Religion
In reply to the discussion: I don’t want my wife to indoctrinate our two-year-old into religion [View all]Sweeney
(505 posts)I have been trying all of my life to grasp the significance of religion and I started at a very young age. I wish you good luck teaching what you don't know, but given the inclination of children toward magical thinking, any religion your child receives from her mother will have more significance than you can ever grasp simply because it came from her mother because the mother child relationship is so filled with meaning. You are at a disadvantage; but fathers are a dime a dozen and over priced at that. We play a supporting role or no role in the education and socialization of the child. If you want to blow that deal; go for it. If your Atheism is based upon reason as I doubt it is, then when your child grows up you may reason with her. This is not what she wants right now.
If you want an intelligent child, cuddle the crap out of her, and give her an intensively experience rich environment. Children forget what you buy them, and remember where you take them, so take them cool places. Even church is a good place to begin a conversation about what a child believes, and faith is always a mask of ignorance; but there the child's ignorance will always be equaled by our own.
People know so little and base their lives on so little knowledge that it is remarkable that we can survive at all. If you believe that love is possible apart from any notion of God, then give your child love as the most essential thing any parent can give a child. Don't try to over think the job of parenting. Children will tell you what they need and all you have to do is listen. Do not out of your personal vanity offer your child -who is still our child- any conflicted environment full of anger and hate. Ultimately the significance of you wanting to fight is greater at this point than any significance of religion. The child is who she is, and will become who she wants to be; and your job if you do not quit it is to mess her up beyond belief.