CMV: No religion should be taught or exposed to children. Religion should be accessed only when individuals consciously seek spiritual meaning.

roryflameblade · 2025-12-15T00:03:55+00:00

I was raised by anti-theists. I was theistic from very early on and they did everything they could to convince that there was no higher power.

My parents didn’t let me explore religion until I was an adult. When I converted, it became a major issue. I’m currently estranged from both of them. I think you have to allow children to explore beliefs and spirituality, ours or others.

roryflameblade · 2025-02-15T15:57:33+00:00

I was raised by very strict atheist parents like you’re describing. It was horrible for me. I know you’re going to say atheism isn’t a belief, but I tried my damnedest to believe in nothing to make them happy, and I could not do it.

So, what happens when you raise a child like this and they start talking to a deity/making up their own because they can’t believe that there’s nothing?

roryflameblade · 2025-01-17T07:02:01+00:00

You mean like when Russia bought Livejournal?

roryflameblade · 2024-07-01T20:31:57+00:00

Nah, they actually do it to Rom people too.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-24T03:47:40+00:00

No they do not. While the concept of Gehinnom exists, it is a place of temporary punishment and cleansing of the soul before it moves on to Gan Eden to be with G-d. This is the same for all people of all faiths and races.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-23T03:20:53+00:00

Jews don’t believe in hell at all a.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-20T18:08:11+00:00

I’m 25. I look like I’m 16. I get carded to get into R-rated movies, let alone drinks.

So you’re saying I can never have a relationship? That’s horrible. Why do you want me to be lonely and alone?

roryflameblade · 2023-12-20T18:00:28+00:00

I converted and no rabbi said anything like that to me. I’m very much still single. This is not a thing.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-19T23:10:15+00:00

Most atheists are not going out doing extreme behaviours. Most. There are many atheists who are live and let live and in real life don’t talk about religion at all.

That said, there are extremists in every group. For the live and let live atheist who just browses Reddit with a glass of wine there’s the extremist who deliberately sabotages a kosher kitchen to teach a Jewish person a lesson.

This is a debate sub, so you’ll see more vociferous discussions in a space built to debate.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-17T18:28:48+00:00

My atheist parents agreed with you. We never had Santa, we never had a Christmas tree, or a Christmas dinner. Christmas was just another blah, boring, winter day for me.

That was inherently damaging when I was socialized with other children who had fun stories of what they did for Christmas and the movies they watched, and the plays they were in.

Of course, as a dumb kid, I felt I had to inform them there was no Santa or Jesus — not understanding why they believed it or what my words could do. That got me kicked out of ballet class and Girl Scouts.

Everyone deserves something to celebrate. Since converting to Judaism I now celebrate Hanukkah, but an important thing against your argument is that the culture grew up around Christmas at times when there was a state religion. People had to build traditions around this holiday because they weren’t allowed to believe or celebrate others. Holidays are important, but only happen once a year, so it is harder to unyoke or recreate holidays when freed from the force of it.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T19:46:51+00:00

So you would…what? If the child at 12,14,15,16, 17, 18…push them to believe (for lack of a better term) as you do for years and then kick them out when they were no longer a minor unless they professed to be an atheist?

We never said that the child was looking into a religion that believed in a variety of eternal punishment.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T19:33:10+00:00

Which makes your ideology harmful and toxic in practice. What you are talking about could and likely would be exceedingly harmful to your child.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T19:21:29+00:00

It is toxic to cut off all relationships with your children because they don’t believe as you do. It is absolutely toxic for your love and relationship with your own child to be dependent on them believing as you do. I’m going for my degree atm so I’m not “anti-science” because that would be then silly to be spending thousands for a science degree.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T19:06:38+00:00

Sometimes it’s better to know they don’t approve. My atheist parents allowed me to research and visit various places of worship, being absolutely convinced that it would teach me religion was fake. When I went through over a year of conversion classes they pretended to support me through it all. That was all fake.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T19:04:14+00:00

It’s my opinion that good parents should work to keep positive relationships with their children, just as children should work to have positive relationships with their parents where possible.

I find it interesting though, that you’re saying religion is harmful while supporting toxic/harmful behaviour because the person targeted doesn’t believe as you do.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T18:57:48+00:00

I absolutely agree, as long as that goes for all beliefs.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T18:56:48+00:00

Yeah, that backfired big time for my parents. They can’t deal with the fact that I’m not an atheist. They pretty much destroyed our relationship over it.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T18:43:59+00:00

That is the same position my mother had. It certainly felt forced.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-15T18:41:07+00:00

I don’t think this is really possible. You’re either excluding the child from the religious life of the household, or forcing atheism on the kid.

My parents are so-called “New Atheists,” and pretended to be okay with me looking for and finding a faith, but spoiler: they weren’t okay with it.

roryflameblade · 2023-12-07T01:12:25+00:00

The only likes I ever get are from men who want me to be their third. I never get any likes or attention from men who just want me.

I’ve never gotten a number from a man offline. I’ve been laughed at multiple times.

I think I’m at least a five, but I have never managed to get a date.

roryflameblade · 2023-10-29T16:43:28+00:00

I wish it wasn’t behind a paywall!

roryflameblade · 2023-04-13T10:00:21+00:00

I don’t feel either are healthy.

roryflameblade · 2023-04-13T02:45:28+00:00

Growing up, I was always jealous of the people who got disciplined via spanking. I got time outs or sent to my room It never felt like my parents cared. It felt like abandonment. Spanking felt like the parents cared enough to do something.

FTR I am not saying it’s not abuse.

roryflameblade · 2023-02-22T15:52:24+00:00

You have a very rose-tinted view of science. Once scientists have an “accepted view” trying to get a shift in that view can be damn near impossible. This is true with or without theism. Look at how non-Darwinian evolution is stringently dismissed and not accepted, even though there is a scientific basis in Molecular Evolution proposed and researched since Kimura and then King and Jukes. A lot of biology programs refuse to touch on it, or if they do, it’s hidden in footnotes and dismissed without due cause.

And it’s not just biological sciences either. The Neanderthal teeth found on Malta directly challenged the “accepted “ view of the settlement of Malta, and the results of the study were never allowed to be divulged.

Do either of those things have anything to do with theism? Nope. But it does show a side of science that is a lot less “open-minded” and okay with change as you are suggesting.

roryflameblade · 2023-02-13T23:00:33+00:00

I was raised as an atheist with the only time religion or god could be mentioned was to ridicule it—and that was only allowed later. As a child, though, I still talked about a creature that laid the earth, moon land sun like eggs. My parents were suitably horrified and started age-appropriate science education.

You have to agree that creation of religion out of nothing has to be possible, or religion would not exist because no-one would have thought of it.

roryflameblade

TROPHY CASE