and write on your test that evolution isn't real because god or something you should fail.
HELENO HENZO wow! What horrible school did you go to? I've only ever been graded on the work I did in a classroom.
What is a fact?
Why should you only rely on teachers? What about your parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters and friends? (These are rhetorical questions.)
Anyone can learn knowledge, it's the messy stuff, the unknown stuff, that makes life hard. Start by reading more, it increases you vocabulary and helps with structuring your thoughts in a more coherent way.
_"If only my teacher's had taught me how to understand what a fact is, then I could've made up my own mind more readily, using evidence based knowledge on different topics."_
As an atheist parent I feel like answering these questions.
1. No I haven't labeled my son. I don't feel he's old enough with enough information to make a firm choice yet. When he is he'll tell me.
2. Teach what? Science, math, literature? How to be a good person? None of these things need god. Teach him about religion? To do this I bring him to churches and we sit threw a service and I talk with him about it. From his perspective first, then the churches, lastly my own. His thoughts come first, the church come second since they don't matter to him, and I come last because my word has the most weight to it. I don't want to sway his opinion and therefore keep mine until after I've heard his and we've talked about the churches.
3. So far the biggest problem is the few times my Christian fiance and I don't agree on an approach. I'll tell my son that doing something is right because of god and I don't really like that. Because I think doing something right is good because it's right. Whether god exists or not whether my son believes in god or not. I just hope he doesn't have the same problems I did when I was a child and had born-again Christians wanting to beat me up because I wouldn't tell them my name so they could pray for me. Jamye is a hundred percent right on top of what I just said. The questioning authority is certainly a problem but one I expected.
4. Well I don't tell my son he can do anything to be tortured for eternity. I don't tell him that there's some reward at the end of life. I don't tell him that he's being watched by someone who really cares what he does with his penis. I don't tell him that a Supreme Being hates him if he loves someone if he's gay. I don't tell him that women are innately lesser than men. I don't tell him that a worldwide flood that never happened happened. Basically I don't lie to my son unlike theist parents. Although I will admit I did let my son believe in Santa.
5. By not teaching dogma. It's a lot easier then this question makes it out to be.
6. Socrates Cafe sounds incredibly awesome!
While I am not 100% on the exact same page as these parents I absolutely love what they have to say! As an atheist parent I don't want to force my son to not believe in a god I just want him to think for himself.
to be a good person you need god
@@Quaggabagel the ignorance
Lmao
So are u saying all atheist are mean?
Cause like
That's really closed minded thinking
😔
I never talk to my daughter about religion, her mother wanted her to be catholic but at 13 she told us she didn't believe in god and I laughed.. I'm so proud
God is real
Well that's a very stupid thing to be proud about and that is Not a good thing to say that you are proud of your daughter for dishonored the creator the one is able to give her breath to her for her to breath with and you were laughing with with her when she said that she didn't believe in God well you what you my dear are a Lazy parent and you are still going to be judged for your miss parenting and giving false encouragement and if your daughter ends up going to Hell it will only be because of you because you didn't teach her about anything about God and you didn't teach her about salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will join her into the Lake of fire of Hell with your daughter as well and if you loved her you would have taught her that there's a creator that loves her so much but Now because of your foolish beliefs you will cause her to be put to Hell because of your stupid beliefs and and what do you have to say for yourself and what kind of a mother are you
@@poochiboy NEVER! Mwahahaha
Lol jk😁
Man, if you weren't allowed to teach kids religion until they were like 15, religion would die within a generation.
There is one good way to educate your kid about religion - tell him about all the religions both long gone (like Greek or Egyptian mythology) and active (like Buddhism and Hinduism).
My mother did that for me thus I actually consider the story of Jesus Christ resurrection to be as valid as the story of Hercules fighting Hydra!
But... That would make it valid. Hercules was a BEAST.
I agree with the final analysis, but a bit worried about the "mom told me this, so now I believe it too" angle. To me, how my children come to an answer is more important than what they end up believing
@@travelinghermit
"mom told me this, so now I believe it too"
To be clear she never told me anything about those religions to be false or true so no, you're clearly missing the point of what I wrote! (unless that was your goal from the start - then shame on you!)
My point was - if parents actually want their children to know about religions but they don`t want them to fall victim to some vicious one - they should tell the children about ALL the religions there are on earth that they could find. That`s it!
I`ve never talked with mom about wether god exists or not until I was like 15 or 16 - again all she did was read books on different myths and religions to me when I was small - she never said wether or not those religions were true...
@@Boris99999 Really? My kids asked me in preschool/kindergarten. You can't really explain that in a way that satisfies them because they're too immature to really understand.
travelinghermit
You can tell them you don’t know and that is the question that they themselves must find the answer - that’s what my mother said to me by the way! And I believed her not because she was my mother but because the statement “I don’t know” doesn’t need any proofs! Amazing, right?
No need to lie, manipulate or misinform them - just tell the truth: you don’t know and no one does and just assumes things that are more comfortable for them or chooses not to come to premature conclusions and just observes from afar!
my parents are christian yet they were really good and didn't try to make me christian and for that i am thankful
"I would like to reexamine this concept of bedtime" caught me off guard but I love it 😂
it's a great example of what a child should be thinking. it may end being a pita for the parents but the child will grow into a better person.
As an atheist parent, I have had to work gain and and maintain my children’s trust so that they will trust that the advice or directive I am giving them is important to follow. My own parents just used the “I said so” reasoning, didn’t always practice what they preached, and resorted to manipulative behavior rather than being straightforward with me. I often felt both suffocated and unseen.
With my own children I have to be trustworthy, and I have to be transparent about my motives because I don’t invoke authority. Unless it’s an emergency, I don’t make my children do anything that I can’t justify asking them to do. I ask them to feed the dog, for example, and if they don’t want to, I accept that. I do it myself. Leading by example is also crucial. But the next day I will say I’m in the middle of another task or I did it yesterday; it’s your turn today. Sometimes it takes a few days, or weeks, or even years, but eventually they decide they can handle it. And then they take on the task themselves. They understand that they are a useful member of the household.
It continually amazes me how “obedient” they appear to be. But they aren’t obeying me. I never invoke any authority. They just trust that whatever I ask of them is justified and in their best interests one way or another. Even my teenagers - really, especially my teenagers - are this way. They ask my advice about things and care what I think! I never imagined such a great payoff when I first set out to parent with respect and true love toward my children.
I have a friend who, like me, grew up Catholic and is now an atheist. Her views on parental authority and her style of parenting are similar to mine. The trust she built with her child became a matter of life and death when her oldest suffered depression. The child, whose grandparent had died by suicide, began cutting themself and experiencing suicidal thoughts. My friend said that she was so grateful that her child told her about all this very early on and worked closely and transparently in partnership with their parents to get safely through that time of crisis. Which they did. They got through it and became even closer as a family.
So many atheists have true family values . We place relationships between family members first, before fealty to any authority, real or imagined. We prioritize our lives together here and now. We don’t worry about dressing up and parading to the front of the church on Sunday mornings, instead sleeping in and enjoying being together.
Good thing my mom never talked to me or my siblings about religion at all. It leaves a lot of room for us to come up with our own ideas.
The result of that? Well, let's say that we are a very religiously colorful family...
This is awesome. My dad was a hardcore believer, but as we had no Catholic church near our home he stopped caring after her decided to hate the Baptist church I went to near our house. My mom is still a die hard christian as she was born into a Pentecostal family. My brother always asks what god anytime anyone refers to the Lord or the Father. He used to be extremely abusive to me both emotionally and physically because based on the bible he was in the right. Things like this would have been wonderful. I find myself questioning it more and more, but I still pray. I pray more so with the knowledge that no one can hear me or to anything or anyone other than god. I made my own moral code and started seeking parental figures outside of my home. I think we should work harder as a community to educate children in different beliefs. That's why I am working towards becoming a teacher myself. I've seen so many crazy things happen, but I think the worst was when my mom was acting like a child and throwing a fit because my brother said God isn't real.
I would label my kid an atheist because that is what he objectively would be until he professes belief.
Zayan Watchel wouldn’t that be agnostic?
He would be agnostic and an atheist. I suggest you check up some videos on this. You seem to have fallen prey to a common misconception. Here i'll find one for you:
ruclips.net/video/qeFjLcQNqV0/видео.html
It's hard to explain in text and normally just starts an argument. Alex has a really nice video on this!
Zayan Watchel thanks man
It is difficult when your children have a well put together argument, even if the premis is messed up. I'm proud and frustrated at the same time. And I have conceded sometimes. But mostly I'm excited to see them growing and being awesome.
Our family does have a core beilfe to support each generation on thier journey to self actualization.
I am an atheist. I have no clear memory of ever believing, although I'm sure I must have at some point. When I was in basic training, I got in the habit of going to church because it got you out of work for a couple of hours. I alternated between Catholic and Protestant services. After basic was done, I kept up the habit because I got something out of it. I have been very curious about religion and got to know Sikh's, Muslim's, Jew's, Native Canadian's and others. My children go to a Catholic school, and have friend's from many different races and religions. We grew up in an area surrounded by immigrants and families from many Embassies. I have tried to teach them to be as open minded as possible. I bought books on many different religions as well. One of my daughter's got an award for top mark in her religion class. This is a girl who proudly identifies herself to her teachers as an atheist.
My 7 year old has always been like this and it definitely has been the reason for a lot of difficulties, especially in school. The best thing is to keep a close relationship to gain cooperation and not focus on compliance. I wish I found this video 3 years ago!
My parents just told me that many people believe in many different things, and that as long as these people are not causing you any harm, people can believe in whatever they would like to believe, there is nothing wrong with it
My pare ts didn’t need to tell me anything about religion because as a kid and even now I get bored fairly easily and church was always the most boring thing for me and since my parents thought so too we never went to church on Sunday’s or on any other days. It was mostly the school that had some church services. But I only went to two or three the other ones I mostly skipped because the school was not allowed to force anyone to participate in them but it was mostly frowned upon but I didn’t care. I could often sleep longer and go to school later that day.
So I was mainly an atheist because I was just so bored during church service that I never wanted to go. And I thought if that’s Christians daily life I do t want to do that I want to have fun and not be bored all my life. You know the reasoning of a child.
And that made it very easy for parents since I never asked any religion based questions.
My mother too, than she tortured me with her dumb religion and started hiting me and I am soooo jappy to know that she is alone and unhappy
Hi! I’m 17, so please keep that in mind when you’re reading this, I still have a lot of life to experience and learn. Thank you!
I was raised simply with the absence of ANY religion, thought, theory. I was, as a baby, baptized Lutheran. It was important to my great grandmother, that’s who raised my mom. After that, I didn’t have nearly anymore church experience until age 9. I will tell you how I was raised, after I explain why my mom did this. It was kinda an accident.
My mom grew up in a really catholic household. She went to catholic school, at home her grandmother said the rosary every night, read thought about and wrote about the bible every night. Just very religious. She had some problems with the church. She was never allowed to ask questions and if she did, she was in trouble. She didn’t understand much of why things were the way they were. So, she left. She decided she’d raise me with the absence of religion.
I come along. My mom looks into schools. I go to a charter school that teaches the in the Charlotte Mason method of teaching. If you’re not aquatinted with that teaching method, it’s pretty much teaching kids the ability to teach themselves. I’m going to give you an example of how we learned.
We would pick our own subject. Our teacher would give us 3-5 subjects to pick from, the subject wasn’t the important part. Once we picked the moon. The teacher then asks us what questions we have. We write them all down, and find out what questions were really trying to ask (why isn’t the moon pink, and have heart shaped craters turned into why is the moon grey? What is it made of? What type of craters are on the moon? How were they formed? You get the idea). Then our teacher would find books that had the answers to our questions and we’d spend the next few weeks answering them ourselves in our group for that subject. We had to answer them all on our own. We’d spend the next few weeks going places, answering questions, doing experiments, maybe asking questions about the answers, etc.. We questioned our teacher everyday. Sometimes we wouldn’t get any work done because we’d be so crazy that day and we’d have three recess. It was the best education I got. My mom had an EXTREMELY similar teaching method, so when I had to be homeschooled due to health issues it was the same. When I had questions such as “Jewish people believe in God did you know that?” Yes, babygirl. “Do you believe in God?” I am not sure what I believe, would you like to learn more about Judaism?
My answer was always yes, questions and like that came often as I met people of other religions. Growing up like that I learned to respect all religions, and knew some knowledge about lots of religions. I knew people believed all different things and that was okay. I was always brought up also as questioning my mom ALL the time.
“Why do I have to hold your had at this festival”
Until she would go in-depth about ALL of my questions, I wouldn’t be satisfied. My mom also allowed me to have different opinions than her, and that made her happy. It meant she didn’t influence me in a way she didn’t want to. This also made me independent and able to solve my own issues.
I think my mom brought me up incredibly well, especially as a single mom. I’m not saying her way was the only way, not at all. I’m thankful for the way I was brought up and was sharing my experience. This wasn’t even all of what I wanted to say, but i figured if anyone has any questions they can ask!!
When I was younger, I asked my dad to read me something from the bible, I don't remember what exactly, but after words my mum and dad tell me that I said, and I quote, "Harry Potter is more believable then that."
This is exactly how my parents raised me (I'm 17), and I'm hugely grateful for it.
I would have loved that, my dad is agnostic and never really said anything relating to what existed outside our observable universe because like the rest of the human race, he doesn't know.
my mom on the other hand, is a pentacostal cultist and raised me teaching her beliefs as fact (parents are divorced), luckily it backfired, when you teach me something so stupid that as a 12 year old, I could poke holes in it, it didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that it was BS and end up being agnostic/atheist.
This is so cool. I would love to volunteer for CQ when I get back home to Texas.
My dad read the Bible to us as children and told us the simplified story if Adam and Eve,I also had a book a bout Noah.I started asking a lot of questions pretty clearly and while my dad had answers he also said that when it comes to the Bible there isn’t a lot space for logic and that you can’t take it literally.He is an atheist hehe.My mom is Christian but she doesn’t believe in hell and besides all of this “Christmas-Easter-Jesus-love”she never really told is much about Christianity.
All the horrors of the Bible are occurring to me now when I’m also atheist.Luckily I was never forced to believe in god and never scared by hell
How SOME atheists teach, my old man was a preachy almost militant atheist and authoritarian.
I am only an atheist now because the religions of the world posses ideas that are incredibly shallow. Try discussing how the world and humanity began and you will struggle to reach 3 mins of content. There's now how god did it or any internal monologe detailing the why's the deliberation of the so called intelligent design, except when they hit humanity they describe some form of artifice. We know (in a fictional sense) that god formed us from clay and breathed life in to Adam. But that's the most explanation we get.
Parents like the ones shown sound pretty neat, that camp looks interesting too.
Yes, just being atheist is not enough to make you a good person.
Excellent video Drew! Everything said was extremely wise and important. It's always good to hear that others reject the notion of authoritarian parenting. Thank you for contributing to the edification of humanity 👍
*What you do is part of who you are.* If you make and tend to a farm, you are a farmer. If you play the piano well you are a pianist. If you take corporate money as a senator and then push legislation for that corporation, you are a corrupt politician.
What you do is in fact one of the only ways to define who you are as a person.
This is just so amazing and helpful. I wish there were classes of "how to raise your kids" taught by educated athiests like David and Jamye❤👏🏼
I like how they say that we are not supposed to put labels on people based on their beliefs. You have no idea how many times my ideas have been rejected because I'm a Christian
If you're saying that your ideas have been rejected based on others' judgement of you rather than on your ideas' merit, that's unfortunate. It sounds like we're on the same page as far as accepting/rejecting others' ideas based on the merit of the ideas rather than the identity of the person proposing them.
Genetically Modified Skeptic yep, that where getting bullied for 10 years got me. (The merit part, not the people rejecting my ideas due to the identity of the person)
I grew up with a Christian mom and I am so lucky she let me decide my own beliefs.
Sometimes she'll enjoy listening to my deep atheist theories, sometimes I'll enjoy listening to her prayers. This is how it should be, people accepting one another and not enforcing opinions down other people's throats.
Drew talks to me, I *don't* laugh because I agree with him
You might be becoming my favorite commenter.
This is such an important topic!! I would love to see a round-table discussion about this topic. I'm not sure who I would include of the top of my head. But it would be a worthwhile discussion.
I feel a lot of these parenting strategies would be good and useful in religious households as well ;P
Great synthesis and analysis, Drew.
Thanks for your clear-sighted posts. 👍 ❤️
666th comment
Not religious
Don't really care about the "demonic" ties
I try to be edgy
Glad to be here right away! good subject! You rock
Children should be taught the dangers and the negative things about religion
You can still have a belief that a God exists
Without subscribing to the worlds religions.
thats brainwashing kids against what you think is bad, for atheist there is no such thing as bad or good, but nature
@@helenohenzo7484 So warning them about dangers is brainwashing? Good to know you brainwash your kids not to do meth.
You can believe in the Santa Claus without subscribing to a religion as well. Doesn't make it a good idea.
The "secular kids might be excluded" sounds really weird from where I am (France). My mother is catholic (but in a very little way, she don't believe in genesis for example, which I think not a lot of French do btw) and my father atheist. I didn't attend any church, and I had the choice to attend catechism classes. Most of my classmates didn't, but no one really care about if you did or not. I feel like the excluded would be the very faithful kid.
Personally i beileve you should let your kids choose what they want to beileve. You shouldn't force religion or atheism on your child.
When I was a young boy my parents took the family to a Unitarian church next door to Cal University in Berkeley California. They wanted us to be open minded about religion. Then we move to Martinez, a tiny town in a valley by the Carquinez Straights east of the bay area. It was a conservative town and we started going to a First Congregational Church. Something changed and when I turned eighteen I told both my parents I was no longer going to church, and my mother was beside herself with anguish that I chose not to believe as they did. As it turned out my mother was not as terribly enthused with us making up our own minds if it countered her belief system. She was raised by a rip-snorting Methodist minister in the south who had nine children who live on hand me downs. What came to light is the old adage; "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." No matter what my mother said about us making up our own minds, she did not really believe it because she was still caught up in the admonitions of her father, who by the way was a lost cause. who in their right mind would have nine chilren on a ministers salary during the Depression. That is exactly how delusional belief systems can lead a person to become totally disconnecting from reality.
By the way I am now a devout Anti-Theist !!
Hey I grew up in Berkeley and my grandparents were members of that church! My mom and aunt got married there. The Unitarians in the Bay Area are so adorable. Silly, but adorable. You didn't even have to believe in "God" or that Jesus was real to go to there - it was so warm and fuzzy. In fact, it's pretty hard to make them mad at you as an atheist, which is kind of annoying. And most of the ministers were gay or lesbian. If you ever go back and see a short old lady with dyed brown hair playing an oboe, that's probably my mom. Beautiful place, no?
During the fifties some of our best friends were a Jewish family whose Matriarch was the head of the psych department at Cal University and we were all Unitarians. They had kids the same age as we were, and I had a real crush on their daughter at the time. The fifties were great years to be a young boy exploring the world.
Make distinctions as a Parent, based on Critical thinking but Teaching Children at a Very young age to question all authority can be a slippery slope towards excessive disrespect, I think the right age to instill the importance of questioning authority is around 4th or 5th grade. Just my subjective view as a Parent, that's what my Mother did and I followed suit when I became a Parent
Mediocrity's Maze yeah, you should never drop religion down on your child when they're very young. My opinion, you should be very vague when talking to them about religion. Let them form their own opinions and be a free thinker. As long as they know what's right from wrong, I don't see the problem.
Mediocrity's Maze authorities should always be able to explain how before you accept and you should always be ready to work for an explanation
Look at Sudbury schools, which let all students, even five year olds, have as much say in the running of the school as the staff.
If you expect your kids to take responsibility for as many things as they can handle, by and large they really will rise to the occasion and be much better off throughout their lives. Kids forced to be responsible at a young age, for example, are the recipients of almost all of the highest honours in every military in the world, many of the most successful entrepreneurs, and more generally most of the most successful people in any field of endeavour society values, including the basics like civil responsibility, getting along with the boss, and parenting, in all cases by about two standard deviations over the mean.
Being born and raised in Sweden this is interesting to hear. Over here religion is something people keep to them self unless asked for the most part. We have religion taught in school as part of history classes but it's more a walk through of the big religions and their rise and fall throughout the ages and of course how some are still around and why that is. No one cares if you are religious here unless you go all "vegan" and just have to talk about it all the time.
Great video, keep up the good work!
Can't believe I missed this one. I don't agree with the first person interviewed. I think she's fooling herself if she doesn't think our beliefs shape who we are as individuals.
I never said that they don't shape who we are. I just said that they don't *define* who we are. Just like being an atheist doesn't make you a nice person any more than being a Christian would. Behaviors and beliefs are very different things. I have years of experience in cognitive theory and education, and I'm not about to fool myself by thinking that my children will be better people because they are atheists.
She didn't say it doesn't shape you but she doesn't want it to define people which I think is fair
I had the same thought.
I’m going through this right now with my 9yo and my basic answers are no one knows the truth so you believe what you want to believe. Not one person on Earth knows, but just spread positivity not negativity
I keep hearing all kinds of reasons why people don't use the label "atheist" to describe themselves. I get it, a lot of those reasons make sense on the arguments which they are based, and I won't bother to list them all here. However, based on my knowledge of humanity for most its simply camouflage. Atheism has bad connotations attached to it. To bad, fix it by being the best atheist they've met. When you label yourself as an atheist it's clear. People know what you don't believe in. When you say your an Agnostic, Secular etc. you just camouflage yourself, and your safe in your closet. The ones who should be ashamed are those who still hold on to myths. Look at the crusades, the hundreds of years of witch trials etc. They ( the religious ) should be humble and ashamed of church history but let's face it, most don't know the bible or the church's history. However by contrast we should be proud atheists. In the "real" world everyone knows I'm an atheist. Come out of the damn closet . Unless you live somewhere that it would jeopardize your life... I get it . Otherwise, you agnostics, humanists, free thinkers, etc. fuck you. Your all atheists.
I have no problems labeling myself as an atheist, because that is a choice I have made. The question was what do we label our *children*. And I believe we wait until they decide what they would like to be called. Even if that's something we don't agree with.
+Irish
I am not an a-dragonist because that is already the assumption of society, same with most stuff we don't believe.
But people assume we are religious, just like how people assume that we are fine with
-having the ten commandments in courthouses
-giving churches tax-exempt status even though the 1986 American study showed religion had an income for that year about five times greater than the five richest corporations put together
-giving tax money to churches in the form of grants
-giving "equal time" to science and religion in science classrooms
etc...
Atheist Meme: One of the reasons people don't want to call themselves atheists is because they don't actually know what the word means, nor what agnostic means. They think atheist is hard core, closed minded, attacker of religion, and agnostic is a more open minded, not denying anything, just don't believe, label. Atheism light, without all the certainty and arrogance. These are both false definitions. There can be many different personalities and approaches for atheists, but the word simply describes someone with a lack of belief in a god. Agnostic is not a part of a continuum between atheist at one end and extreme religious zealot at the other. Agnosticism simply refers to one's position regarding the knowability of god. The vast majority of both believers and atheists are agnostic, atheists because the rational among us realise that we cannot know for certain that anything does not exist, and the more thoughtful religious believers because they recognise that faith cannot exist without uncertainty, that there must be occasional doubt, and the willingness to admit that a thing cannot/should not be proven, or else the word faith loses its meaning. A person who categorically KNOWS that his god exists cannot by definition have any faith, which is belief in spite of a lack of certan knowledge or proof.
I think the reason that people like Humanists and free thinkers do not make a big fuss about atheism as a term of self description is because it is a very limited, or should be a very limited part of anyone's identity. If you don't belive a thing exists then why spend time on it?
To be fair I do find it as frustrating as you clearly do, that so few people actually understand the terms, and are so unwiling to call themselves an atheist, or at least admit that the term describes their lack of belief. Many use the term agnostic as a sort of badge of honour, as if it signals them as an open thinker. Cenk Uygur of TYT is particularly bad for this. He is an atheist, but will never admit to being one, because he intentionally or unintentionally does not know what the word actually means, but instead identifies it with a caricature version of Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris.
All this said, I watched a recent video, can't remember who by, (Sam Harris?)in which the person hoped for a day when the term atheist would no longer be needed, as it is such a limiting thing to call oneself, for something that ought to be of so little consequence.
Cosmic Skeptic said something similar in "ATHEIST, KNOW THYSELF" about how he was looking forward to a day when the term atheist was no longer needed because it would be the social norm. He got the idea from David Silverman, head of the American Atheists society who was saying how important it is for people to use the label atheist because it gives us philosophical and political weight by becoming a recognized demographic, there are many times as many atheists as there are LGBT people, but LGBT people have much more weight as a demographic in political and philosophical discussions
*PtolemyauletesXII*
_Atheist_ is a religious pejorative for normal folk.
As a parent, this was WONDERFUL - THANK YOU!!
Look daddy it's a boat!
No, that's a hovercraft.
How do you spell that?
Uh... … … It's a boat
If there's hope for humanity's continued existence, IMO it's this. I was especially struck by the parents saying they'd encourage the religious to use these methods with their own children while continuing to maintain their own various faiths. Another thing the video got me thinking about was how this kind of upbringing would probably empower these kids with a far greater ability to control their emotions, directing their passions through reasoned thought. Should the ghastly day arrive when civilization breaks down, this would give them a huge survival advantage. Thanks for this video, as always.
I love this so much. I wish I would have grown up with parents like this.
As an Italian, I grew up in a country where you can’t dodge religion even if you want. It’s just impossible, even if you come from a family like mine, where my mom is agnostic and my father is an atheist. When I was little (like very little, 4 years old) I was really into discovering things about religions, I loved the mythology around it and it was something that was not imposed on me. Of course in the 90’s we didn’t have internet and my researches were limited to the children’s books we could find in the bookstore so it was mainly about Christianity and the greek’s pantheon. I soon found out that I knew more about New and Old Testament than most of my friends that used to go to masses and frequent oratorio (I don’t know if it's called like that outside Italy, but basically is after school or summer camp lead by a priest).
Fortunately, I usually didn’t feel left out because of my non-religious background (childs my age didn’t really care) but sometimes it happened. Like when I was in kindergarten and the teacher had the brilliant idea of asking the class if everyone was baptized and if everyone did go to church (actually, it happened at middle school and high school too). Of course, I was the only one who responded “no” and “no”. Then I came home confused and asked my mother why I wasn’t baptized and why we didn’t go to church on Sunday. She told me that if I wanted we could go to the church and have me baptize anytime. It was my choice. I thought about it a while and then I decided that it was a big decision that would influence my whole life and I was too small and unprepared to take it. I stayed agnostic ‘till the end of middle school and then decided I was atheist. I'm very thankful to my parents for letting me choose.
I am a Sikh, and my wife practices Cao Dai.
Our daughter makes us proud as she respects both religions, but the schools get upset sometimes because they think she takes too many _Sik Dais_
Ah? Ahhh?? 😀
Ha, that was a good one : )
The world would be a much better place if there were more theists like you
I actually found out through the Internet that I'm considered an Atheist. Both my parents dropped their belief, and educated my brother and I to think for ourselves. They probably don't even know the term "Atheist". Now that I think about it, it's actually pretty funny how I learned at home: as soon as we had Internet, my father told us to "google it" when we wanted to know something. It led to some very interesting conversations during dinner, because of course we had to "inform" our parents of what "they didn't know". We learned in time to pick our sources.
I actually never thought of atheists parenting I always thought atheists were created by being from religious families and felt dissatisfied after growing up.
My family is Christian on paper, but religion was never a topic we talked about.
Very good video,
As a King James Bible believing christian, I will teach my kids the gospel and God's word, but I would also raise them to be free thinkers. I wouldn't approach them with ''believe this because I say so'', but I would rather explain why something is true. I would especially teach my kids on salvation so that they have assurance and know they are saved. I'd also give them room to make mistakes, so I wouldn't be an authoritarian parent.
Regarding dogma's, I know religious parents take a very large share in those, but they don't have a monopoly on them. Don't forget politics for example! ;)
"I will teach my kids the gospel and God's word, but I would also raise them to be free thinkers. I wouldn't approach them with ''believe this because I say so'', but I would rather explain why something is true. I would especially teach my kids on salvation so that they have assurance and know they are saved."
The contradictions here will confuse their minds. You can't raise "free thinkers" if you're forcing the concept that your one religion out of all of them is "true". If you're hanging the threat of eternal torment over them (which your "salvation" argument does) then you're coercing their minds, not teaching them to think freely.
Faith alone 1611, why is something true in your mind? Clearly, the evidence isn't required in your mind, simply because Christianity is completely unsubstantiated. So, how do you determine what is true?
I'm also a free thinker and I ended up being a King James Bible believer. Ofcourse I'm going to teach my kids the gospel, because I don't want them to go to hell. The Bible teaches that as soon as you believe the gospel, you have eternal life. Once saved is always saved. From there on I teach them to think freely. I'd teach them to question every man (including religious men and me). If they ask questions about something, I'd explain them why something is true rather than: ''shut up and believe it because I say so.'' I would also expose them to different ideologies like evolution, but ofcourse I would explain them why it's an error. Also, I wouldn't punish my kids for each and every sin, because they are responsible for their own choices.
Being a free thinker doesn't equal being an atheist that believes in evolution. The evolution theory gets shoved down your throat in each and every public school.
"I would also expose them to different ideologies like evolution, but ofcourse I would explain them why it's an error."
So you openly admit you're going to lie to them. Think about that. All of the evidence demonstrates the fact that evolution occurs, but you're going to ignore that and lie to them.Free thinking involves the ability to change your mind as new evidence comes in. You, my friend, are not a free thinker.
Grumpy Santa: Macro evolution has never been proven. An animal giving birth to another animal has never been observed. All the evidence evolutionists provide is in favour of micro evolution, which is an observable fact.
I'm always willing to consider new evidence. The fact that you insist macro evolution to be true eventhough it has never been scientifically observed shows that you are the one who isn't a free thinker.
Agnostic Atheist: Something is true, because you can conclude it with logic. Now true christianity is substantiated. The source of our faith is the King James Bible.
I really enjoyed this. I'm also thrilled that you did not forget to ask about the challenges of being an atheist parent. Theists sometimes forget to face both the pros AND cons.
Wow, how sad, do you really have such closed views of people who follow their chosen religion. Yes, I’ve met atheists who are cruel, selfish and egocentric...I don’t link their views or approaches with all, or even most atheists. I know religious people are out there who generally give answers of “because I said so” or “because God/Allah made it so”, but that is generally, from those I’ve experienced, based on educational shortfalls...by the way, I’ve known atheists to use the first one, guess there all just authoritarians...nah, said I wouldn’t go there. My s that God made a spectacular universe to experience and learn/learn from; that a day to God is not remotely associated with one revolution of the Earth on its axis; and that there is meaning to all things, and gave us the tools, to include intellect and curiosity, to unveil the answers.
Pardon if I don’t give you props for the learning environment for your kids, as this is the norm from my experiences in this nation and a few others. Sure, some religions are a bit more authoritarian; e.g. Islam and Sharia Law, but you look over time and even in these cultures scientific questioning has been encouraged and has resulted in scientific advancements. Kids need structure as much as they need encouragement. Teaching other cultures is unlikely to be done without bias, regardless of how good the intentions of the teacher; e.g. I am a staunch Constitutional Conservative, I taught some political concepts and activities to college students, several students came later and asked my affiliation as they weren’t sure, but once I told them, some would, when looking back, be able to see my bias, whether it be knowledge of representatives of the party, taking longer to think when discussing liberal platforms... Experiential education is far more valuable. Encourage kids to have friends with differing views based on commonalities and, if invited, let them go to religious activities (Catholic, Protestant, Shi’a, Jewish, Buddhist...) and have them feel free to ask followups with their friends and you. Never say no for a disingenuous reason, should they start show affinity toward or even start following one of these religions.
Oh yeah, and never speak ill of any religious person using the over generalization fallacy of a small, observed sample can be used for the whole or, as you and the interviewees try to hedge your bets by using “most”. I’ve heard second hand of religious people who meet your characterization and seen enough evidence to know they are out there in general numbers...but I did notice your arguments and even title jump to the alternative...three do not equal all, and your title isn’t how “some” or even “most” atheists teach; the atheist population isn’t bound at all by your title. Sadly, I’ve met some atheists who do not follow your proposals...should I say now that your video is proof that all or most atheists are liars?? No, of course not, you’re just trying to sell your belief system with a bit of misleading advertising which you may not even notice without it being pointed out...don’t worry, we all have natural biases, but it is important to be aware of this.
The learning environment they gave their kids doesn't reflect on their ideas about religion, in fact it's the opposite they don't give them their opinion on religion but a range of opinions and let them think for themselfs. Are you against free thought?
"God made a spectacular universe to experience and learn/learn from;
that a day to God is not remotely associated with one revolution of the Earth on its axis;
and that there is meaning to all things, and gave us the tools, to include intellect and curiosity, to unveil the answers."
Or you can say the same things without lying:
There is a spectacular universe to experience and learn/learn from;
Things do not have inherent purpose, but you can understand how they work;
because evolution gave you the intellect and curiosity that allows you to unveil the answers.
Also this way you don't need to make excuses for some nonsense written 2000 years ago by an archaic civilization.
Sometimes, even instead of teaching me to learn, they would simply let me fail and learn by myself. For example, if I was doing something stupid, they would say “that might hurt” instead of “don’t do that.” Of course, this was only in situations that didn’t put me of anyone else in serious danger, I think full free-range parenting is plain reckless.
My dad is an atheist, and very critical of religion, but he allowed me to go to church with my grandparents and didn’t even speak a word about religion to me until I was around 11 - by which point I wasn’t going to church anymore because my grandparents were too far away and I was no longer very interested. I did end up becoming an atheist, but that was because I kept reading fantasy books and the Bible just sounded too much like them (also, I didn’t have a very good attention span, so I didn’t exactly care about whatever the Bible told me), not because of anything my dad said to me.
I just want to thank you deeply for this video. As atheist parents to a first and only child, this can be very daunting! Since he was 2, he has adored Neil DeGrasse Tyson, I can't count how many times he's watched Cosmos, and he listens and learns so well. I have wondered, are we indoctrinating him? I mean, I certainly am not going to be sending him to Sunday school, but I do want him to understand religion and the part it plays in people's lives and history, and I think that will help him navigate this world much easier than, say, sheltering him out of fear he might actually end up a believer. So how much do I expose him to religion and how do we do that, you know? I appreciate this video and advice, because I want my child to make his own decisions about these things, yet I am often uncertain as to how to proceed.
I love your balanced and reasonable approach in your videos. Live and let live.
I'm an atheist, raised as a christian. My dad died at 14 and my mom got breastcancer a year later. I had a couple of years of resentment towards god and church after that. Then came to the conclusion that i couldn't believe in a system that claimed to have a loving god, but be so brutal to the people that loved him so much, which finally brought some peace in that area.
I don't tell my kid to be an atheist. My mom is still a christian and occasionally takes him to church on sunday, which i consider a good thing. Let him experience for himself. I'm lucky with my mom though. She'll never try to convert him, but will answer any question he has from her viewpoint I never had to ask her for that. She respects my choice and i respect hers. We can talk for hours about our differing or same viewpoints. And learn from each other along the way.
Well, that's enough rambling for today, i think.
Thanks for all the excellent work you do here and keep it up! :)
Thanks for the video, I found it very interesting. As a parental unit with two grown children, I did as these guys said and didn't teach religion. I tried to teach them critical thinking. As a young adult, my son decided to look for God. He started reading the Bible, and then his critical thinking kicked in. He's now identifies as an atheist.
My parents definitely encouraged me to ask questions, and never told me about "Santa" so I wouldn't think they were lying when they told me about another character
I told my kids about Santa and tried to keep the story going as long as I could. It amused me and let the kids learn by question things that didn’t made up.
Atheist here! I worried a lot about indoctrinating my daughter, actually. We hold a lot of sway over our children, & it's important to not abuse that. My husband (who didn't subscribe to any particular religion, but, up until around 3-4 yrs ago, believed that "intelligent design" made the most sense) & I believed that the most important thing to develop was trust. This meant we needed to be willing to back up our claims, as well as admit our mistakes & not be ashamed to say, "I don't know, but let's try to find out." When she would ask my opinion on religious &/other controversial issues, I would give her my point of view, but then also give her two or three examples of how other people believe differently from me, as well as one another, & just as passionately, if not more so.
The trust we developed (& consciously work to maintain) helps regarding the issue of "questioning authority." For example, take getting to bed &/ doing homework by a certain hour. When she'd balk at what her dad & I felt was appropriate, we'd ask her to take a week & follow, without complaint, the schedule we believed best; paying attention to how she felt physically, mentally, etc. during that period. After that week, we allowed her to follow the schedule she felt was more fair & beneficial, then we honestly compared the two, different weeks. She discovered that starting her homework earlier was much less stressful. We learned we could allow her to stay up a little longer before bedtime. We combined the two, & came up with a brand new schedule. No matter the result, the process allowed us *all* to feel heard & considered. It also required patience & integrity (two incredibly important attributes) from all parties involved.
I was discussing this video with a religious friend of mine and they objected to the teaching without indoctrination part by saying ‘well in teaching them to question authority and make their own decisions and beliefs that’s basically indoctrinating them into atheism’. They then refused to see the irony in that comment and I found that very funny. Just thought I’d share that here
Wow, the Socrates Cafe seems really cool; all the kids together free thinking amongst themselves. Where’s the link that takes me to this camp!?
We don’t talk about religion much in our household, and I try to answer any question to the best of my ability, but, in general I have made it clear that I don’t have all the answers, will answer, “I don’t know” sometimes, and encourage self exploration. Due to part of my university education, I was exposed to at least superficial information about most religions that currently exist (this is was a first step on my journey away from religion), and I always come at religion from this perspective when religions questions come up. I like to contrast the beliefs of different systems and cultures to give a different perspective then the purely Christian one my children are getting from most of their peers (and sometimes teachers).
My ultrareligious grandparents still respected me and discussed their views with me, even when I was an atheist. I now believe in God for different reasons, but I respect them for not letting me down even when I was an atheist.
This is how I was raised and I feel that I've grown up a lot happier this way.
I’m new to your videos. I am really enjoying them. You are very informative and offer valuable information.
I really enjoyed this! Thanks for making content like this :)
Probably the biggest thing that led me away from Christianity was questioning certain things. Like "why is it wrong to be gay?" When the answer was because "god said so," that wasn't enough for me. Some people said it wasn't natural but then it happens all the time in nature, so are animals sinning? I almost overshared haha. In conclusion, question everything. except your emotions! validate your emotions first as they are natural and then question their logic.
I am a Christian, yet I whole-heartedly agree with this video. I want to teach my kids HOW to think, not WHAT to think. My church really is adamant about that, at around the 7-8th grade range. They tell the kids that those years are extremely formative, and that this is the chance for Christianity to move from your parent's religion, to yours. The church recognizes that most kids are just there because their parents told them to be, and aim to change that. That's the mark of a good kid's/students ministry, to me.
You teach them how to think and not what to think at a church? Do you really not see the irony?
My parents were both atheists, when I was old enough to discuss the topic of religion and God, my parents just sent me to speak to my great aunt, who's a fervent Catholic, I was about 7 the first time the questions I had were formulate enough to bring a good discussion forward, my aunt explained to me what she believed in, I didn't feel "pulled in" by her explanations, so I didn't become a believer, not that she tried to convert me either. We had many discussions like these, as I was growing up and learning about a lot of different things, I became an atheist myself, as I didn't believe that there was a god. With time the discussions with my aunt shifted a bit, I was more interested by the mythology of christianism and she was a wonderful source on that account. My parents and I talked about religious beliefs too, but as we were all atheists, it always shifted more towards philosophical questions than passing down "Knowledge". I wasn't raised an atheist, I was simply presented with answers to questions I had, and formed my own conclusions thanks to the answers I received. I guess there are still a bit of "inherited" beliefs from my parents in my upbringing, since I think subconsciously, I may not have been swayed by the Catholic religion arguments simply because I couldn't believe my parents could reject it if it was true. But in the end, I still think I was fortunate in that I was never forced to be this or that.
That's called being raised atheist
@@draalttom844 maybe, I personally think it's more being raised secularly.
Finally, video with appropriate length
My Mother was a very traditional Roman Catholic; my Father had converted in 1949 in order to marry her. We grew up in the post-Vatican II period, but my parents were very much in favor of actually thinking our way through life. A frequently heard statement in our house was "Figure it out!" for which I am very grateful.
By the time I was out of high school, almost none of my siblings were attending Church and Mom was fully accepting of the fact that she had no right to control our choices once we were adults. Her funeral was the last time I attended a Mass, and it was only out of respect for her memory, period. She had by the end of her life, pretty much only attended Church out of habit, I think.
So in one generation we went from an ancient, established religion, to eight separate versions of atheists, semi-theists, and outright Pagans. But we all had actual reasons for our stances. We did our best to 'figure it out', and I still use that as my everyday approach to life.
Thanks, Mom.
Awesome video, dude.
While I do follow religion, Its super important as to what is said in this video about teaching kids how to think so they can explore the world. I think this presents a challenge that I could see from a household with religious parents but wanting to have your child be a freethinker and have the opportunity to religion. However the challenge then is doing activities related to religious practises while simultaneously not indoctrinating.
Yeah, my mom definitely taught me to not be afrqid to question authority. As she would put it, "if I can't give a logical explanation of why you should do something, why on earth should you have to do it?"