6 ms·

You don't intend for your children to make up their own minds about religion?

by curi 19y ago

SwellJoe 19y ago
Yes, when they're old enough to understand that adults often tell lies. Other things my kids won't learn about, unless they want to explore it from the perspective of human superstitions or in fantasy stories: Astrology Witchcraft Area 51 Scientology Sasquatch Vampires Elves Oh, yeah, and can't forget Eskimos Of course, in the context of fantasy, all of this stuff is fine. But I don't think adults should tell kids that things that are clearly fantasy are, in fact, reality. Kids actually believe things that adults tell them, so I think you should try to tell the truth to kids as much as possible.
- curi 19y ago
  and if your lengthy list contains a mistake somewhere?
  - SwellJoe 19y ago
    It might...but here's the thing, there's no evidence that it does. Religious folks don't believe in hundreds or thousands of gods, just like I disbelieve the existence of them (Christians don't believe in Zeus, Krishna, etc.), we just disagree on the number of gods to disbelieve. Should we teach kids that all of those hundreds or thousands of gods might be real? No? Why not? Couldn't we be wrong about them not existing? So, if, in fact, one of those gods is real, you have an imperceptibly better chance of telling your children the truth than I do. But if, in fact, all of them are human creations, then you're just confusing them with a bunch of old superstitions....all of which have some pretty crazy ideas about how the world works and how humans ought to treat one another. Sure, some are better than others, and some are more modern than others, but if they aren't true, why confuse kids with odd fictions in the guise of "One Truth"?
    - curi 19y ago
      there's a big difference between teaching that something is true, and providing information about mainstream ideas (including criticism of them) to help children make their own decisions.
      - SwellJoe 19y ago
        We'll just have to agree to disagree on the value of exposing kids to Christian cartoons that have little other merit (I think most kids programming has little other merit, so I'm not just picking on Veggie Tales...there are many things I'd rather kids not watch, most of which don't have Christian beliefs as one of the things they're teaching). And that's OK.
        curi 19y ago
        We aren't disagreeing about the merit of that show. We are disagreeing about the merit of the parent making all the decisions about what the kid is allowed to watch.
        rms 19y ago
        And really I think you're just having a semantical disagreement when your core beliefs are pretty similar.
        curi 19y ago
        Core beliefs about religion might be similar, but not about attitudes to parenting. I've only expressed a small part of my disagreement.
        SwellJoe 19y ago
        "We are disagreeing about the merit of the parent making all the decisions about what the kid is allowed to watch." We are? OK, I guess that's something to think about. I kinda think it's part of a parents job to decide what young children see and hear. Hard core pornography, extreme violence, cultist propaganda of most kinds, and various forms of hate speech, all fall into the category of "things young children shouldn't have to figure out yet", for me. They'll see/hear it all when they get a little older, and that's OK, but we're talking about the Veggie Tales age group: 3-5 years old, or so.

You don't intend for your children to make up their own minds about religion?

by curi 19y ago

You don't intend for your children to make up their own minds about religion?

Yes, when they're old enough to understand that adults often tell lies. Other things my kids won't learn about, unless they want to explore it from the perspective of human superstitions or in fantasy stories: Astrology Witchcraft Area 51 Scientology Sasquatch Vampires Elves Oh, yeah, and can't forget Eskimos Of course, in the context of fantasy, all of this stuff is fine. But I don't think adults should tell kids that things that are clearly fantasy are, in fact, reality. Kids actually believe things that adults tell them, so I think you should try to tell the truth to kids as much as possible.

curi 19y ago
and if your lengthy list contains a mistake somewhere?
- SwellJoe 19y ago
  It might...but here's the thing, there's no evidence that it does. Religious folks don't believe in hundreds or thousands of gods, just like I disbelieve the existence of them (Christians don't believe in Zeus, Krishna, etc.), we just disagree on the number of gods to disbelieve. Should we teach kids that all of those hundreds or thousands of gods might be real? No? Why not? Couldn't we be wrong about them not existing? So, if, in fact, one of those gods is real, you have an imperceptibly better chance of telling your children the truth than I do. But if, in fact, all of them are human creations, then you're just confusing them with a bunch of old superstitions....all of which have some pretty crazy ideas about how the world works and how humans ought to treat one another. Sure, some are better than others, and some are more modern than others, but if they aren't true, why confuse kids with odd fictions in the guise of "One Truth"?
  - curi 19y ago
    there's a big difference between teaching that something is true, and providing information about mainstream ideas (including criticism of them) to help children make their own decisions.
    - SwellJoe 19y ago
      We'll just have to agree to disagree on the value of exposing kids to Christian cartoons that have little other merit (I think most kids programming has little other merit, so I'm not just picking on Veggie Tales...there are many things I'd rather kids not watch, most of which don't have Christian beliefs as one of the things they're teaching). And that's OK.
      - curi 19y ago
        We aren't disagreeing about the merit of that show. We are disagreeing about the merit of the parent making all the decisions about what the kid is allowed to watch.
        rms 19y ago
        And really I think you're just having a semantical disagreement when your core beliefs are pretty similar.
        curi 19y ago
        Core beliefs about religion might be similar, but not about attitudes to parenting. I've only expressed a small part of my disagreement.
        SwellJoe 19y ago
        "We are disagreeing about the merit of the parent making all the decisions about what the kid is allowed to watch." We are? OK, I guess that's something to think about. I kinda think it's part of a parents job to decide what young children see and hear. Hard core pornography, extreme violence, cultist propaganda of most kinds, and various forms of hate speech, all fall into the category of "things young children shouldn't have to figure out yet", for me. They'll see/hear it all when they get a little older, and that's OK, but we're talking about the Veggie Tales age group: 3-5 years old, or so.