The Children of Atheists

[shannon]

In a perfect world, without cavities, we would see a licorice sunshine and marshmallow clouds. This grand idea was captured well in a book I read to the kids the other night. In the book a child talks about the world her imagination could create if God had asked for her advice before he made the world. If God would allow the innovation of a child to master the world the author thinks it would fall apart. She demonstrates how God made the world by a divine plan whereas the trees would stand tall rather than melt if made by chocolate like the little girl imagines.

Of course the kids and I talked about the story afterwards. We discussed what the little girl believes and how many other people feel about the creation of the Earth. I then asked the kids, each in their own beds to create a world with me. How fun it would be to create your own world even if it didn't make sense. I was really surprised with each of their answers. I was expecting a response similar to the examples in the book. However, my children caught me off guard and made me so proud.

Serenity created a colorful world full of beauty. She demands that everyone would have good health and that humans could talk to animals. She'd come home from school and our cat would say "Hello how was your day?" We would have rainbow waterfalls and marshmallows on the playground so it wouldn't hurt if you fell down.

A little later I tucked Chance in and was so filled with joy from his expression of love. He said that in his world all of the land would be put back together and there would only be one country, so that no one would be at war. He then decided that in his world there would be no money so that even all the poor people would have food to eat. His world would consist of natural resources that would never run low so that everyone would share and not have to fight over the things that are running out. His world was balanced and full of peace. We discussed the pro's and cons of a real world like this but it was fun to dream.

I never would have thought these were going to be the answers I received from my 6 and 8 year old. I told them both that though we can not really create an entire world ourselves, we can help shape the one we live in. We are in charge of how we treat others and make changes in ideas and policies. We can do our part to help our planet and those who live in it.

If you were to ask many people in our nation what they think the morality and values are taught by Atheists, answers like these from my children would not be the assumption.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

I don't think that any group has a lock on raising decent kids, religious or not. Well, maybe it's decent parents.

[Feloni S. S. Salt]

Recently on the boards I came across an atheist Jew who lived in Indiana, and was closeted. I was shocked, because that's completely unnecessary from my point of view, but on the other hand, maybe his timidity resulted from the Holocaust, not atheism, although it was his atheism he felt he needed to hide.

Although I'm 71 now, I am the child of atheists. I grew up in the Midwest too, on a farm, and my family was well known to be atheists, in fact, for several remembered generations. I was always pleased that this was the case, and cannot imagine ever wanting to be anything else.

I'm not naïve; I know that sometimes one has to be cautious. Once in the position of having to work a straight job to support my kids, I didn't broadcast my atheism until I had tenure. From that time forward, I announced my atheism annually to every class I ever taught. Was it because I now live in California that there were no repercussions? I doubt it. When teaching high school English, I taught some classes on the Bible. I couldn't understand why the self-proclaimed Christians didn't do that, since they actually believed all that garbage. My students reviewed the Bible from many points of view.

Although atheists tend to be the last ones picked at the national popularity contest (politics), we aren't lynched. Why are so many of us afraid?

[A Person]

Why are so many of us afraid?

Because very few have the luxury of tenure

I didn't broadcast my atheism until I had tenure

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

When teaching high school English, I taught some classes on the Bible. I couldn't understand why the self-proclaimed Christians didn't do that, since they actually believed all that garbage. My students reviewed the Bible from many points of view.

In fact, I was a child of atheists who had recently converted to Christianity when I took a high school class on the literature of the Bible, here in North Carolina. Our teacher did not give the class any information on his personal beliefs... but due to the nature of the class, in which a lot of material was looked at that was unfamiliar and challenging to standard church fare, nearly everyone in the class (most of us Southern Baptists, I think) were convinced he was an atheist. A lot of the kin=ds tried their best to save the man's soul... which I personally found embarrassing.

To this day, several years after I finally shed my religious delusions, I cherish the memory of this teacher and his professionalism in the face of his class's reaction to Socratic teaching. I don't think he found it too surprising, considering where we lived... but it sure must have been rewarding to him as an educator to know we would recall his class for many years to come.

[Liv]

Yes, around here, where I live, NC, you must be very careful to come "out" as an atheist.

My children's schools still have Bibles laying around inside the school, and until I mentioned "prayer is something I felt was a private home manner, and didn't feel it belonged in school.", the school led my children in prayer without my knowledge till I found out.

I was, IMO, fired for my living with another woman by a new HR rep a few years ago who adorned her office with crosses and spoke so vehemently against my lifestyle she'd slam her fist onto her desk and the crosses would fall off the wall.

I'm very careful not to express to much secular sentiment in college, because I'm quite aware that the professors may choose to grade me differently based on their discriminations.

[Feloni S. S. Salt]

Yes, around here, where I live, NC, you must be very careful to come "out" as an atheist.

My children's schools still have Bibles laying around inside the school, and until I mentioned "prayer is something I felt was a private home manner, and didn't feel it belonged in school.", the school led my children in prayer without my knowledge till I found out.

I ALWAYS had a bible lying around my classroom. If, as a culture, you don't know how we got the way we are, you can find most of the reasons in that book. As for prayer, Liz, you should read the Bible yourself. A higher percentage of atheists know it than Christians do.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/28/nation/la-na-religion-survey-20100928

Here's what Jesus is purported to have said: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seest in secret shall reward thee openly. Matt 6:6

Tell ME about coming out as an atheist? I grew up in the hills and part of the Bible Belt, but I didn't let those bastards get me down. Tell ME? That was 60 years ago...you surely don't think things were better then, do you? If persecution doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. YOU are MUCH more in danger coming out as gay, and I've been preaching my own message on the boards for 10 years, which is: Come ON, atheists! Show a little courage...you know...like the GAY community. If they, with all their disadvantages can do it, surely YOU with all your advantages, can!

Are you a member of the Courage Campaign? My husband and I are, and we're straight. If you are not, please join. Nothing good happened for gays until they coalesced into political activity.

http://couragecampaign.org/

[Liv]

Ha, one time I told my neighbor who came over almost weekly to our house, gently, that I'm a non-believer... and she hasn't been back since. That was 3 years ago.

[Feloni S. S. Salt]

Ha, one time I told my neighbor who came over almost weekly to our house, gently, that I'm a non-believer... and she hasn't been back since. That was 3 years ago.

I don't blame her. Skepticism is contagious, because (as I pointed out in the link in my post previous to yours) most atheists know much more about religion than most fundamentalists or even most luke-warm Christians. How do you think she could disagree with you? For one thing, she'd have to read, and isn't that what Christians keep ministers for? To do their reading for them?

In the meantime, you have one less person to bore you with blather. That has to be a +, right?

[Feloni S. S. Salt]

A Person posited:

Because very few have the luxury of tenure

There are a hellova lot of educators across the US, and by far most of them have tenure. What's more, most of them assume it is their right, not a luxury. I didn't adopt that attitude, because I always have some trouble on jobs at first by virtue of being highly eccentric. It took me 4 years to get tenure where I now live, whereas the average in my school district was 2. But my kids were fed, so what the hell.

Since when is tenure a luxury? Since it was first instituted? It might have been a luxury then... Did you mean it was a luxury because most JOBS don't offer tenure? Most jobs don't deal with raising other people's kids, so employers are less fussy. I've always worked, and I never had problems as a result of my blatant atheism. Most of my jobs have been in Illinois, Arizona and California, if that's germane to what you wrote regarding luxury.

And as for luxury, my husband and I worked our way through college/universities/medical school. That would be a luxury now, but at the time it was considered scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[Liv]

In the meantime, you have one less person to bore you with blather. That has to be a +, right?

Except she's like the queen of the neigborhood, and I'm quite convinced she's turned them all against us.

You know that scene in "I am Legend" where will smith locks his doors after dusk and hides in the tub. I think my neighbors do that now when we walk around the block.

[A Person]

Did you mean it was a luxury because most JOBS don't offer tenure?

Yes (and not that you were living in luxury)

I've never hidden my atheism, but then I'm not living in the southern USA where being out can indeed cost you your livelihood. Most of the posters here are 'out'

[Jamy]

I don't think that any group has a lock on raising decent kids, religious or not.

I agree.