When Your Child Is Terrified You’re Going to Hell

[Warren Stupidity]

What do you tell your children when they tell you they fear for your soul?

This is hard, folks, in case you didn’t know. There isn’t an easy solution.

People with no clue how delicate these matters are will chime in and assure me that I should just lay it all on them at once. Just go full atheist on them. They suggest I should just look at my children, who have no other people in their lives who think this way, and tell them flat out that it’s all bullsh*t.

Are you out of your mind? Forgive me, but you have no idea what my world is like. I know there’s a lot of debate between firebrands and diplomats and I can’t speak with authority about everywhere else, but I can speak with relative certainty about my own little corner of the world. You won’t get anywhere burning your bridges like that. And there is no way in hell I’m going to look into my little children’s eyes and ask them to ingest whole the idea that every single adult in their lives save for one is completely wrong about this vast network of ideas about which they are all gravely concerned. I am not interested in making my own children afraid of me, thank you very much.

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/excommunications/2015/04/when-your-child-is-terrified-youre-going-to-hell/#ixzz3WwQ5JE9G

Amazingly enough none of my kids were wrecked by learning that religion is bullshit. But by all means keep on lying to your kids if you think that is the right thing to do. I'm sure later on when they learn you were lying to them they will be all forgiving and everything. Or perhaps just keep the fiction up until you are safely croaked yourself.

[trotsky]

1. Nice too how the deference ALWAYS only goes one way.

No mention of how rude it is for the person claiming you're going to hell. How insulting and dehumanizing and, yes, bigoted. Nope.

What's far far worse is for you to say "I don't believe that."

Give me a fucking break.

[Warpy]

3. "Oh, he's just a mean man who wants god to punish everybody who doesn't do what he says"

Kids can certainly relate to that one. Whether or not the kids end up believing religious rubbish later on, they'll retain the notion that people who damn their neighbors are just mean people who should be avoided.

I have absolutely no hesitation telling a child that some person who thinks s/he has the right or the wisdom to determine who will be tortured for eternity is just plain mean because that's what those people are. I can prove it with their own book, too.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. He's a good dad.

The kids know this already. And as for the ex-wife and her family ... hateful comes to mind as an apt descriptor.

[PassingFair]

4. Color me smart for marrying another atheist!

I am happy that no one told these kinds of devastating lies to my children.

My mother rips one off once in a while like...."Well, if you believe in nothing, maybe you should GET nothing, for Christmas"

My daughters just laughed it off.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. I'm not a shitty parent, so my kid doesn't worry about phantom bullshit.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. " Just go full atheist on them."

One more thing that is utter bullshit about this. There are plenty of christians who think hell is nonsense and completely incompatible with a loving god. As for atheists, even the "partial" atheists, whatever the flying fuck that means, all think hell is about as realistic a concept as Never Land.

[mountain grammy]

7. I don't have a say over grandkids' religious teaching

Son and daughter in law pretty much agnostic, but kids pick up religion everywhere these days because it's so repressed dontcha know. Less people say they're religious but religion, especially one, is in your face every minute with everyone praying and praising God every five minutes. But I digress, back to the granddaughters. One of them asks what religion are you, Grammy? I'm a non believer, I say. Five shocked girls, then we went out for sushi.

[Binkie The Clown]

8. I have younger sister who "prays for my soul" every day

because she doesn't want me to go to hell.

I appreciate that she cares, and I try to be respectful of her as a person, but I also firmly remind her of my disbelief in her mythology.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. My response when someone tells me that they are praying for my soul

is to tell them that although I am grateful that they care, I would prefer that they do something concrete, like be there when I am down or hurting. Or let me know if and when I am on the wrong track about things other than God. Or just give me a hug or ask me over to dinner. Anything that really does help me.

[Binkie The Clown]

11. Good response. n/t

[Cartoonist]

9. Heaven & Hell

When I was a Christian lad, I always figured I would go to Heaven, because I was a good boy.
I thought Hell was for bad guys, like Hitler, not me.

What kind of God would sentence someone to Hell for eternity for what they did in their short life by comparison? No God worth the name would do that.

[onager]

13. Being an asshole and all...

I think I woud just reach for the Buy-bull and have some teachable moments with those kids:

"It says here, Moms and Dads can sell their daughters into slavery. Don't worry, if the two of you go up on eBay, I'll try to make sure I'm the high bidder."

"It says here, the loving God killed all the babies in Egypt. What kind of father would do that?"

"Make sure you ask Mom to tell you the story about ONE OF THE HOLIEST MEN IN THE BIBLE. He had two daughters, just like us! His name was Lot..."

Etc. Etc.