Monday, 23 November 2009
Atheism For Kids
The latest atheist stunt is an unrolling of UK-wide billboards decrying the fact that children get labelled by their family faith before they can choose themselves. Philosophically this is facile and poorly considered. How else are adults to arrange the lives of children? Parents decide the names, schools, diets and doctors of children; what books they do or don't read; what bedtime stories they are told. Parents and other adults help shape childhood's imagination. Atheist parents are free to raise their kids sans God. It hardly makes sense for a Catholic family to do so. The atheist campaigners argue children should not have to decide a belief system until they are adults. That is rather like saying children should not have to go to school or eat greens until they are 18. Adulthood is precisely the moment for questioning childhood beliefs: not the moment for adopting them. Further, the soul is present at the start and cannot be left unsupported for so long. If adults choose to become atheists that is their rational choice. The soul of a child and a child's mind need loving guidance. Love is forever ignored by such campaigns as if faith was mainly about malice. It doesn't have to be.
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Wow, deeply considered. Because as you rightly noted, the poster says "Raise me sans God."
ReplyDeleteOh wait, a second look -- well, the first look for most of us -- shows that it's about LABELS, not the presence or absence of God. As the FAQ below makes plain, it is understood that religious families will engage in religious practice. The simple request is that children be made to know that the choice of religious identity is their own in the long run.
http://www.humanism.org.uk/billboards/critical-thinking
Dear Todd
ReplyDeleteMy father was an atheist and my mother was an agnostic. I often thank my lucky stars that I was not brainwashed from birth as I would have been had I been born into a Catholic family. I am now a Church-of-England Buddhist which is a belief system that I have worked out for myself.
Best wishes from Simon
Of course, it is for parents to raise their children as they see fit. It is the state that should not categorise and divide according to the religion of the parent. Faith schools do just this, with a great deal of state support.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be inventing your own campaign, rather different to the one pursued by the Humanists - and then you go on to criticise your own false projections.
I suspect from this piece that you are one of those people who believe that someone was killed, remained dead for three days and then got up and walked about. Am I right?
I think I am pretty much in agreement with TheEO and what he said, Todd. You keep harping on this subject, and it grates on me a little, tbt. State-funded religious schools, as well as faith-based initiatives harm and endanger our humanity more than strengthen it. I am equally revolted/offended by the intrusion of Muslim or Sharia laws and their intrusion into normal, day-to-day life as I am by supposed Christian ones. Let humanity truly advance, for once!
ReplyDeleteLIke Christopher Hitchens, I am a strong atheist. However, like him, I would NEVER advocate that atheists be treated as an elite and be called "brights" as Richard Dawkins would have it. Not that Dawkins isn't intelligent. He is. Very. And, of course, he has many good ideas. But, he goes to far on his hobby horse.
Todd, thanks for having the courage to say this. Keep saying it! Being areligious is more politically correct than advocating for the freedom of families to act in the best interests of their children. Adults have the freedom to make decisions for and against religion: Children must have the right to be raised with a strong belief system, be it a religious or strictly ethical framework. The nanny state cannot dictate beliefs, even in a country with a state religion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous that a "nanny state cannot dictate beliefs!" Why wouldn't I? I consider myself an intellectually honest atheist, which means a healthy skepticism (but refusal of universal relativism. But, Anon, you seem to be misinterpreting Todd's complaint. The billboards aren't crying out for laws to do away with religious upbringing. The billboards ARE the campaign, simply for awareness. What is the harm that? I suppose, in the same sense some people consider it harmful to see people of same-sex orientation talking about their rights on television. Jeesh.
ReplyDelete"The soul is present at the start and cannot be left unsupported for so long." What complete and utter nonsense. I have a brain, not a soul, and the same goes for my children. The woolly idea "soul" is merely an excuse for suppressing the brain.
ReplyDelete"Atheist parents are free to raise their kids sans God." Up to a point. A very limited point in a world where god is shoved down their throats every day at school and in which most of the media persists in the pernicious lie that morality is in some way dependent upon religion, as if the two things had anything whatever to do with each other.