An 11 Y/o Athiest

[Taphophilia]

I'm not an Athiest, so when I had this conversation with my son, I was surprised by his answers.

 

My son and I were watching a program on Nick News together about Intellegent Design being taught in school. I asked him what he thought about it, and he said,

"If I wanted to learn about religion, I'd go to church. At least with evolution, there is evidence to support it."

I asked him if he would ever consider being a Christian and he said, "Shoot, yeah!"

"Really, you would consider being a Christian?"

"Have you seen how hot those Christian girls are?"

"So, you would be a Christian for the hot girls?"

"Duh!"

I asked him if he believed in God. He thought about it and said,

"I'd like to, but there isn't any proof of a god, so until there is I don't believe in god."

[MQTA]

I have an 11 yr old too.. he's in 6th grade. Back at Christmas I made some comments about his uncle and he had some choice words about their crazy beliefs, too. We really haven't discussed these things yet.. he doesn't believe or show any interest, surely not in Christianity and couldn't care less about talking about them. He really has no questions about where things come from yet.

[The Sage Nabooru]

It's good you're not telling him what to do and letting him go his own way. In my opinion, the best thing you could ever give a child is the ability to think and learn for himself.

 

That being said, however, I, myself, would want my children to at least know of and about the other belief systems out there. I'm not saying your kid doesn't - I just would prefer my kid be knowledgable about that kind of stuff, to know what suits him and what doesn't, and to keep informed.

 

You ever see those commercials on TV about how you should talk to your kids about drugs, lest they learn about it from their peers? It's pretty much the same thing.

[Taphophilia]

I've got it.

 

Kid heads out the door to hang out with friends.

 

Parent: "Don't get sucked into Christianity. You will lose your brain and become a mindless drone."

 

Kid: "um...yeah...okay."

 

Kid hanging out with friends and a group of kids come over.

 

"Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior."

 

Kid: "I'm outta here!"

[The Sage Nabooru]

LOL Exactly!

 

*Camera shows a white upper-class family in a Craftsman-style house with gleaming wood floors, big leather chairs, shining white walls and woodwork, and subdued greens and gray-blues. 27-year-old, blond, svelte, thick-lipped mother and 52-year-old, full-bellied, balding, spectacled father are watching stereotypical teenage daughter in 80's-style ripped jeans, pink glitter, and sparkling silver jewelry with multicolored streaks in hair pick up nondescript purse/bookbag on the way out the door to perfectly manicured and tastefully landscaped huge lawn on a summer evening at dusk.*

 

Mom & Dad: Good-bye, Crystal. Have fun with Paris and Skye!

 

Crystal: I will, Mom.

 

Mom: Be home by ten!

 

Crystal: Mo-om......

 

Mom: Ten!

 

Crystal: Okay, Mom. Ten.

 

*Crystal leaves. Parents watch from window.*

 

Mom voice-over: I've heard I should talk to my kids about Christians......but they learn all about that in school, right? I mean, I can trust my daughter to make her own decisions. ........ Right?

 

*Dad shoots Mom a worried look. Mom tries to smile reassuringly. --- Camera now shows Crystal, Paris, and Skye in a high-end silver Mercedes model with black leather seats and brand-new, glowing cellphones. They are giggling and laughing for absolutely no reason.*

 

Skye: Hey Crystal, have you ever heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

 

Chrystal: Yeah, I've heard of it.

 

Skye: Well, did you know that Jesus is all about LOVE and FORGIVENESS and MERCY?

 

Paris: Yeah, Jesus LOVES everyone.

 

Crystal: Really? What else about Him?

 

*The talking is muted as we see Skye holding a Bible at an outdoor cafe table that night, carefully placing her hand over it as she expounds on the Gospel. Paris is smiling and nodding. We hear brief utterances of "Wow!" and "How can I join?" between the muted conversation. --- We return home to a scene of chaos. Crystal is holding a sign saying "ALL THOSE WHO REJECT CHRIST'S MERCY WILL GO TO HELL!" and screaming at her parents about how they don't understand the truth and how they need to see that God's love is conditional and homosexuals burn for eternity.*

 

Mom: We need peace and tolerance in the world, not hate!

 

Crystal: But God hates sinners! God hates YOU! I'm going to this protest and you're going to HELL!

 

Dad: Crystal, can't you just respect everybody?

 

Crystal: No, I only respect GOD and His SON!

 

*Crystal runs out and slams the door. Parents shake heads in disbelief. We see Crystal in various places, abusing patrons at gay bars, selling Ann Coulter books on the street, and sitting at a desk, writing her own books on the gay agenda and the demonic influence of the Left in their never-ending campaign against the perpetually persecuted Christians. She is next seen bending down to a Chinese boy in a distant, poverty-stricken village with a bowl of rice.*

 

Crystal: Do you want this? *Chinese boy nods.*

 

Crystal: Well, God will let you have it if you believe in His Son. God doesn't want you to believe in idols, or worship the Devil. Your family worshipped the Devil, that's why you're so hungry.

 

Mom voice-over: Why I did trust someone else to raise my own child? If we had just sat down and talked about it......

 

Dad voice-over: Parents, talk to your kids about Christianity. Paid for by the National Council for Respect, Peace and Tolerance.

[Taphophilia]

Oh Sage,

 

That's really good! I love it!

[Fweethawt]

I have a niece who is going to be giving birth to her first

child within the next month or so. (sometime at the end

of February)

 

My niece is in Texas and we are in Ohio.

 

My wife and I are contemplating whether or not to visit

at that time, but if we do, we won't be able to bring our

sons along. For one, we can't afford for everyone to go.

Secondly, neither of them wants to miss school.

 

As we were discussing who would watch the kids while

we were gone, my sons started voicing their opinions

on who they would rather have watching them while

we are away.

 

 

OLDEST SON:

"If you go to Texas, we better not have to stay with

them! (my parents) They'll drag us to church

and by the time you guys get back home, we won't

be able to speak English anymore!"

 

After he said that, I replied, "What in the world are

you talking about?"

 

He said, "We won't be able to speak English because

we'll be so used to speaking in tongues!"

 

All of us busted out laughing.

 

YOUNGEST SON:

"Yeah. I don't want to stay with them either. "

 

 

They're turning out to be a couple of fine young heathens.

[Fweethawt]

Tonight he made a comment about ....

 

Oh shit, I can hardly type this...

 

 

My son gave another reason for not wanting to stay with

my parents if both of us go away!!

 

 

He said, "I don't want to catch stigmata!"

 

(as if it was a disease or something)

 

[BlueGiant]

Wisdom from the mouths of babes, it seems.

 

As for your son's comment's on going to a church because the girls are "hot", first off, I had a Jewish friend in college who did that (with rather funny results), and second, is he aware that they often come with a matched set of baggage?

[Taphophilia]

He's only 11 so, no, he doesn't understand. I'm hoping he meets a nice agnostic or athiest girl someday.

 

I have read other threads where children whose parents were Christian question God and Christianity. Kids can see through shams better than adults.

 

Taph

[The Sage Nabooru]

But - and this is a purely hypothetical question - what if your kid decided to become Christian? Not evangelical, but just like a mild Christian. Or a Buddhist, or whatever. Or what if he just decided to believe in Something, like a Greater Power, but not within a religion?

 

My best friend's dad is a hard-line atheist, and he once threatened to throw her out of the house and never have anything to do with her again because she said, "Whatever happens after I die, I just have to accept it," because that implies that she's admitting that something else besides just rotting away in the ground could happen to her. It was an ugly scene.

[Taphophilia]

Wow. That sounds like the fundyism we escaped from.

I expect my kids to think for themselves and come up with their own conclusions even if they differ from mine. I don't care what their opinoin is, as long as they have one and can give a reason why they have that opinoin.

 

Taph

[bob]

I had no religious beliefs as a child. My mom was raised in the Methodist church but dad had no religious indoctrination, so us kids were left to think for our selves. I kind of wish the discussion had of come up when I was a child, but it never did. I remember telling my girlfriend, when I was 15, that I didn't believe in god. She laughed. She thought it was the funniest thing she had ever heard...someone not believing in god. Two years later, at 17, I succumbed, and spent the next 25 years as a bible believer.

My sister is married to a Catholic, but as far as I know, she is not religious. We never talk about it. My brother has never had any religious beliefs....cool !

[Lycorth]

Wow. That sounds like the fundyism we escaped from.

I expect my kids to think for themselves and come up with their own conclusions even if they differ from mine. I don't care what their opinoin is, as long as they have one and can give a reason why they have that opinoin.

 

Taph

 

It's a trap too easy to fall into because of the anger many of us have for Xianity. I am making sure to raise my children so they don't end up like Crystal in Sage's brilliant little story above, but also will be sure to raise them to be open-minded and not turn into fundies of a different sort. After all, the problem most of us have is not with Xianity so much as it is intolerant, brain-dead fundyism.

[spamandham]

Taph, I envy your situation. I have 3 kids. The oldest is the only one who understands religious crap. He was raised a thumper, and I think he still is, although I suspect he's starting to question. Hopefully his hormones will kick into high geer soon and he'll throw the Bible out just like I did.

 

I would like to be completely honest with him, but the wife is still a believer, and we have conflicting agendas regarding the kids. It isn't worth it to me to break the family up over religious bullshit, but it is worth it to her, so I yield.

[Entgegen]

I have read other threads where children whose parents were Christian question God and Christianity. Kids can see through shams better than adults.

 

I kinda' have a theory on this sort of thing, but it's a two-parter. First off, the parents (and adults in general) have been fed this stuff all their lives. It is so deeply ingrained in their psyche that if they were to just turn their backs on it, they may suffer some sort of mental damage (like depression). Most people would like to die with no regrets, and their whole lives could potentially be one big regret upon retrospect. But perhaps they're not consciously avoiding any sort of deconversion, but it may be more of an unconscious defense mechanism...sort of a subconscious cage they have put themselves in.

 

Secondly, statistically they may be closer to the end of their lives than the beginning. If they were to abandon any hope of an afterlife, it could be just too overwhelming for them. To be looking forward to something better upon death all your life, then to have it all blown away, would be just too much for some handle. It would be like trudging up a hill and expecting to get to eat the most tasty and delicious cake ever to be created once you reach the top. But once you get there, there's nothing but a plate-full of steamy pony-loaf. It's probably not the best analogy, but you get the idea.

 

It's a trap too easy to fall into because of the anger many of us have for Xianity. I am making sure to raise my children so they don't end up like Crystal in Sage's brilliant little story above, but also will be sure to raise them to be open-minded and not turn into fundies of a different sort. After all, the problem most of us have is not with Xianity so much as it is intolerant, brain-dead fundyism.

 

I think you really hit the nail on the head with that one. Hard-core fundamentalism and intolerance can come from anywhere, and it's always detrimental to society regardless of the source.

[Eponymic]

That's brilliant about your son!

 

The daughter of the lady I'm seeing now is 7 yrs old and she told her Mom not to long ago that she thinks no one has got things quite figure out when it comes to religion. Last night she told both of us that she hopes she never becomes relgions.

 

YEA!!!