Disclaimer: I don't have any children.

Below is from ireport.cnn.com

I found this quite an interesting read.

Hear hear, well done random mother from Texas. I don't think there is any way to convince people on the other side of the argument to join yours. I would say that 99% of atheists would want religion confined to religious institutions. Within the religious group, some percentage would agree with that while the other wouldn't. This is just gonna be one big argument where nothing gets accomplished.

That would be the most counter intuitive thing you could possibly do.

Romans 1:28-32
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Hebrews 12:6-11
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

the rest is just blaming god for everything

Wait...is he talking about church here?

Not meant to create an argument.

Maybe it will inspire some parents to do what this random lady is doing. I know a lot of people who are scared to admit they are agnostic or atheist or simply don't care about religion / god.

Why would any child ask such questions?

If you are told something "just is", and that there is no evidence and that you have to simply take an adult's word for it, and base your hopes, lifestyle, and fears upon it, then the natural reaction of the human mind is to question it, and want to know more. Our natural instinct is to ask "why?".

Of course, with slow, repetitive insistence that questions ought not be asked, and empirircal evidence not sought, and with veiled and not-so-veiled threats relating to a failure to conform, we can strangle that evil dissident out of each of our children and train them to suck our priestly penises and labour in our fields and make sure they hate themselves for being so human while we shield our eyes from our terror of not understanding why the **** we are here.

And there I was thinking the OP was about a 3yr old and his mom... o_O

This mother, unfortunately for her, is so smothered by Christianity all around her, that she has to somehow base her beliefs on him even though she knows there's no proof for any of it.

I have two children, and I have a simple way to explain morals -

"If you want the world to be violent - be violent

If you want to be loved - love

If you want the streets to be clean - don't throw litter on the floor

The only contribution you can make is your own behaviour - we have realised as humans that the key to our survival and success is to live in groups, and we demand that those that live in these groups follow basic rules that favour our species continued success. We can have debates about whether they should be changed, and some of us like these debates to be resolved by thought, some prefer physical or emotional force and to make up stories to justify themselves

If you think this doesn't make sense - tell me why

With regards to god, I simply tell them the truth; "I don't know, and beware of human beings that say they do.""

Yes, obviously deferring to the bible (or rather a collection of 6000 to 1800 year old texts chosen by political commitee to stop its members from killing eachother) to prove her son is going to be a murderer is the rational response. I think you just stated her case better than she did.

wat*3

ya, deletion was the right action for that.

Of course if I had thick kids, I'd probably tell them about God to shut them up and stop them from raping and stealing and enslaving people all the time for the rest of their lives.

Oh, hang on, is slavery ok now? I can't remember. Let me know so I can tell my kids. btw current time 21st Century.

Christianity split from Judaism in the second century. Was followed was a period of heresies (parties) and great schisms between churches that split apart. It would take 250 more years before the canon was agreed upon in various councils and synods.

Many early Christian writers are left out. The bible is a diplomatic compromise, not a full bibliography.

Not really. The council of Nicaea was central in establishing christian doctrine. The canon wouldn't be complete untill a good half century later, and it is nonsensical to think the Nicaea council didn't play an integral part in this - directly or not.

I deleted it because I have no interest in losing the point in a useless debate on the exact happenings at the Nicaea council. That the current day bible (or rather versions thereof) is a result of compromise between the early churches and chosen by committee is well proven historically.

Be a good human being, treat others like you would like to be treated. I try to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ.

How did this come to be about the Bible? The Bible doesn't apply here. This could just as easily apply to Pakistan, or Negombo.

This is about why children want answers, what to tell them and how to explain it in a world where you are surrounded by people that believe in god and religious doctrines.

The terrifying thing, is that somebody that accepts that they don't know is forced by the local cult to tiptoe around what she says to her children for fear of offending the majority. It should make Christians sick to the stomach to read this.

Tame, so you

• omit the silly 6000yr claim (wise choice imo),
• change the "chosen by" to "agree on",
• change "political committee" to conzil (which was convened by Constantin, but is composed by the body of bishops)
• and "to stop murdering each other" to "there were differering theological opinions over which was lively debate, some of which resulted in schisms and accusations of heresy."

That seems like a super solid approach when what you're trying to do is accuse a belief system of making **** up... But I agree - we digress. So we should either take this debate elsewhere, or (more appropriate) you simply fold.

Women and children are the victims of religion, and they have the physical, genital and emotional scars to prove it for generations.

The great thing about women and children is that they put up with it. They don't fight back. It's so great to be an adult male.

I sympathise with the poor woman in the article. However, a Christian's response would be to look for an answer that fit into his religion's manifesto.

I'm sure women will love to hear your thoughts. After you've expressed them, make sure to assert that you're there to teach them to change. They'll love that even more. Do you even realize how preposterous, arrogant, sexist and ridiculous those claims are?

Do you believe in equal rights for women?

Of course. Do you realize I was referring to the "they put up with it and don't fight back" part of your post?

• No. Early torah is also just a gathering of scraps intermixed with teachings that go back to the Akkadian empire.
• Yes, I guess they all agreed and then the losers just volunteered to be deported and exiled, and then they were all friends
• I have no problems claiming a bunch of bishops from different churches is a political committee.
• These councils were often held out of necessity because the Churches were near destroyed by conflict.

There is no doubt that my approach to this discussion is far more solid than yours.

ok (hint: when was the accad empire?/ is hat supposed to be an argumment/ lol?/ there *were* no churchES at the time of first nicaea and those supposed churches were not "near destroyed" at the time of nicaea because of inner violent conflict)

My point is that religions are inherently sexist, and perpetuate sexual, physical and emotional abuse of women and children by men.

What's your point?

You don't need one. I love a good argument

ok