Popping in to say hi since mentioned by f15ers. DH says I am an atheist and he's agnostic. DS is 7 and we have had an interesting experience with one of his best friends from his old school because they are super religious. And now he is going to Waldorf school and that has interesting moments too. I didn't mean to say all that, but glad this is here!
Post by huckleberry08 on Jan 15, 2015 10:49:04 GMT -5
I'm so glad to see this board here! I am a former TTCALer who graduated to J13. Husband is atheist (lapsed Catholic) and I'm an almost-atheist who still isn't always comfortable saying that, yet. We live in a very heavily Christian city and don't have a good community here, so it'll be nice to be in touch with people in other places.
I'm in the "agnostic is a state of knowledge, not belief" camp. I assume that everyone I encounter is agnostic unless they start claiming to "know" the origin or purpose of life, because I assume most people are not crazy LOL
I am an atheist. I do not claim gnostcism. I just have as little belief in deities and theistic models as I do in Santa and Grimm's Fairy Tales. I am pretty skeptical and can get blunt on bad days, but I do my best not to let my anti-theism and anti-woo views (of which I have quite a bit) to get in the way of good friendships or work.
I am not spiritual in any religious sense. I do find wonder and comfort and excitement in the world... I do have a passion for learning new things and watching my kids grow and knowing that there will be things to explore for as long as there are people. I like a lot of the cheesy philosophical heart poker thoughts, like everyone being born from and returning to stardust... or humanity being the evolution of self awareness, a mechanism by which the universe can see and examine its self.. little tearjerker ideas like that. That's enough comfort and motivation for me
Hi, good to see so many here. DH & I are both raised in different faiths, but both atheists and are a religion-free household. Our families are pretty laid back and while it may irk them some, they don't give us a hard time about it. My oldest is almost 5, and we are starting to think about how we will eventually talk about the concept of God with him. He has not asked about it yet even if he loved taking a school trip to the local church (we live in Europe, the local church is like 1000 years old and an amazing place to visit for a school trip).
The country we live in is super secular, so I don't think this will be a huge issue, but I do remember as a kid being rather flabbergasted when I learned about Jesus for the first time when I was about 6. I knew about God , so was shocked when a friend of mine told me he had a son. I figured if God had kids, I would have known about it.
Any of you guys start that talk with your kids yet? What do you say?
I say El/Yahweh and gospel Jesus are mythological characters in ancient mythos in the same way Odin and Thor are. I refer to all mythological deities in this context. It's best my kids know that Jesus & Co. don't corner the market on theism and deity concepts, and that Abrahamic theism isn't special, unique, and does not deserve more thought or consideration than the deity concepts in other mythos or traditions. The concept of a First Cause is an ambiguous one, as there are different, varying, concepts with the Abrahamic traditions, and many more outside these traditions. There isn't any one concept. My eldest understands that Western theists have theirs gods, and, say, Hindus have theirs, Brahman, and all of the deities that extend from it.
When my eldest talked about goddesses at her school last year her friends looked at her like she had a third eye.
My about-to-turn-8-yr-old first encountered the idea of "god" in Veggie Tales (we let our kids watch all kinds of fictional programming and we never made any special exceptions for Christian mythology - if they can handle Hercules, they can handle Veggie Tales) - so she just thought that "God" was the name of a character in that show.
When she started school, one of her kindergarten classmates asked the teacher where people come from. Alyce came home from school and told me, "My teacher says God makes people". I asked her if her teacher told her how God makes people. She said, "I don't know. He just makes them. It's like, his job". I then asked if her teacher told her who God was. Her reply: "I don't know, he's just some guy she knows". LOL We realized it was time to teach her some of the mythology the same as we'd done for her older sister (sister was first exposed by her paternal grandparents during an Easter ceremony... she came away thinking Jesus was a zombie who was locked in a cave and escaped with the help of a fairy).
We have since managed to avoid too much confusion and prevent the kids from saying things that might upset other people, but it took a little while. We had to help both of them learn the cultural difference between Jesus and zombies and presidents and kings. We provide childcare for another family on our weekends, and we had this incident a year or so ago:
Alyce: today at school we learned about lungs and hearts. Your heart beeps just pump all your blood in your body and if your heart stops beeping you could die. Four year old I babysit: and Alyce, Jesus is just in our hearts too. Alyce: huh?? Jesus isn't in our hearts. Jesus is a president (she recently heard "Jesus is King" from a classmate, and she thought kings and presidents are the same thing). Four year old: No don't you know Jesus is just in your heart. Me: Alyce, Jesus is one of the gods we talked about. He is talking about his family's god. Alyce: Oh! He just gives you nightmares! No it's OK! Jesus isn't in your heart. Gods are scary but you can just turn your nightmares into good dreams because they can't be in your heart so you don't have to be scared. Four year old: can you turn on Power Rangers?
Hi ! My husband was raised catholic and I was raised Jewish and together we will raise our kids to believe in whatever they feel they want to believe in. I have great memories from the cultural and social aspects of my religious upbringing but minus the religiosity. It's nice to have people to discuss these types of things with!
Post by danisgossipgirl on Jan 15, 2015 13:51:42 GMT -5
Introish stuff. My husband and I are atheists. Our families are Catholics of the laid back variety. We met at our Catholic University. I've never had any negative religious experiences, just never really believed in any of it even though I did the childhood rites of passage in CCD up through confirmation. Around 7 or 8 I put God/Jesus in the same category as Santa and that was that. I've always felt like I just wasn't wired for religious belief.
Our existence is secular without much thought or outside pressure but culturally still includes the Catholic holidays/traditions we grew up with. No baptisms, wrote our own wedding vows. Our oldest kid is 4 so we haven't had much in the way of deep discussion. Closest we got was talking about how people didn't exist yet in the time of dinosaurs-- where were they then? I was vaguely explaining that mammals didn't get big until after the dinosaurs were gone and named some different types of animals that lived before people blah blah blah but it felt silly trying to get to a simple enough answer for a 4yo.
Post by TheEleventhHour on Jan 15, 2015 14:15:48 GMT -5
Hi everyone! This is a great idea for a board! We do not run into many issues being atheist but I think that is mostly because DS is so young. I am sure we will run into more religious people as he gets older and starts school. It is super interesting to read posts from those with older children!
My husband and I are both atheist. DH loves Eastern religion and mythology. I learned a lot about Catholicism, Judaism, and Hinduism growing up. We plan to teach religion from a myth/historical perspective. I think it is important for DS to have an understanding and respect for all views. Basically I want DS to learn to be a good person and to treat other people well without the promise of being rewarded with heaven if that makes sense.
So glad to see this board here! DH (raised CofC) and I (raised Catholic) are atheist (in Texas, no less...), with a toddler at home and two more on the way. Starting to give a lot more thought into how to approach this as they get old enough to start asking questions...
I'm late to the party. Hi! I guess I'm atheist-- I still feel a little uncomfortable saying that. DH is un-religious but wouldn't commit to saying atheist. We briefly sent DS to a "faith based" pre school which we regret but I think DS is forgetting most of it. I live in a very Christian area-- church on every corner, everyone prays for everyone.
I'm late to the party. Hi! I guess I'm atheist-- I still feel a little uncomfortable saying that. DH is un-religious but wouldn't commit to saying atheist. We briefly sent DS to a "faith based" pre school which we regret but I think DS is forgetting most of it. I live in a very Christian area-- church on every corner, everyone prays for everyone.
I use atheist as a short hand descriptor in my intro here and occasionally elsewhere, but I'm not a big fan of it either. I don't think of myself as atheist. That's another group to belong to, which you could argue has its own dogma.
I'm just not religious and feel that it's highly unlikely there are any gods. No label necessary.
another liberal secular/atheist jew here. I've been interested in talking with other secular mamas about traditions, etc, particularly about communities. Just little things I've thought about. I'm planning to stay part of the Jewish community for the sake of tradition and culture, but staying on the secular side of things. Thanks for getting this board started!
Post by iloverunning on Jan 18, 2015 10:28:04 GMT -5
Intro-ing late. Just started another thread so thought it might be best to give some info about myself. I was raised by lapsed Catholics. My DH was raised Catholic. We were married in the Catholic Church but consider ourselves agnostic. We have two children (DS-4 yrs; DD-4 months).
Our oldest has started asking serious questions about dying, which has certainly test our lack of faith. It would be so easy to talk about Heaven, but we can't comfortably do that since we really don't know ourselves. Instead, we try to focus on the present. We are open to exploring religion with our children and will not be hurt or bothered if they choose to include religion in their own life as long as they don't ascribe to the bigoted or oppressive aspects of it.
Post by Lrachelle80 on Jan 19, 2015 16:30:56 GMT -5
I just jumped in and didn't intro, so hi! July 11 and Dec 13 kiddos (two girls). I was raised Catholic, went to church every Sunday until I was old enough to stop on my own (around high school). I went to a Catholic school K-12. Luckily, both schools I attended kept the religion to the religion class and not to the science class - I didn't even know people didn't believe in evolution until I was an adult.
My mom, although very Catholic, is also very big on science and rationality and very socially liberal (except the abortion issue - it's her one conservative issue, but although I don't agree with her, I see where she's coming from, so we just don't talk about it). My dad is a Protestant (I hilariously told a teacher he was a Prostitute in third grade and when she tried to correct me, doubled down and insisted I was right). I have two sisters and a brother and we're all atheist/agnostic in some way (but again: awesome mom = she doesn't care as long as we're happy). Most of my cousins are atheist also, which is awesome. They're always, "Oh, my science!" on FB.
DH is atheist. I'm kind of "whatever." I guess agnostic would be the best description. I don't really care if there is or isn't a god - although I don't really believe any exist - because whether there is or isn't doesn't change my actions. I try to be a good person regardless of whether there's an eternal reward (which I don't believe there is, but if I found out tomorrow god was real, I wouldn't change much about my life).
We don't talk about god or religion at home, but DD1 (3.5) goes to a Lutheran school, so she's exposed to some degree. However, she doesn't have any idea about the "big picture" of who god is supposed to be. He's just another dude to her. I'd like to raise her with an awareness of all of the major religions and I plan on approaching it with a "some people believe..." preface.
Hi everyone, finding half OAD here, cool. I guess this is the introing thread, so here I go. I was raised without religion, although my parents come from liberal protestant backgrounds. They even met through church youth camp/activities (my dad implies that not much religious stuff went on there in the sixties), but were not married in church etc. The Netherlands in general is pretty secular, so I am not stirring up any trouble with not baptizing our DD or anything. I would describe myself and DH as atheists. I studied philosophy and now teach it, so I am interested in different belief systems and how they work for people. I flirt with paganism, buddhism and Spinoza. Looking forward to getting to know you further.
Hi, I guess I go here. Do we wear pink on Wednesdays? My H (newlyweds) is atheist and I am agnostic. I have two children (and one late loss) from my previous marriage. My journey here came after losing my 2nd child and having a super understanding husband who let me take this journey without judgment. We live in the south, so this way of life isn't popular.
I just squealed with glee when I saw this board. Im sad it took me a week to jump ship.
Hi im from June14 and lurked on OAD a bit. I'm an atheist... or pastafarian,or dudeist or humanist depending on the day. I'm bad at intros hopefully you'll get to know me as we go.
Hello!!! I am so happy to see this board. I actually yelled out "awwww yeesss!!!" in my cubicle when I saw it. FTM from M15 here.
My H is Atheist and I am agnostic. I grew up in a secular home, but my family has become more religious as their politics have leaned further to the right. It is annoying. My husband grew up in a very religious home. They are displeased with, but respectful of his views. We plan to discuss religion in our home and allow our children to follow whatever they believe.
So glad to have found this board! I was raised with an Evangelical-type upbringing. Speaking in tongues and all that. But my dad went through a midlife crisis that included doing drugs and having affairs, so my mom divorced him when I was 12. At that point, we moved and stopped going to church. And I stopped believing all that gradually. And that was good because it was having a serious negative effect on me. DH didn't realize that he didn't believe until a few years after we got married. But now we are both on the same page. Agnostic leaning towards atheism. We have yet to address religion with our 4 year old, but probably should soon as he's hearing more and more about it from classmates. So far he has no questions but yeah, he's 4. My parents and ILs are still religious (dad cleaned himself up eventually) but they don't push it at all. My brothers are like me, if not even more hard core athiest.
I love this board!!! I'm in Texas. Yep. Pity me. We had to work hard to find a non-religious private school where our kids will go pre-K-12 because the public schools in Texas are pretty much run by what we call "the Texas Taliban." No credible science education, history includes hilarious bias, and the a Republican Party platform includes a plank that is against teaching critical thinking skills in public schools. (Not making that up... You can Google it.)
I grew up Southern Baptist, but with a hilarious background. My dad's parents were militant atheists. My mother's parents believed in God but thought religion was evil. So we would leave church, go to my grandparents' house (the believers, the atheists lived far away), and my grandfather would set me in his lap, teach me to play the guitar, and "deprogram" me where my parents couldn't hear. ("You know that what they told you is mostly silly, right? God loves you more than anything in the world. Because if he didn't he would be really dumb, huh?")
DH was raised with no access to religion. He literally didn't know that in a nativity scene, Jesus was the baby. He figured Joseph was Jesus since "that was the biggest statue." So we will teach our kids the basics of all world religions, but not encourage them to believe.
I mostly go to Parenting, but saw this board & thought I might join in over here occasionally.
I am a single mom by choice living in the South. I grew up Catholic, but never have been very invested in religion - I guess I would probably call myself agnostic or spiritual but not religious. My son was baptized because it was extremely important to my dad, but religion is not part of our daily lives.
I'm trying to figure out how to navigate living & raising my son in an extremely religious area with a moderately religious extended family.
Hello! D14 momma here, DH and I are both atheists and plan on raising our little guy without religion, but if he were to go that route then that is totally fine. My mother is a hardcore Christian, so I haven't had the courage or the heart to tell her that I'm an atheist, yet. I'm honestly shocked to see so many atheists and agnostics on these boards!
@pobrecita -Near Ft Worth. I don't know of any in SA but I have a friend who put her son in an Episcopal one in SA because religion was incredibly minimal there.
Post by biokitty42 on Jan 21, 2015 20:18:40 GMT -5
Hi! I'm excited to see this board. I rarely meet secular or non-believer parents IRL, and it can feel kind of isolating. DH and I are de-facto atheists (thanks for the term, @pobrecita -- I looked it up and it perfectly describes me), but DH comes from a religious family and lost his faith after we met. His family doesn't know, but likely suspect, and it's a little tense and awkward because of it. I think things may become more out in the open as our two DDs grow up and my in-laws push for religion for them. DDs are 27 months and almost 5 months. I'm glad to see this board here, and I hope to get to know everyone better!
Post by apsalartoll on Jan 21, 2015 22:30:21 GMT -5
Hi, everybody! This is a great idea for a board. I'm from Dec14. I'm an atheist, DH refuses to categorize himself but he doesn't have any particular religious beliefs, and we plan to raise our daughter to just be a good person. My parents are fairly conservative Christians (I gradually fell out of the faith in college), my in laws are fairly strict Mormons (they were very relaxed Mormons when DH was a kid), so I'm sure there will be some angst with that one day, but for now the grandparents are all just happy to have a new baby in the family.
Hello everyone! I'm super excited for this board too. I'm an atheist mom of one daughter (5-and-a-half-months) and FI is an atheist as well although I doubt he would describe himself as such. I was raised Catholic, but most of my family has pretty much mellowed out on religion so I haven't caught any flack for not baptizing DD. FI was raised nonreligious.
I'm really glad to be here and to be able to talk to you all about issues that are bound to pop up as DD gets older. ryn your stories about your girls' encounter with religion are adorable/hilarious.
@dutchkatie I noticed there was a good showing from OAD here, too.
Also, I didn't really intro. I find the label igtheist closest to how I think about things. DH was raised Catholic and is now agnostic but would like to teach DS some Catholicism, which I'm ok with as I plan to teach him about other religions too.
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