Recognize that your community is global. Learn to recognize when a person
or cause is attempting to manipulate your emotions. Have compassion for all
people who struggle or who feel bound by a belief system that causes them
to behave in unkind or surprising ways. Be willing to question every single
thing. Make your own rules. Create a home and a family that are unique to
this earth. It is your creation, your gift back to life.
It is on-going and brave to be an atheist or secular parent. I have found
myself in the position several times when I have given my child verbal or
tacit permission to consider the possibility that magic has, indeed, happened
and the unexplained phenomenon was created by a higher being. I have
accompanied my children on walks through stations of the cross, religious
memorials, and religious rituals. In every case, I provided them with the
opportunity to accept the message offered by the event. Also in every case,
my children have found the claims to be unbelievable and/or surprisingly
silly.
Raising children is a part of being a human being that I take extremely
seriously. Nothing that I have ever done has meant more to me than
bringing these children up to be caring, thinking, learning, loving human
beings. I have made many, many mistakes (just ask my kids!). But I
continue to learn and to become a better me. And so will you.
Original Article URL:
http://www.atheistrepublic.com/blog/karenloethen/what-skeptical-parentteaches-about-religion
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