Evolution is not a religion. Evolution does not require you to live your life a certain way and to follow certain practices the way religion does. Evolution is just a fact. It’s possible to accept evolution while also believing in god. Many people believe that evolution is the way god created us.

” I was raised by a mildly religious mother (to this day I don’t know what my father’s views on religion are). I went to Sunday school, had confirmation, the whole 9 yards. However, never during that whole process did my mother ever stifled my creativity.”

It depends on how hard core the christian is. I was raised by Jehovah Witnesses and my creativity was always being stifled. I wanted to take painting classes but my parents wouldn’t allow it because it would take time away from god. I was also not allowed to read certain books because according to my parents they would invite demons into our home. My brother wanted to join our middle school band and my parents said no to him because he would not be able to keep up with his bible studies.

I was raised by a mildly religious mother (to this day I don’t know what my father’s views on religion are). I went to Sunday school, had confirmation, the whole 9 yards. However, never during that whole process did my mother ever stifled my creativity. I had an overactive imagination as a child and she never once tried to stop me from using it. I loved biology back then, I was always watching documentaries on wildlife, and I asked a ton of questions about what I saw. She encouraged me to not accept everything I saw as fact, I had to ask questions (she’s a lawyer – I know, I know ). All of this while forcing me to attend Sunday school at 9 am.

I did have a “crisis of faith” later on. I’m not sure what identity deconstruction means, so maybe I’m approaching this from the wrong angle, but for me it mean the moment when I started to doubt the existence of God. I came out of that particular problem unscathed. My faith as it was before was changed, but the crisis in itself didn’t harm me.

As for the spontaneous pursuit curiosity, to this day I still log on to the internet just to learn more about something I just saw on television. Granted, back then we didn’t have the net, but I still tried to find out about stuff by asking my parents and going to the library.

In conclusion, I have to say that I think that a religious component in a child’s education is not, by itself, a bad thing, the fact is that the importance of that component has to be balanced very carefully. I turned out all right I think, I believe in God but still like to think of myself as a critical thinker (I know, major contradiction right there )

I also have to say that I’m Portuguese, not American, so maybe general cultural values play a part in the way my mom raised me.

Just my two cents

My older 2 kids are in their 20s now, both raised as atheists, and they’ve turned out just fine. They are 2 of the most honest, ethical, hard working, compassionate, and civic minded young people you’ll ever meet. I fully expect my younger 2 (now 5 1/2 and 2 3/4) will turn out the same way.

With all due respect, you could easily perform all this community service without religious indoctrination as a part of it. You don’t need the superstitious ideas of “Light” or “the Prince of Peace” to have a positive impact on your society.

The mother did the right thing by keeping her child away from that religious indoctrination. I’d do the same thing. While I have no doubt many positive things happen as a result of the work you do, that’s the pragmatic side. The principle side is that you operate on religious indoctrination–passing faith off as fact to children–which is simply something I couldn’t stand… as a person and a parent.

Lately, I became a leader in a program called Royal Rangers – it’s kind of like Christian Boy Scouts.

D’Angelo told me that he has experience with Royal Rangers. His neighbor and friend went as a kid, and took him a few times. When his mom found out it was an Assembly of God program, she forbid him from ever going again.

I couldn’t help but cry, and knowing the positive impact we try to have in boys lives, I can’t help but wonder where D’Angelo would be today if he hadn’t been stopped from going to Rangers. Part of me really thinks there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be in the TDCJ system (Texas Department of Criminal Justice). I really think there is a good chance he’d be a positive contributing beneficial member of society…

Yeah. Just something I thought I’d point out what happens when you shield your child from the Light of the world, the Prince of peace…

I’ve found it helpful to remember my experiences growing up as a Mormon as a guide to what I say to my kids. By that I mean that I not only talk about it in regards to a lack of physical evidence and contradictory scientific evidence, but I’ve talked to them about the psychological harms I experienced, how difficult it was for me to get over them and how I still struggle with the after effects of some and probably will for the rest of my life. They know this is why I’ve been adamant about keeping them out of religion, because I don’t want them to have to go through all the same mindf***ing crap that I did.

I don’t just pick on Mormonism there, the same kind of crap can easily be experienced in a lot of other sects, it’s just that my personal experience was with Mormonism so those are the examples I have.

I admit I would be devastated if any of my children decided to become devoutly religious – most especially if they decided to join the Mormon church. My #2 child is married to a lapsed Mormon and they had a son in May 2008. My daughter has sworn that she would never become Mormon, but her husband seems to kind of waffle back and forth on whether he believes or not. I worry about it causing problems for them or about my daughter joining just to try to keep the peace.

My 5 yr old is going to be a challenge. I actually wrote a bit about that a while back on my own blog:
http://intj-mom.livejournal.com/#item15978