For Agnostic, Atheist, Free-thinker, and other non-religious parents

[Adele_Mommy]

Dale McGowan, author of Parenting Beyond Belief, has started a series of videos on YouTube. The first two videos in the series are out. I have watched both of them and find them to be short, mildly entertaining, and reasonably thought-provoking and informative. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the series. He plans to put out a new video about once a week.

[purplepaperclip]

Ooo! Looks interesting. Thanks for the info!

[inkslinger]

Thanks a lot for the link! Looks interesting.

[freestyler]

I love that there is a group of atheists. Hi everyone! Wanna chat?

[1littlebit]

i'm agnostic not atheist (i am not ruling anything out ) but i would love to talk!!

[Sasharna]

Thanks for the links. Anybody read the book? What did you think?

[KMK_Mama]

Hi, I'm Robyn and I'm an atheist. :

I just started reading Parenting Beyond Belief.

[Adele_Mommy]

I am agnostic and I am also Unitarian Universalist, so much of what he talks about helping our kids to be literate about religion, and actively teaching ethics, I get through RE at my church. It was actually a member of my church who gave me the link to the PBB blog where I found out about the video series!

[straighthaircurly]

I am halfway through the book (just started a few days ago) and I am loving it. Since it is a collection of essays by different freethinkers (organized into chapters by theme) you can flip around as you please. It is wonderfully written and refreshing. I am finding it friendly and comforting with tons of wonderful resources that I plan to tap into further over the next number of years.

We started using The Virtues Project as a secular way to discuss values/virtues/morals on a weekly basis. This has given us a framework that works well for our family. Anyone else using it?

My DH and I are atheists at this point in our lives...arrived at via very different paths and experiences. We have a 5yo boy you came out of the womb a freethinker so we are working on ways to continue encouraging open discussion on religion, spirituality, and morals.

This is my first time posting in this forum. Looking forward to chatting more.

[Tapioca]

Hi, can I join?

After sitting on the fence for a long time, I'm ready to admit that I'm not religious. And hey, we're the fastest growing group of people in many parts of the world, faster than many religions. One thing I wish we could do is get more organised and maybe help freethinkers/athiests, etc who are stuck in theocratic countries.

DH loves the UU church in our city, unfortunately it's too far from where we live to go regularly. Values-wise, one of the things I really treasure is skepticism, (okay, a few of the things), doubt, and questioning (SHOW ME THE FACTS), all the ideas behind the scientific method...and why ultimately I can't be religious and be true to myself.

[Christopher]

I'm not an atheist, nor am I an agnostic. I do consider myself a free-thinker insomuch as I'm not disallowed the freedom to think. I know that is not the definition proper of free-thinker, but there you have it: a willing adaptation of a title brought about by thinking freely.

Word-play aside, I am quite interested in understanding how any of you came to a place of philosophical disagreeance with supernaturalism. Were you raised that way? Did you slide into disbelief via science, philosophy, suffering? What were the precipitating factors in becoming non-religious, or maintaining a non-religious perspective?

Thank you in advance for any answers you may have.

Warmly,
Christopher

[Adele_Mommy]

Hey Christopher,

Your questions are phrased in a completely respectful manner, and not in the least bit argumentative, and I take no offense at your asking. However, I think it highly probable that any attempt to provide an answer to your questions is going to quickly turn into the sort of argument that will get this thread shut down. Because I think that, I'm not going to respond.

Others are free to respond if they choose, of course, but because I intentionally created this thread in the main Spirituality forum rather than the Religious Studies forum with the explicit intention of providing "support" in the form of a link I found interesting, I respectfully request that those who wish to enter into this "how did we get here" discussion create a spin-off thread.

Thanks!

Adele

[Christopher]

Adelle,

Thank you for voicing your concerns. I respect your need to mitigate between the potential for conflict and the possibility of simply receiving answers.

Since I'm a relatively sparse contributor here, I really don't know the dynamic of this particular section of the board. That you are able to forecast a possible fallout from the answers given is helpful to me: I know now that more direct, specific questions should be directed to the "Religious Studies" area of the board.

Thank you,
Christopher

[siobhang]

Christopher,

If you wish to start a threat in the religious studies section, I'd be happy to share with you my personal spiritual journey (an Atheist UU). I do want to say that my current belief system is very much based on ethics and morality, and in fact my religion.

Welcome!