If My Child Became a Believer

One of the questions that first-generation atheist parents ask ourselves (and each other) quite a bit is this: What if my child became a believer?

Yeah, we like to torture ourselves.  😄

So many of us have come so far from the mythologies of our upbringing, yet we recall the strength of the methodical brainwashing of the religions of our childhoods. In the early years of parenting my children, the sheer thought of allowing my children to be in the presence of any of that brainwashing treacle was enough to place terror in my heart.

I didn't know yet.
I didn't trust reason and logic yet.
I still lived in fear from the brainwashing.

What I didn't know then yet was that raising our kids in our home with reason and logic and freedom to explore ideas was total inoculation against the religions of the world. They were set.

We had science in our lives continuously. If we weren't looking at the stars or the rocks or some energy source, we were talking about the concepts behind those things. It was regular and natural and barely required any planning or deliberate action, because it is how we live our lives. We love to learn, my husband and I, and we would share our enthusiasm with the kids. Even if they weren't completely bowled over by the science behind the rainbow or the rain, they still absorbed all of that knowledge, all of that beauty.

Kids are always so enamored with the flashy sciences: dinosaurs, race cars, pretty rocks, water guns, thunderstorms, farts, flight, the ocean, bugs, etc and it's so easy to simply get excited about all of those things that grab their attention and to explore every part of it that keeps them interested. Momma, watch the Bill Nye videos from a very early age! So fun and so engaging. 

But what about Santa 

and religion 

and the religion in the media?

 
Well, I didn't say that that crap isn't omnipresent, because it totally is. And it's beguiling and flashy. Early on, Man, I remember my heart clinching in my chest when something from the noise would attract the attention of Elizabeth. Because she wanted magic. She craved it. And she wanted it to be REAL.

So, one day I decided to simply embrace the magic.
Let her believe. Let her take on the nonsense in her own head and trust that she knew enough to keep her safe.
Oh geez was I frightened.

But I needn't have been.
She explored lots of magical ideas when she was, aw, between five and nine years of age or so. And if SHE explored it, so did John. He just followed her in whatever she did.

Once, for about a year they both believed and acted like they had some sort of wind magic.  😊  They would call the wind. And, not surprisingly, sometimes it would come. And one day, Elizabeth and John John has been calling the wind when Elizabeth sidled over to me, keeping her confession a secret from her little brother, and said, You know, Momma, I don't really call the wind; the wind just comes and I call it after I see it happening.

I know, Honey. Isn't it fun to pretend?

Yes.


The two of them went on to "believe in" several other gods and spirits and things (for awhile during the Rick Riordan years, they pretended to believe in the Greek Gods.) They would act serious about it, like they saw some grown ups act about their god. 😆 And always, always, they knew that they were pretending.

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Now that the kids are older I have asked them about all of that and they both have told me that they enjoyed pretending, but the cognitive dissonance was strong! 

So, while I don't advocate for any VBS or "going to church with Grandma", I do hope that you can relax about this. If you're doing your part, in a relaxed fashion, of exposing them to the beauties and fun of science, you can consider them inoculated.

Of course, if you EVER feel uncomfortable
with what's going on,
ignore this and trust your own instincts


What would YOU DO if your child
became a believer?

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You Might Also Enjoy:
Indoctrination
Are you a First-Generation Atheist Parent or Humanist Parent?
Should I Let My Mom Take My Child to Church?
Dealing With Confrontational Family Members
How to Talk Religion with Children at an Atheist or Skeptic
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