“What if your child becomes religious?” (Parenting Beyond Belief #5)
PBBChannel asked:
The fifth in a series on nonreligious parenting. Hosted by Dale McGowan, editor and co-author of “Parenting Beyond Belief” and “Raising Freethinkers.”
Clarence Seymour
November 8th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Jack Main
Wait recs, lemme write that down…Too much thinking is a problem. Got it. Check.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Ryan Halvorson
I believe you are over-thinking all of this.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Christopher Elwood
Nicely done, I’ve been ‘preaching’ this kind of child rearing myself. I’ve intentionally exposed my offspring to as many different types of religion as possible. I consider it similar to vaccinations. I start our lessons by compressing the core dogmas into a brief 10 minute story. And all religions seem ridiculous when compressed into 10 minutes.
I do disagree with one point. There is no way in hell im going to let my kid be ‘political’
November 14th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Debbie Wine
Oh, I liked this video. great job.
November 15th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
June Reno
True, and unintentional, and funny!
November 16th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Brandy Metcalf
Great job per usual Dale. Our 4 year old is just starting to ask those big questions about the world and you’ve already been a big help.
BTW, you’re kind of listing to the left throughout this video.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Shelley Smythe
One other thing, I think most people in the USA that claim to be Christian aren’t what I would define as a truly committed born again Christian who truly follows the Christ of the bible. Our society is an example of what I say, don’t you think? cya : )
November 20th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Rodney Craver
What’s a ” Pew”? Is it a study done by religious people or secular? What do you mean by identifying, you mean making a commitment? When I said “get religion” I meant become born again and that maybe inaccurate as I didn’t get that information from a poll!
November 20th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Danielle Connors
I’m not sure that I believe that a religious person can be good. If I think religion is evil which I do believe than a religious person(if he/she witnesses to others) in my opinion is not good. Can they do good things? Sure I think so. Anyway, that’s just my opinion and I should have stated that(my mistake)to begin with.
Peace : )
November 21st, 2009 at 12:39 am
Claire Quan
According to the most recent Pew study on the topic, your first sentence is incorrect. 54 percent of kids raised in unaffiliated homes end up identifying with a religious worldview at some point later in life.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 am
Larry Heim
This is a common mishearing. I never claimed Rogers’ goodness was “due to his religion,” since I don’t believe that. The point of the video is to show that someone can be both religious and good, not that religion causes their goodness.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Elsie Granados
That’s where their own critical thinking skills and the unconditional love of reality come in. Build those early and deep, then let the games begin!
November 25th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Victor Hinrichs
Sure but it wasn’t due to his religion! As a matter of fact that was the one area that he wasn’t so nice! He tried to convert people in a very subtle passive manner but he tried to convert people non the less!
November 26th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Vincent Frantz
Although it can happen it’s HIGHLY unlikely that a child will get religion in a non-religious family! Now, if it did happen in my family I would find out what led them to their experience and would make sure that they understood that religion as a whole was poison! Now Fred Rogers a good person?
November 28th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Carlos Thom
I have two kids and both of them go to church every week. I am an atheist and don’t really wish my kids would take this route in life but I believe in religious freedom as well. If my kids have to stand up everyday and put their hands on their hearts and pledge alleigence to the flag then they can at very least be granted that much freedom in their young lives. Sorry this was so long.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Stanley Soucy
I’m a staunch atheist who is with you 100% on this!
December 1st, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Brian Stamey
Good job Dale! Liked it a lot. But how about everyone else trying to influence my child?
December 5th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Norman Just
“Whoever must deal with the consequences of a decision is entitled to make that decision.”
I first heard this concept 25 years ago, and it still strikes me as one of the great ideas.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Raymond Topping
A great argument in favor of letting children decide the important questions in life for themselves. In our laws and mores there is the embedded concept that whoever must deal with the consequences of a decision is entitled to make that decision. No one else, not the state, not parents, not the Pope.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Jerry Runyan
Just found the PBB YouTube channel after listening to Dale’s interview on the Point Of Inquiry podcast. Thanks for organizing and sharing your thoughts, Dale. Really like your concept of “freethinker with a lower case ‘f.’” I’m reading Parenting Beyond Belief now. My first child is 6 week old. -Matt
December 10th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Paul Zapata
@ wimvandenberghe: Yes! The Belief-o-Matic is one of the best ways to show how much we all overlap and intertwine in values and beliefs.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Tina Horvath
I was brought up in a liberal Catholic tradition. The other day, my dad (who still sees himself as a Catholic) and I both did the Beliefomatic quiz over at Beliefnet. I came out as a secular humanist (no surprise there) and my dad came out as a unitarian universalist with secular humanist in 2nd place!. Out of 30 possible “faiths”, Catholic” was about number 27 on his list. Just goes to show how misleading labels can be, even when people apply them to themselves.