Are people good because they have an evolutionarily-endowed drive toward compassion? Or is it because parents teach them? That’s one of the arguments for taking kids to church, isn’t it? — that they learn moral principles. Of course, kids learn a lot of immoral brain-crippling things in church too, like belief in non-existant entities and short-circuiting reason via faith. So wouldn’t it be good for secular parents to be approaching their children’s moral upbringing in a more structured way?
That’s the idea behind Atheist Sunday school for kids.
The lives of these young people would be much easier, adult nonbelievers say, if they learned at an early age how to respond to the God-fearing majority in the U.S. “It’s important for kids not to look weird,” says Peter Bishop, who leads the preteen class at the Humanist center in Palo Alto. Others say the weekly instruction supports their position that it’s O.K. to not believe in God and gives them a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have.
I like the idea of inoculating children from religion by educating them about it. Too many people raise their kids without any knowledge about religion, only to have them get older, hear about Christianity (or whatever) and think it’s the greatest thing.
So you think, great, now we can bore children with secularism like we bore them with religion. But don’t be like that. It’d be good.
Imagine starting out with a child reading a quote from Tom Paine. Then an opening song: John Lennon’s Imagine. (Well, maybe something else.)
Then a story; perhaps a Norse creation myth. The children could then make up their own creation story and illustrate it.
After a quick round of Spot the Fallacy, it’s TV time: something about dinosaurs.
Wrap it up with something about any of the following areas:
- critical thinking
- science and nature
- logic and reason
- self-worth and confidence
I think it’d be great. Just make it no more than an hour long, and have ice cream. They love that.
3 December 2007 at 5:50 pm
I don’t know how serious this post is but I like the idea. I’d love to see a family home evening with discussions of how marketers use false logic to sell you crap you don’t need and flow into how religion does the same thing.
Just don’t serve kool aid with out sugar or peanut butter cups made out of ex lax.
3 December 2007 at 5:51 pm
BTW:
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3 December 2007 at 7:17 pm
I agree with jeffrey – it’s a brilliant idea – philosophy for kids. Although that family home evening pretty much describes my dinner table – my children are quite literate when it comes to attempts to fool them.
btw have you noticed how Google comments now only have space for a nickname for non-Bloggers in case someone clicks on one of our sites and thinks ‘ooh, maybe I’ll move to WordPress’.
3 December 2007 at 7:20 pm
sorry, me again. The reason it’s different from religious Sunday School is because it wouldn’t be about indoctrinating children, it would be about expanding the possibilities of thought – they’re unlikely to get bored by that.
4 December 2007 at 12:26 am
Exactly. Imagine teaching kids, not what to believe, but how to think.
4 December 2007 at 4:14 am
If there’s icecream, I’m there.
This idea actually inspires me because I can think of so many things that kids should know to widen their thinking that they don’t get taught in church or at school. Especially critical thinking, and meaning of life kind of stuff.
I wonder if it would catch on, and what type of religious opposition it would cause…
5 December 2007 at 2:34 pm
I am sending this to my daughter. She has a little girl who could do with this. Second generation unbaptised;-)
1 November 2009 at 5:09 pm
Love this post.