children, schoolMy 5-year-old has just started going to school, and after looking at all the schools in the area the one that we believed would give the best education was a Catholic school. This means he will be attending church, saying morning prayers etc.
What do people think is the best way to encourage some critical thinking about what he’s doing?
Note: I don’t mind him actually attending church and so on, it’ll be an education.
As he gets older, ask him to compare Jesus to Santa.
Explain mythology in some detail, expose him to classic mythology and comparative mythology. Ask him to explain why the luck of the draw would have him born in a culture to believe in the ‘correct’ god model, and why several billion others weren’t so lucky.
Expose him to the quote from Epicurus and ask him to explain it to you. Ask him to justify the eternal torment of most of the people in the world.
Take him to other churches, and point out the money collection. Show him television evangelists and make sure he sees the begging for money. Then ask him where the money goes, and why they collect it.
Show him ‘faith healing’ and sit with him and see if you can find any examples of eyes being re-grown through prayer. Ask him why Jesus’s promise to fulfill what’s asked in his name is not fulfilled.
It’s very important to be able to refute Pascal’s ‘wager’ with clarity. Ask him what the value of a wasted life is.
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If you can get through any significant portion of this list as he gets older with some success you will have planted strong seeds of doubt in his mind, and will have exposed some of the corruption and violence inherent in religion.
All the above, plus respect for other cultures. You needed to compromise as part of this decision. Why you did that may be the best lesson he gets. A difficult one, but the world runs on compromise.
George Carlin went to a very progressive Catholic School in 5th grade, so hey, things could work out for the boy.
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