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← Guidance in turning my children to reason

My wife was raised Catholic by quite strict parents - leaving the usual scars. I was a committed atheist when we met and it has taken me 20+ years to gradually introduce the concept of skeptical reasoning and the benefits have been huge. Without giving me credit (she is too strong for that!), she has become quite anti-religious and I attribute this to 3 things:

Realising that all the guilt and sexual repression BS she was taught as a kid is actually dangerous

Realising that the religiously conservative demand very strong adherence to rules and principles, but they do not subject these rules to any investigation. Her very religious father for example has served as a juror. He demands extraordinary evidence for the conviction of a criminal and yet demands no evidence for the foundation of his world-view. This is an obvious double standard.

Finally, 10+ years of youtube style clips that I've "accidentally" watched while she's been around. I've used people she admires: Stephen Fry, Penn Jillette, Derren Brown to show that the human mind is a far more impressive playground than any religionist could imagine

In that time, and against my will, she has had our 3 children baptised and we even married in Catholic church - but I know that if she had her time again, she would have done none of these and I am shortly going to look into unbaptising my kids (if this is possible?) It's all a slow process, but without too much pain and some compromise, I have managed to bring skepticism, reason and critical thinking into our home and kicked religion out. I wish you luck with your journey.

Permalink Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:06:10 UTC | #950493