I am in mid 30s and have two kids <6Y old. I grew up religiously in a relatively conservative family from India. Over the last few years, I have been thinking rationally and moved far from religion. I do still attend temple for free food, do religious rituals so that my spouse / parents / inlaws don’t get offended (yeah, that sucks). My kids are in a stage where they can start reading books, watch religious cartoons and I am realizing how much illogical religion is. I can’t bring myself to answer their questions on ten headed man or an army of monkeys fighting a war or an elephant headed man riding on a mouse or Virgin Mary or Noah’s ark. I find these absolutely ridiculous but I am stuck in a delicate situation to balance with conservative family. How do I make my kids think rationally? They pray to god to give gifts or expect Santa to give gifts and all sort of stuff. Trying to rationalize these and make my kids believe in these makes my so sleazy but I also need to balance my relationship with family. I make them watch all science series, talk to them about evolution, Big Bang theory etc. Is that enough? Tc -550k + Spouse 480k
I'm not hindu but the hindu religion is a deep and profound philosophy. Much of it is very consistent and derived from first principles. Perhaps you could focus on the philosophical underpinnings. (you also mentioned christian stories... as a christian I would say something similar... that there are deep and profound truths that are easy to miss when you focus on things that appear ridiculous. The reality of sin and suffering, the fundamental need for meaning and purpose in life, the inability of materialism to explain morality or the more important things in life, etc)
Holy shit, an army of monkeys fighting a war? Sign me up for that religion!
You can just google for “All lives matter”. They are the same.
Well that's the least interesting way of putting it. Hinduism and it's epics happens over the evolution of man, so if you think about it, it's very much possible.!
Maybe just expose them to many different religions? That way they will eventually figure out they can’t all be right, so they’re probably all wrong, but that there may be some useful lessons that can be extracted
There isnt one best answer here. With religious stories, my wife and I have always focused on the fact that they are just that : stories, like comic books. But there are deeper truths at play in Hinduism and christianity (and other religions) that are worth pointing out as well. Dont kill people, dont steal. Some pretty fundamental things and some subtle things as well, that these stories can sometimes help illustrate and illuminate. My inlaws told me this interesting story where they got a new priest at their catholic church and he was more of a religious scholar. He conducted bible study, as did the previous priest but as a religious scholar he was more interested in the historical context of the bible, what political structures were in place etc. At one point they were discussing Jonah and the whale and he pointed out that there were no whales in that part of the world at that time and ended up saying that Jonah was just a parable. It freaked some of the people out and they reported this priest for not having religious faith. Totally insane. It's important to not breed more folks like that as well.
I think your high combined TC has made you to “think rationally”, you will remember God when there is a need (which you did when you were in India and you will do again no matter where you are, try to be humble.)
Tell that to the poor people who remember god and die everyday of hunger.
I don't think we necessarily need to judge someone raising questions or having doubts. One can be moral, ethical and humble even while being agnostic or atheist, isn't it? Conversely, many so-called 'believers' have been as far removed from Godliness as possible. Who's to say that in trying to guide his children, OP does not himself rediscover spirituality or religion, and start following it, in his own way, more authentically?
That TC
I am in same boat. The strategy I use is that my spouse is very religious and she teaches the kids about religion and I play the bad cop and downplay religion by pointing out its idiosyncrasies. Hopefully they will see both sides of the coin and make up their own mind. So far they are pretty religious because they are just 6 and 9. But hopefully they will learn to see the criticism at a later age.
I’m also in same boat. 6years pretty young, waiting for 10years. Make them logical persons by asking logical questions all the time and make them to think in that way. That is good enough.
TC?
I love blind community.