Out of the Mouths of Babes……

I have kids, and I teach them about religion the same way I teach them about everything else – give them access to unbiased information (as much as possible) and let them decide for themselves. In our house we have books on religion, atheism, history and much more, and we encourage them to look things up when they have questions. We also give them our worldview – when they ask for it. One thing I will not be accused of is ramming atheism down my kid’s throats like theists do with religion. And I have recently found that I do not have to.

Not that long ago, my oldest son came up to me and said ‘I have decided that I don’t believe in god.’ When I asked him what brought him to that decision, he related the following story;

He told me that he has a friend in school that everyone likes. He is a good student and has a lot of friends. My son and this boy were talking about whatever kids talk about, and my son asked about this boy’s family. The boy told him that his mother had died not that long ago from cancer.

What my son said after telling me this sad story is that this boy is a good person, and if there was a god that he would not have allowed this boy’s mother to die.

What makes this such a compelling story is not the argument, because it is a common point of view. What is compelling is that my son, who is 12, came to that conclusion on his own, without anyone preaching to him about either side of the debate. What this says to me is that, with enough information at their disposal, kids can and will make rational and intelligent decisions. Unfortunately, what I have found is that parents, schools and religious groups think that kids need to be shielded from the ‘real world’ so that they can grow up safe (also to prevent lawsuits, but that is another issue entirely).

I believe that the reason people want to shield kids from the world is that it is a lot easier to brainwash them in a vacuum; less outside influences to contradict the message being fed to them. When exposed to multiple worldviews and ENCOURAGED to think, inquire and question, I believe that kids will grow up to be better people with more humanity, responsibility and ability to find new solutions to humanities problems.