The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #150410   Message #3505553
Posted By: Steve Shaw
18-Apr-13 - 08:40 PM
Thread Name: BS: Non-belief in a god is not a religion
Subject: RE: BS: Non-belief in a god is not a religion
It being called "delusional" and saying that teaching your kids what your values are is "child abuse." that we find disrespectful.

Well, you see, Jack, no-one here is disputing that parents should pass on their values to their children. But values is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about telling your children that there is a God, that he came down in the guise of baby Jesus, etcetera etcetera. As they grow older you will tighten up this message and introduce the notions of sin, guilt and worthlessness in the eyes of a God who will exact retribution if you stray. You will de-emphasise (to put it mildly) the notion that there is a very good chance that this God does not exist. On the contrary, you will make them chant by heart prayers that confirm the certainty of this God's existence and make them sing hymns of praise and attend church services at which this possibly non-existent fellow will be praised and beseeched to do things for us (often at the expense of someone else, a bit like Musket praying that Sheffield Wednesday will beat Burnley, or like me praying that my 95-year-old granny will survive her terminal illness when there are already far too many people using up the resources of this planet). There are plenty of superb values that parents can pass on to their children that are not predicated on faith. That's great. But if you want to include the above with the "values" you want to pass on, then that isn't so great.