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Question 52

Since you are an atheist, will you raise your children as atheists or skeptics?

• Atheists/Agnostics no. I would however endeavor to raise them as thinking people who base their views on the evidence and know how to ask embarrassing questions. (Therion Ware #422)

• However, if in the future any one of them ever comes up to me and tells me, "Hey Dad, I believe in the existence of 'God'," I won't send them off to reform school or disown them or beat them up or force them to sleep in the doghouse or anything like that. I'm mean, I've got my opinions, but I'm not a thug or a brute like so many Fundi parents are. (William Kiernan)

• Yikes!! The thought of little monkeyspanks running around the house. Hehhehe... I'm sure that thought doesn't scare just me :) Anyhow, I'd raise them to think for themselves and to question everything, and I would not interfere with their belief in gods or their unbelief except only to point out the rampant fallacies in theist apologetics. At least, this is what I'd hope to do. (Dr. Monkeyspank #371)

• If/when I have kids, they will be raised as mentally functional humans.

  That means no religion. (Mike Ruskai #1106)

• As gods are not a part of my life, were I to have children, I don't see how gods would be of any importance in any of my interactions with them. If other peoples' gods should happen to come up, I don't see how I could or why I should avoid showing that I find those gods stupid or irrelevant.

  As for skepticism, it's good for practical reasons. Not being taken in by scams, for example. Both religious and nonreligious. (Quowong P. Liu #178)

• My wife is a Christian, but not a fundie, and my kids are currently being brought up as Christians. They are only 6 and 7 right now so I don't want to confuse them by bringing my beliefs into the picture, but I plan to sometime when they are between 10 and 12. Whenever they ask me questions about God, I always preface my answers with "Some people believe ..." and end with "... but nobody knows for sure". In the middle I give them what I believe are my wife's views. You might call me a hypocrite for that and you'd probably be right. Once they're older I'll give them my views. (Ken Denny #1108)

• Difficult. Freethinking, yes, and able to make up their own mind. But, at this stage in my life, I'm still divided as to how much I want to exclude religion from my own life. If it were merely a question of do I go to church and do I believe in God--heck no. But I come from a tight-knit Jewish family, and to some degree I want to pass on the traditions and heritage I grew up with, more for family and cultural reasons than any question of believing in God. I'm not sure how I'll reconcile it when I have kids.

  Also, I suppose it depends on who I marry--if it's a Jew, probably raise kids as very lapsed Jews (certainly not Orthodox!). If I marry a gentile or atheist, no religion in the house, and they can learn the respective traditions from their grandparents. (Tough on my Christian husband. ;) My mother would kill me if I raised my kids as gentiles. And my mother is not someone you want to be against you!) (Alexis Rosoff)

• My wife is a pagan, and we will probably raise our children to think for themselves. Certainly I will encourage them to think for themselves. Hopefully, by exposing them regularly to such A&E fare as "Mysteries of the Bible" and conterposed subscriptions to Young Skeptics, I'll be able to inoculate them against the worst ravages of religion. (Elf M. Sternberg #1493)

• "Freethinking". I don't want to *force* my kids to become atheists, because that, IMO, would be just as bad as forcing them them to become religious. It should be their own descision. I do hope that, if I ever have kids, I'll raise 'em to be intelligent enough to think for themselves. (Jessica Wolfman #1002)

• Actually, as part of my agreement with my wife, she's allowed to raise them as reform Jews. The cool part of the reform Jewish movement is that it is so humanistically centered that I don't think actual belief in God is required to be a member of a temple.

  My wife and I like to talk about irrational beliefs other people have (notably Christians) when we're sitting around being lazy. It passes many an interesting hour, let me tell you.

  Oh, yes, and one other thing I like about reform Jews (and, it seems, Jews in general): they encourage thinking and debate, along with love for other people. Overall, I have no problem at all with my children being raised in that particular "faith". Especially with daddy around to make sure they know how to think straight. (Sterling Crowe #1168)