Atheist with children ?????

Question

first of all forgive me I do not mean to offend anybody. Just curious to know if you ever look at your children and wonder if you are neglecting their spiritual growth? I mean perhaps , they do believe in something more than the natural...
when i was only 6 years old my family was very secular and when one of us would get sick they would seek witch doctors and somehow i felt it was totally wrong at this age no one had talked to me about God I knew nothing about spirituality yet somehow I felt there was someone watching over me and someone to answer to when I was doing something wrong.
Again my question is do you ever feel like you are neglecting your child in that area of his life? (obviously this only applies to athiest who impart their point of view on their children)...

AFTER READING THESE POST I HAVE A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR POINT OF VIEW. I THINK IT'S GREAT THAT MOST OF YOU GIVE YOUR CHILDREN FREEDOM OF CHOICE. THANK YOU FOR BEING WONDERFUL HUMAN BEINGS!! TRUTHFULLY I HAD YOU MISTAKEN FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT MORALS, AND EMOTIONALLY DRY BUT NOW I KNOW I WAS WRONG..

IN CHRIST, MUCH LOVE TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Answer 1

Atheists are not heartless. We think, feel, care, and empathize. And we can be spiritual, but we attest this to be a natural part of being human and not to a "higher power."

If I had a child, I would do everything I could to help him or her to be happy, healthy, and fulfilled. If that fulfillment included a feeling of being "watched over," I would accept it.

Answer 2

well while I am not an Atheist my fiance is. We have discussed this topic about when we have children. I am a pagan and we had to decide how we were going to raise our children. We easily settled on raising them to have religious tolerance towards every religion. To understand that religion is personal and does not necessarily involve any specific name or group. We have decided that when our kids are old enough to we will ensure that they have access to any religious book they wish and they can also ask either of us any question they wish regarding our own beliefs. Then they can choose to be whatever they wish to be. This is how I was raised and how my fiance was raised. and what a surprise we both turned out to be decent people who do not discriminate against anyone regardless of race, gender, religion, sexuality, etc. When Christians start preaching love towards ALL humans not just the ones that are exactly like them then perhaps there will no longer be arguments between Christians and everyone else.

Answer 3

It's not neglectful to not tell them that something you don't believe in is true. Would you feel that you are "neglecting" your children's spiritual growth if you didn't tell them all about the Hindu gods? I enrich my children "spiritually" in ways other then telling them stories about magical supernatural beings that have no evidence for existence. I don't think that my children will have anything to complain about. I'm raising my children with the freedom to look and study and make decisions for themselves. If, someday, they decide that they believe in the existence of deities, then I will respect that.

Answer 4

I don't because I promised the priest I would share the religious traditions of my family with them and I do along with all the other traditions that people in their lives will share with them as well, including the atheistic tendencies my husband and I have developed over the years...I figure someday they will have to choose for themselves what they wish to believe about the world.
But to be clear my sister in-law absolutely believes this is still neglecting their spiritual growth as they can't possible determine the one true religion in all that jumble of information and well personally I kind of hope she's right.

Answer 5

I am an Atheist with children and no i let them decide their own beliefs or what they want to believe in. When they asked about religious matters I told them what i believe and then told them if they wanted to look at religion or church they should go ahead,My daughter one day came home and asked if she could attend Sunday school with a friend ,i told her she should to see if it was what she wanted ,she went for 1-2yrs then said to me that she couldn`t see any reason to religion and so far she ,has said that she has some belief in some of the religious teachings ,So she has made up her own mind .
I hate when parents force kids to attend a church and force their religious ideas on to the kids .Let them make their own life choices and support their decisions even if they clash with our own.
I have heard parents tell kids that they will burn in hell if they don`t believe ,scares the hell out of the kid and create generations of people with emotional problems
Religion and belief is personal choice and so let them have that choice

Answer 6

Just because I don't believe in a personal creator god doesn't mean that the subject doesn't fascinate me.

I have a varied library of books on faiths ancient and modern and my wife and I are quite open about discussing our beliefs. So my daughter, although well aware of our lack of faith, has had plenty of opportunity to learn about other people's beliefs.

At present she calls herself an atheist, although ironically perhaps, she's top of her class in religious studies. And since I think that spirituality is something you have to grow inside you, not have inflicted upon you from outside, I have no concerns for her well-being in this area.

Peace.
.
.

Answer 7

I teach my children about all kinds of religions but we follow the philosophy of buddhism as our moral guide...We are vegetarian and do not promote violence in any way...We do not take drugs or alcohol (or even drink caffeine)....We teach our children not to lie...we teach our children not to steal...we do teach about Jesus, Hindu Gods, and several other religions.....Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy too....One day they just learn the truth on their own....But I do have to admit that making them believe Santa brought all their presents kinda takes away all the thanks we deserve for getting them that exact toy they were looking for...Religion is kind of like that same lie, if you teach a child that their prayers will be answered and God can heal it would be unfortunate if they suddenly list a limb and God did not grow it back no matter how hard they prayed.

Answer 8

No.

My plan was to raise my children for the first few years of their life without religion, then when they are about 10, begin to teach them in a non bias way about all different religions.

My kids are 4 and 5 and they know more about christianity than I do from school, daycare and my mother in law.

Answer 9

Children may also want to believe in a bogeyman, a monster under the bed or perhaps in the closet. What you call spiritual, another person may call superstitious. Though it can be fun for children to explore their imaginations, it is important for them to not get lost in fantasy worlds where they can no longer distinguish between fact and fiction, fantasy and reality.

Answer 10

I'm Roman-Catholic, not very devout, don't go to church, but I try to show my son where I come from spiritually. I feel peer pressure from my family though. I decided that it's not gonna do any harm if I take my son to church once in a while. I know he doesn't get certain aspects of Roman-Catholicism, he'll understand them later, for now I just try to teach my son to be tolerant, respectful, open-minded, and, generally, just kind.