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Old 04-05-2008, 01:53 PM
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Originally Posted by raytri View Post
I'm an agnostic and my wife can best be described as a deist, so we don't belong to any particular religion or go to church.

However, I was raised Presbyterian, and we talk to our kids about religion (covering the major tenets of all the major belief systems) so that they're not raised ignorant of the concept.

My 8-year-old loves stories of any kind, and lately has been asking me to tell her Bible stories. So I've been telling her some common Jesus stories -- the loaves and the fishes, the walking on water, etc.

Finally I asked her if she wanted to read them for herself. My Southern Baptist mother-in-law had given us a "Jesus loves me" kids Bible years ago, which we stashed on our bookshelf. I took it down and handed it to my daughter.

She disappeared into her bedroom, emerging hours later having read the whole thing. Now she's re-reading it catch all the details she missed on her first time through.

We've been asking her what she thought, and her response has been "some of it seems true, some made-up." She didn't find Noah's Ark all that believable, or most of the miracles. But she thought most of the rest of what Jesus did was plausible.

I frankly doubt she's going to experience a sudden religious conversion, but if she does that's her business. We have friends who go to church, and they'd be happy to take her along if she wanted to go.

Just thought y'all might be interested in how a family of unbelievers handles religion.
I think it's a good approach. We do the same; I was raised southern Baptist and my wife a Methodist. Neither of us attend church, and classify as more spiritual than religious. We read the bible to our children, have discussions on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and any other religions they are curious about. They've attended several different churches with friends and family.

I figure we'll give a solid foundation and the knowledge to choose their religion for themselves.
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