Matt D Posted March 16, 2015 Posted March 16, 2015 I still have mixed feelings about this. I know there has been a lot of controversy on the boards around the call in show "An Atheist Apologizes to Christians" so perhaps you will find this video thought-provoking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU5-oh-ZbZg 1
J. D. Stembal Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 Children are not punished or disciplined because they are bad, parents punish because they are bad parents. Religious parents must punish their children because they are bad parents, seeking to reinforce the belief in the irrational. Theists are selective atheists (they only believe in one god among the thousands that are purported to exist), while atheists are rational empiricists. They know that no gods can exist empirically, and therefore, are not ever tempted to believe that they exist. Believing in the irrational to fit into a community is basic herd mentality Children are born as rational empiricists, and therefore, are atheists by definition. They have to be punished or disciplined in order for their parents to make them believe in the irrational. This is why peaceful parenting will never catch on in religious families or communities. If you were a peaceful parent, in a peaceful community, your child would not grow up believing in a deity in the first place. Religion is antithetical to raising children peacefully. Children aren't going to voluntarily accept nihilism, relativism or leftism if you don't train them to fake a belief in God. They are likely to become infected with these if you send them to public school or teach them through example. Home-schooling as an atheist parent is the preferred approach to raising children peacefully for this reason. How do we ultimately prevent parents from raising children irrationally? Economically shame them for it. Less people will want to commit the sin of child abuse if you attack their economic prospects in response. Refuse to do business with people who raise their children religiously. Thanks for the video, Matt. It got very interesting towards the end after you warmed up your thoughts.
Kevin Beal Posted March 17, 2015 Posted March 17, 2015 [atheists] know that no gods can exist empirically, This is totally nitpicking on my part, and I apologize, but it's not empirical. It's actually a priori that we know that no gods exist. The only empirical consideration that can be made is that no evidence has ever been presented. It's by evaluation of the definitions of "god" that we (rightly) make this determination, since it contains within it mutually exclusive propositions, is like a square circle, or an object that falls up and down simultaneously from the same perspective. I became a nihilist, and I didn't grow up with religion. My little sister, similarly, is a moral relativist and was never raised with religion. But there are other reasons for that which we don't have to go into.
Matt D Posted April 3, 2015 Author Posted April 3, 2015 Children are born as rational empiricists, and therefore, are atheists by definition. They have to be punished or disciplined in order for their parents to make them believe in the irrational. This is why peaceful parenting will never catch on in religious families or communities. If you were a peaceful parent, in a peaceful community, your child would not grow up believing in a deity in the first place. Religion is antithetical to raising children peacefully. Children aren't going to voluntarily accept nihilism, relativism or leftism if you don't train them to fake a belief in God. They are likely to become infected with these if you send them to public school or teach them through example. Home-schooling as an atheist parent is the preferred approach to raising children peacefully for this reason. How do we ultimately prevent parents from raising children irrationally? Economically shame them for it. Less people will want to commit the sin of child abuse if you attack their economic prospects in response. Refuse to do business with people who raise their children religiously. Thanks for the video, Matt. It got very interesting towards the end after you warmed up your thoughts. Sorry, I didn't intentionally ignore your post, ETU. I agree with you that children must be bullied or manipulated into believing in irrational ideas like a deity. We know this because churches convert very few adults instead relying on helpless children to maintain the religion's hold on society. As Kevin indicated, the fallout after religion has been inflicted on children is not the only path to nihilism, communism, or relativism. However, I adamantly agree it would be unlikely, if not impossible, for a child who was raised peacefully to end up drawn to such inane anti-logic. How did you come to the conclusion in your final paragraph? I think you have to make the case... where's the evidence this will work? Firstly shame and not doing business with someone are not exactly one and the same. And secondly, shunning the business of religious parents will be an economic loss for the person doing the shunning as well. Now, if you wanted to make website that listed atheist business owners and encouraged atheist parents to get behind this (sort of like cage-free eggs)... well, then I think you might be cooking with gas. What do you think?
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