Yeah, try to be neither of those parents.
It’s fucking hard. My kids school has religious or ethics studies, we picked ethics for our first kid. About 3 weeks into term he mentioned something about god and I was like wtf where did he hear that and asked and he said in bible class… I was pretty upset and assume the school ignore us and put him in that class. A bit more questioning and worked out he picked it to be with his friends. We finally decided to let him continue and make up his own mind. His now in year 4, and I think he has done Catholic, Hebrew and Hindu just following different friends into which one he wants, just this year he said he doesn’t believe in god he just doesn’t like ethics…
Yeah also, we dislike organized religion not the concept of god itself. The 2nd panel should be “I’ve joined a socially-acceptable cult”. There’s nothing anti-atheist about God which can mean a million different things, not necessarily a creationist deity.
“Atheism - Absence of belief in the existence of deities/god; the opposite of theism”
You literally do the opposite. Maybe that’s your personal way of believing and that’s totally fine, but the term “atheism” has a official and specific definition. I’m a agnostic myself and I think a lot of people call themselves atheists but actually only oppose organized religion. If the concept of a god or the deities outside of religion is a theoretically possible concept for you, then you’re an agnostic!
Technically there are 4 basic positions and the two terms should be used together. Gnostic/Agnostic & theist/atheist.
Gnostics know their position is correct. Agnostics don’t.
Gnosticism deals with the problem of knowledge.
Theism deals with the problem of belief.
Many theists are gnostic. They know their God is real. Some theists are agnostic. They don’t know if their God is real, but they still believe in them.
Many atheists are agnostic. While they do not believe in a god, they do not know with certainty that gods do not exist.
From a theoretical standpoint, typically agnostic is the position most people should take, since the process of proving the existence/ non existence of God is typically considered impossible.
This terms weak/strong are also used to describe these positions where weak is the agnostic and strong is the gnostic position.
I’m atheist but this sub is so fucking cringe that I’m embarrassed to be one
What you’re seeing is unresolved trauma. Breaking away from religion can be an emotional, traumatic, socially isolating experience. And if people don’t put in the work to heal, it comes out like this.
“Shit I gave birth to a moron” is just straight up pretentious and has that fedora redditor energy thinking they’re superior to theists. Just let them have some sort of concept of god as a coping system. Doesn’t mean you’re better then them.
Yep, that edge is the trauma showing. Why would someone need to be edgy if they were confident? They still haven’t processed their issues and they need to.
That said, having religion as a coping mechanism is dangerous. One you believe something that large without evidence, you can be easily conned and manipulated. This is exactly what we see in America, and look how that’s going.
thinking they’re superior to theists
Which we are, at least when it comes to the field of believing in fairy tales well into adulthood.
I’m an Atheist.
But I sort of wish I could believe. It would be a lot easier than raw dogging the existential crisis.
As a borderline atheist/agnostic, I don’t really mind my kids learning about religion, they’re even in a Catholic school (not my idea though). I’ll actually tell them what I can about Christian beliefs and other non-Christian religions as well, as a sort of subtle way of showing them, “None of these people have a monopoly on the truth. If this other religion’s beliefs sound weird, then think again about what they’re teaching you.” I don’t try to be condescending or insulting or anything, I don’t want my kids to feel like I’m pushing them one way or another, but I want them to know that there isn’t a single version of the “truth”.
I think if I’ve done my job correctly as a parent and instilled my kids with critical thinking skills, the more they learn about religion the more it will push them away from it. I’d rather they come to a decision on it themselves, rather than just blindly following me. If instead they do become religious, then that’s fine too, the same way I wouldn’t mind if they came out as LGBTQ+ or as a Swiftie, whatever happiness looks like to them is ok by me.
What is this “asking”?
Was it not enforced by physical assault for y’all?
