Why I let my three year old call herself an Atheist

[rug]

Dad, am I an atheist too?

The question you don’t expect to hear from a three year old.

April 27, 2015 by The Curator

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and my daughter and I were enjoying a sunny day at the park. Nothing picks me up quicker than the sound of children’s laughter, and my daughter is a giggle box with a penchant for asking unconventional, yet poignant, questions. She’s a smart little whip who is very opinionated. (She also has a slight lisp, which magnifies the cuteness of her adeptly crafted arguments for breakfast ice cream, ten fold).

We live in an area in Dallas where we are surrounded by technology giants (that’s my day job, Technology), so its not uncommon to see high populations of diversity at our playground. As she was on the back-end of the swing, she glanced to the left where two brothers were playing. My bright eyed grand inquisitor looks over to the children on the jungle gym, then back at me, with… “the look“. The one where you hope no one’s really in earshot, because a doozy is crossing those lips -any minute.

The conversations went something like this:

Her: “Daddy – are those boys Ingian (Indian)?” (lisp is killer)
Me: Yes, I do believe they are, but we should never assume.
Her: “Do they believe in God?”

Hmmm. I reviewed a few concepts of religion that she’d already been exposed to and explained to her that, yes somewhat, but not like grandma’s (Christian) God. Then I reminded her of some of the other creation stories we’ve shared and some of the religions they went with. At this point I’m really not sure where this is going, so I press on… with caution.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thegraffitiwall/2015/04/why-i-let-my-three-year-old-call-herself-an-atheist/

[cbayer]

1. "All I have to do is show her that other people are different, and that’s ok."

And that is the most important thing to do.

I can certainly understand his mixed feelings. He is joyful that she identifies as atheists but worries that she might be ostracized (or worse) by others.

Sounds like a great dad. She is a lucky girl.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Children are atheists by default.

Until you expose them to, or program them with concepts like 'a god', they have no knowledge of it.
No knowledge, no belief. Simple.


The trick is to supply them with access to knowledge so they can find their own path, without anyone, myself included, programming them to be XYZ faith or non-faith.

The only influence I impart in this department is, I tell him the truth when he asks me a question, and I have a role as a leader by example. But that's all.

[rug]

3. That's not true. Theism is a specific belief.

One cannot be without that belief until one knows there is such a belief.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Do you even logic, bro?

Without.
Sans.
Not possessing.

You can be without something you've never had.

[rug]

5. Yes, without the benefit of cartoons.

Let's assume, hypothetically of course, that one thinks you're a narcissist.

Upon examination by a qualified mental health professional, it is determined that you lack a single symptom of narcissism.

You may then call yourself asymptomatic.

What you fail to grasp is that the prefix functions as a preposition and requires an object.

Without what?

Without, standing alone, conveys nothing and is meaningless.

You're welcome.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. By that measure, I'm not an atheist then.

Because I've never held nor been accused of, holding a theistic belief. When I discovered what the term theist/atheist meant, I discovered what I had been all along.

Choosing an identifier didn't change my nature.

So if we hypothetically allow this heisenbergian uncertaintyish state of being unaware of the choice, and not a theist or an atheist, what is the third middle category?

[rug]

7. No, but you understand clearly what it is.

Thence, for whatever reason but most likely because you've examined it and rejected it, you are without that belief.

Presto! You're an atheist.

Here's another example.

Anaerobic organisms have existed for millions of years. Only until humans discovered what oxygen is and then discovered these organisms, and then discovered they exist without free oxygen.

Only then does the term anaerobic mean anything. Atheist is, in the end, a descriptor.

[beam me up scottie]

8. He knows the difference between strong and weak atheism.

He's just reaching for the only straw believers have left.

Babies are born without belief in gods, atheism is defined as a lack of belief in gods.

It's obvious to everyone who can use teh google to look up definitions.

Anti-atheists seem to forget how to do that when this issue comes up, for some reason.




Carry on, I've banged my head against that wall too many times to pitch in, but it's fun watching the desperate attempts to redefine words so that they mean what they want them to mean.

[bvf]

10. Yes.

The argument seems to be, "Things don't exist until we have a word for them."

[rug]

13. Maybe you and bvf should go somewhere to discuss this privately.

It's evident you're looking for confirmation not discussion.

[beam me up scottie]

14. Oh dear.

Feeling left out, rug?

[rug]

16. Noat at all. Are you feeling a bit obsessed with my posts?

[demwing]

9. Not true

I was drawn to spirituality and religion from a very young age, well before my school years. My parents? Not so much

[beam me up scottie]

11. Unless you can prove you were born a theist you're not refuting his point.

A-theism is *without* belief in gods.

Are babies born believing in them?

[demwing]

30. The best we can say is that babies are agnostics

who don't yet have the language skills to articulate what (if anything) they believe.

"Objective Agnosticism" so to speak, or better yet, Schrodinger's Baby: exists in a state of either belief, or no belief. The box is the baby's inability to communicate their state of existence

[AtheistCrusader]

21. Humans are statistically shown to be predisposed to faith.

Doesn't make you a theist before you are aware of such a thing.

[Fumesucker]

12. How I know the author is an atheist just by the title...

[rug]

15. What do you make of this question, "Dad, am I an atheist too?"

[Fumesucker]

18. Pretty much the same as when I got asked something similar by my kids

That's up to you, we all have to make up our own minds and follow our own consciences.

[rug]

19. Would you respect that decision if they chose religion?

[Fumesucker]

22. How do you know I haven't?

Do you think any child of mine would give me a choice or give much of a damn anyway? Teaching them to think for themselves was fun but it's a razor sharp two edged sword and so are their tongues.

[rug]

25. Assuming you have, do you accord the same respect to others who have made the same choice?

[Fumesucker]

28. I accord people about as much respect as they give me

Do you have anyone you care for who says unfortunate things that make you cringe for them and they don't even realize it?

Well, quite a bit of the family thinks I'm that person and I think they are..

Who do you think is more likely correct?

[rug]

29. That's too bad.

Family tension is awful.

[cbayer]

17. Why is that? Do you not think a theist might hold the same position?

Do you think it likely that an atheist would say "Why I let my three year old call herself a christian"?

[Fumesucker]

20. How do you know I didn't?

At this point there is a decent chance I'll have the extreme privilege and pleasure of meeting great grandchildren before I shuffle off this mortal coil, I'll tell them they have to make their own decision and let them call themselves what they wish too.

I"m sure there are some small number of theists who might let their three year old call themselves atheist but I"m considerably less sure that they would be writing about the experience.

For some reason I'm reminded of Allie talking about the dinosaur costume.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/10/menace.html

The thing about being an unstoppable force is that you can really only enjoy the experience of being one when you have something to bash yourself against. You need to have things trying to stop you so that you can get a better sense of how fast you are going as you smash through them. And whenever I was inside the dinosaur costume, that is the only thing I wanted to do.

The ban on sugar provided a convenient source of resistance. As long as I was not supposed to eat sugar, I could feel powerful by eating it anyway.

I'm sure the correlation started to seem rather strong after a while. I'd find some way to get sugar into myself, and then — drunk on the power of doing something I wasn't supposed to —I would lapse into psychotic monster mode. To any reasonable observer, it would appear as though I was indeed having a reaction to the sugar.

[cbayer]

23. Things are changing. I think the rise of the nones is leading to

more and more acceptance of different ways of experiencing things. There are believing parents that are ok with non-believing children and non-believing parents who would be very uncomfortable with believing children.

As the author states, the key is in letting kids know that everyone is different and that's ok. Making assumptions that an atheist parent is more likely to be comfortable with their child's decisions than a believing parent does not further that goal.

I would like to see the time when we all let people call themselves what they want and stop making judgements about some people being better than others simply because of the label they have adopted.

[Fumesucker]

24. The Nones at the back of the Blue Bus..

[AuntPatsy]

26. Cute

[Jamastiene]

27. Can I have titles most Christians would never write for $200, Alex? n/t