Quote:
Originally Posted by ianch99
I think you are resorting to deflection too easily. What atheists do or do not do is orthogonal to the matter being discussed. One neither validates or excuses the other.
I assume then you do not teach your children about your world view but rather wait until they are adults and so old enough to form an opinion? I would be interested to know your answer .. but I suspect I know it already.
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well you suspect wrong.
My daughter was born in 96 and my ex wife cheated on me and left in 98. I had a break down and was inactive as Witness until 7 years ago when I returned. My daughter is 25 and asks me questions. I do not preach to any of my none witness friends but do discuss it when they ask me questions which they do.
---------- Post added at 22:58 ---------- Previous post was at 22:57 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
I’ll jump in here …
this is a really old, and very, very silly argument, which presupposes that to teach children a faith is to teach them a world view, whereas not to do so is to not teach them a world view.
The truth is that every parent imparts a world view to their children. Those who think they are not doing so, simply because they’re not bringing their children up in a religious faith, are being naive at best, and duplicitous at worst. Children always learn a world view from their parents. In the case you have outlined, that world view includes the rather patronising idea that only adults can form worthwhile opinions or hold deep convictions.
Families sharing faith convictions (or even atheistic ones) is absolutely natural and actually, totally unavoidable, unless you were to propose state intervention (in which case, who on earth would decide what’s appropriate for children to be told about the world, relationships, and ethics? And on what basis would they make those decisions?).
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Yeah I agree with this totally.