Atheist and the nativity

WhiteHorse

robpw2 wrote: »

just because your atheist doesnt mean your child should be , you need to be honest with her and let her make her own choice

A child of that age is not making an informed decision.

Any religion, philosphy or ideology that relies for its continued survival on brainwashing children can't be up to much. If it can convince an educated, rational adult, then it might be worth listening to.

The_One_Who

WhiteHorse wrote: »

If it can convince an educated, rational adult, then it might be worth listening to.

So religious adults (many will have joined a religion in later life) are uneducated and irrational?

7roland8

I would just leave her enjoy the play/Nativity.
i'm sure she's just eiicted about Christmas and won't need to be told any more about whether it is true or not.

FBaby

OP, I've been in the exact same situation than yours. I am atheist as is my kids' dad the rest of the family. I too was very surprised that that religion seem to have a big part of the curriculum considering the school was not affiliated to any religion until I understood that it is part of the national curriculum. It just happened that christianity is part of the reception year, they learn about other religions the years afterwards so that from a child's point of view there is no empathise on one over the others. I also learnt to distinguish between learning about faith and learning about religion. Studying Maths doesn't make you a future mathematician. I then learnt that kids go through of natural phase of being curious about God and the rest. I will always remember a conversation with my then 4 year old as we were driving, her asking me if I believed in God. I started my speech 'no, mummy doesn't believe in God but that doesn't mean he doesn't exist, or that others shouldn't believe in him blah blah blah' Her response, after a pause was, with great authority 'well Mrs Fabian (ie.reception teacher) believes in God so I do too'. It made me laugh then, it makes me laugh now. She is 12 in a couple of weeks and has certainly moved on from believing all what her teachers say!

JC9297

fawd1 wrote: »

First off, the nativity story can't be described as a fairy tale as it's been historically proven that Jesus did in fact exist, was born in Bethlehem etc etc. The only part of the story up for debate is whether or not you believe him to be the son of God.

But if the story was just that a woman called Mary and a man called Joseph had a son who they named Jesus, most people would probably not doubt it. What you say is the only bit up for debate is quite a major part of the nativity i.e. the immaculate conception, visits from an angel, very understanding bloke called Joseph etc.

MackemPunk

Here is a decent article suggesting Jesus may never have existed as there is absolutely no mention of him till years after he supposedly died.
http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/A_Silence_That_Screams

dirtysexymonkey

ill probably be attacked for this but i would be disappointed in my children (who dont exist yet) if they turned into adults who believed in a god. rightly or wrongly (though many studies have backed it up) i associate belief in god as something for people with lower levels of intelligence than those of non believers.

Carl31

In case this isnt mentioned already. For the record, tree decorating, giving of presents and eating well have nothing to do with christianity. In fact the only thing that really has any religious connection for most people is the name of the day

claire16c

dirtysexymonkey wrote: »

ill probably be attacked for this but i would be disappointed in my children (who dont exist yet) if they turned into adults who believed in a god. rightly or wrongly (though many studies have backed it up) i associate belief in god as something for people with lower levels of intelligence than those of non believers.

I if I have kids I really hope they dont become religious either, Id be very annoyed if they did if Im honest. But I find that 99% of the people I know are the same as their parents anyway in what they believe. Its not like Im going to be taking them to to church or telling them anything other than what they learn in school, so it seems unlikely.

claire16c

daska wrote: »

I choose to believe that belief is a choice.



Incidentally, I remember seeing study reported on a program on identical twins which indicated that being 'religious' might be an inheritable trait - not solely to do with upbringing or culture.

I saw that too! It was very interesting. I was going to post about it but I couldnt quite remember how they did the study. I think they looked at identical and non identical twins - so all twins had lived together and had same upbringings. But obviously only indentical twins were genetically the same.

And I think when they asked them if they believed in a god, the identical twins had a much higher rate of them both answering the same - whether it was yes or no.

So it suggests that the 'ability' or what ever you want to call it, is inherited. Which is quite weird!

But I could believe that, because for me there is no way I can believe in something that isnt proven. That doesnt make any sense to me at all and I dont understand how anyone can. Even if I wanted to become religious and believe in a god, I cant because I can not believe.