Quote:
If you do not believe in something, you will fall for anything.
Your daughter will face an onslaught of negativity and temptation as she grows older.
A foundation of religious morals can be the harbor's beacon of light in a sea of despair.
|
Just because someone does not have religious faith does not mean that they don't believe in anything. My daughter and I have talked a great deal about our personal values and boundaries, for instance. We've talked about sex, alcohol, drugs, tobacco, etc. Her boundaries are both internal and external (for instance, she knows that I strongly disapprove of promiscuity, alcohol/drug/tobacco use for teens, etc.). She has chosen her own values, and is also very anti-promiscuity. Instead of believing that she has to follow external rules imposed by a deity, she follows internal rules that she has imposed for herself.
Having grown up in a highly religious home, I cannot say that growing up that way prepared me, in the slightest, to live in the real world. Unless young people internalize these values and follow them for reasons beyond "my church said no," they are unlikely to hold onto them into adulthood.
It is entirely possible to raise moral and well-behaved children WITHOUT religion and/or belief in supernatural deities.