I struggle with this. I know I am supposed to do the whole Carl Sagan-ish well let’s analysis that claim thing with my kids. And for the most part I do manage to pull this off. Still feel guilty about last week when my nine year kept insisting that there was a ghost haunting a nearby lake. Just snapped
Look, there are no gods, or demons, or ghosts, or monsters, or fairies, or Santa, or heaven or hell or reincarnation and prayer doesn’t work. All that is above us is sky and below us is ground. When we die that is it. And the faster you stop believing in this nonsense the better.
I said I was sorry and hugged her later. I hope this isn’t one of those memories that linger on and on.
Dang, you already feel bad so I’m not going to try to make you feel worse. We all make parenting mistakes. I would like to say I think the reason some people believe in stuff is because they need to. My kid seems to believe in ghosts. He had like a legitimate mental breakdown when he was 5 and really realized that humans die and it’s inevitable (not only those who are sick or in an accident). He still has obsessive thoughts and existential anxiety. From the beginning I told him people believe different things. Personally, I don’t have any beliefs about life or death, but great grandma believes in heaven, aunty believes in ghosts, people believe you come back as babies, etc. I was very clear that we have no proof of any of this and that anyone who ever says their answer is the one and only true answer, is full of it. The truth is we only know what we can prove.
He’s a good critical thinker for his age. I think he knows ghosts aren’t real, but it helps him. It would honestly be cruel to take it away. He knows some religions teach bigotry and that some religions are cults and many others are cult-like (he’s quite interested in cults haha). There’s a difference between beliefs and religions. Kids are smarter than we think. They will be okay. I do not think kids raised by critically thinking atheist parents are going to grow to to join harmful religions for the most part. We don’t have to be like many of our religious parents were. They treated us that way because they were scared we would grow up and not believe like they do. But we need to teach our kids more how to think than what to think (although sharing some opinions is important too). I don’t think you need to worry because a kid thinks something is haunted. It’s either just for fun or being used as a way to get through life until they’re mature enough to actually handle final death. It’s a huge thing for many people to accept.
I mean, I agree, but also I recognize my parents raised me to be an atheist. So I adopted their worldviews.
Having said that, I do hate how religious people feed these lies to their children.
I struggle with this. I know I am supposed to do the whole Carl Sagan-ish well let’s analysis that claim thing with my kids. And for the most part I do manage to pull this off. Still feel guilty about last week when my nine year kept insisting that there was a ghost haunting a nearby lake. Just snapped
Look, there are no gods, or demons, or ghosts, or monsters, or fairies, or Santa, or heaven or hell or reincarnation and prayer doesn’t work. All that is above us is sky and below us is ground. When we die that is it. And the faster you stop believing in this nonsense the better.
I said I was sorry and hugged her later. I hope this isn’t one of those memories that linger on and on.
Dang, you already feel bad so I’m not going to try to make you feel worse. We all make parenting mistakes. I would like to say I think the reason some people believe in stuff is because they need to. My kid seems to believe in ghosts. He had like a legitimate mental breakdown when he was 5 and really realized that humans die and it’s inevitable (not only those who are sick or in an accident). He still has obsessive thoughts and existential anxiety. From the beginning I told him people believe different things. Personally, I don’t have any beliefs about life or death, but great grandma believes in heaven, aunty believes in ghosts, people believe you come back as babies, etc. I was very clear that we have no proof of any of this and that anyone who ever says their answer is the one and only true answer, is full of it. The truth is we only know what we can prove.
He’s a good critical thinker for his age. I think he knows ghosts aren’t real, but it helps him. It would honestly be cruel to take it away. He knows some religions teach bigotry and that some religions are cults and many others are cult-like (he’s quite interested in cults haha). There’s a difference between beliefs and religions. Kids are smarter than we think. They will be okay. I do not think kids raised by critically thinking atheist parents are going to grow to to join harmful religions for the most part. We don’t have to be like many of our religious parents were. They treated us that way because they were scared we would grow up and not believe like they do. But we need to teach our kids more how to think than what to think (although sharing some opinions is important too). I don’t think you need to worry because a kid thinks something is haunted. It’s either just for fun or being used as a way to get through life until they’re mature enough to actually handle final death. It’s a huge thing for many people to accept.