Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Why religious literacy matters in secular families

The Friendly Atheist wrote an interesting post titled “Why Does Religious Literacy Matter in Secular Families?” Hemant asks a good question to consider, “Is it worth filling their heads with mythology when we know there’s no truth behind it?”

IMO, yes. Religious literacy does matter in secular families because in order to debate something, or make an informed decision, one must know all of the facts even if it brings a risk of the child choosing to believe and adopt one of the religions he or she is being taught about.

Hemant Mehta writes:

Dale McGowan, author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, suggests four reasons why you should teach them about religion:

* So they can better understand the world
* To empower them
* To help them make their own informed choice
* To prevent the “teen epiphany”

Here is a video that he also posted to better explain:

3 comments:

John said...

Hey Star,

I didn't learn about Christianity from my secular family. Although I'm not against children learning about religion from their secular families.

Athough I'm now agnostic, I'm the only one in my entire family that came to believe in God. I learned everything I know about religion from my own personal studies. My mom never forced religion on us growing up. She always has been a little skeptical about the church though. She's worked for a psychiatrist for over 20 years as a psychiatric nurse and believe me, she's heard some pretty screwball things from religious folks.

Anyway, It was always a personal decision for me. Although, I do see the value in teaching your children about religion.

CyberKitten said...

cole said: Although, I do see the value in teaching your children about religion.

Me too.... but only for innoculation purposes..... [grin]

Stardust said...

Immunizations against religion...good one.

Kids learn about mythology, they learn about social studies and world cultures. Religion is just part of that. To be able to discuss religion, one must know about religion. If they have never heard about it, it may all sound pretty good and they could end up in a cult or something.