It Is Okay To Tell Your Kids There Is No God?

Just think if a worldwide empire began violently converting people all over the earth, forcing them to accept Snookie as Lord and Savior or die.

I think this whole Jersey Shore thing would endure as well.

 

hate to break it to you, but atheism in recorded history is older than Christianity.

Euthyphro's dilemma (from Plato, 400 BC) and Epicurus's (died 270 BC) problem of evil remain major thorns in the side of those who wish to defend gods.

 

Speak about your kids, not the ones I see.

 

Fine then you should also teach them there is no Santa Claus and forgo the presents.

Sometimes you need someone, even a fake someone, looking over your shoulder making sure you do good.

 

I have two opinions about Santa Claus.

1) Santa Claus (and the tooth fairy and all those other imaginary beings we foist on our kids) are a form of cognitive test. We as parents expect our children will grow out of these things. What we want to know is when this happens as a signal of normal developmental progress. This side of Santa is virtually harmless.

2) Many of the specific attribtes of Santa Claus are clearly derived from the standard monotheistic God-notion. He knows when you've been bad or good, and will put you on the naughty list if you're bad. And then you won't get any presents, a metaphor for heaven. In this respect, Santa Claus is a sort of training-bra God. This side can be harmful.

 

It's OK for children because children are, naturally, barbarians. Moral behavior is largely TAUGHT.

Some adults do need a carrot or a stick to pretend to be moral, but not many.

 

So the god you believe in is as real as Santa and the Easter bunny?

Then why are so many professing Christians so gullible and impotent?

 

Are you telling me that ancient Greeks, who worshipped Greek Gods, were atheists?

I hate to break it to you, but claiming the mantel of others, be it ancient scions, or Einstein and Jefferson, does not actually re-write the reality of historical fact.

You should probably do your math as well, because based on your math, it has been almost 2300 years since your major thorn should have invalidated all Gods.

You see things as you wish, not as they are. That is the arrogance of atheism and why this discussion is never about the reality of evidence and what it points too. Atheists are not convinced by evidence of much it seems, indeed, as you prove, they will happily misinterpret it.

 

No, because it would be a lie. You shouldn't lie to kids.

 

This is exactly what I am talking about.

We all know that God figures the world over all claim to reside in the North Pole, have flying reindeer - some with glowing noses, they all sneak into homes to leave presents for children, and show up at malls on holidays .... yep standard stuff, right out of the Bible, Koran, Torah, and in the ancient texts of Buddha - who, didn't you know, is famous for riding around on a reindeer with a glowing nose.

Seriously? This is the result of a faith based on superior intellect? Sad.

The only thing standard here is the sniveling derision of modern atheism which knows no taboo in terms of insults and deriding others. You should be proud of your atheism

 

What he was telling you but which you somehow seemed to completely miss, was that history shows that there were greek philosophers that speculated on the nature of evil, the existence of gods, the meaning of life, understanding reality, etc.. And amongst all of that there were men who actually rejected the gods - that makes them athiests and they preceded christianity.

 

Yes , when they are old enough tell them that God is just another fairy tale like Santa Clause.

 

Atheists reject all Gods, and last time I checked, the Jews had the ancient Greeks beat. And when we say "some", I am telling you that MOST believed in the Gods of the period.

Of course you atheists are all over this forum wondering about the nature of evil aren't you? Wondering, rather than telling us, about God and his nature are you? You spend days pondering the meaning of life do you? Reality itself?

You atheists spend all your time usurping the mantel of those who do wonder about these things and bad mouthing other people from positions of ignorance.

THis may come as a shock, though it shouldn't, but Greek philiosophy is read and understood by more than just atheists. But thanks for the lecture about what I do and do not understand.

BTW - there are some excellent works on the origins of modern atheism, peer reviewed and all, and none of them begin with Greek poets.

 

And when they ask you to explain that or otherwise prove it. Just give them the standard atheist answer.

you suck!

 

So you believe it is a lie to tell your kids that God doesn't exist? Can you provide proof as to why I would be wrong?

 

It would be a lie because nobody can prove whether God exists or not.

 

Can't prove whether God exists or not.
Can prove that the bible is a work of fiction though.
Without the bible where is God?

 

You have obviously never read the bible. Nowhere does it claim that God 'wrote' it. i believe God guided the men who wrote it to communicate what he wanted to say.

 

I didn't claim God wrote it. I claimed it was a work of fiction.

Like the story of Noah. You do the math of how old he was when the flood came up. Compare that to how he was when one of his sons was born then how old the son was when the flood came up. They give the numbers, been awhile since I've opened a bible and I don't have photographic memory. But there is a 60 or so year error in their calculations. The type of error you make when you are making up a story.

Or how about with Moses; They are camped out and one of them brings a prostitute into camp while God is walking among them. God blow up his temper and kills 17,000 people with the plague in his anger proving he's not a God I would want to follow. He doesn't stop until Moses and the other elders stand up to him burning incense and begging for forgiveness. So either the story is true and God is an (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) or the story is made up. It's more believable they had a plague because of poor sanitation conditions but they blamed God for it. They wondered why God would do such a thing and decide to pin it on the guy who brought a prostitute to the village. The plague end when the elders took charge and burned everything. That's more believable and shows it wasn't God at all.

The Bible is a work of fiction.

Here's some more proof that the bible was written by men and is a work of fiction not fact.
http://www.freethoughtdebater.com/tenbiblecontradictions.htm

 

"It's OK to tell your kids Mickey Mouse is real"​

 

It is OK, Makedde, it is OK. Considering that you as well as most posters who agree with you hate even the process of making children you can tell your virtual children whatever you want. Just stay away from real children, some broke some sweat making them and shed some blood bringing them into realities of this world.

 

A better question Mak would be how to explain God in a religiously diverse world to your children.

You yourself do not think there is a God. As you ask us to prove you are wrong, you are also fundamentally aware that there is no proof to prove others wrong in their beliefs in God either.

So what do we prepare our children for in a world filled with diverse religions? Should we, as religious people, not tell our children about atheists? Allow them to venture into the world and then find ... atheism untested, uneducated, and tossed upon them with their sometimes legitimate concerns of religion? Or should we as religious people prepare our children for the reality of a diverse world of belief? Ultimately, and as I addressed earlier, our children are going to make their own faith choice - and it very well may not match our own.

I think the trick here is compassionate understanding of diversity. As an atheist, it would be wrong to tell your children straight out that there is no God - as wrong as it would be to tell your children that accepting atheism will result in them being caste out of the family. The decision regarding God is one that is deeply important to people, defines to a large extent who they are and what they intend to be, and the best way to introduce a child to faith is with compassion and understanding.

As a Christian, I think that my values are correct. Those values, whatever source they derive from will be passed on to some extent to our children, but how those values choose to manifest themselves .... as to how, or indeed whether, our children choose to follow the source of our values - or indeed our values at all - is ultimately up to them.

The best thing we can give our children is an appreciation of diversity and a respect for an honest faith choice.

Again, just telling your children that there is no God? What happens when he or she goes to school and find Christians or Muslims for the first time? What then? Do you really want to teach your children that 'those' people are raving lunatics who cause war and genocide? Atheists and their children still have to deal with the reality of religion and the God concept. I would simply hope that mutual respect and encouragement to exploire honestly would be the teaching point.

 

0.o

...What?

 

They would be told that some people believe in a God and some people don't, and that mummy doesn't. That doesn't mean I'd freak out if they met a little friend who happened to be a Christian. But if that little friend starting preaching to my child, I would have a problem with it.

 

It's okay, I don't get it either.