keyser_soze

As an aside to the "my girlfriend is becoming fundified" thread, I have another dilemna of the sort. As you may know, my 4 year old(40 going on 50 in the head) goes to church with her mother. After church, they go to my mom's house(who IS a fundy) and spend the day. I work 3rd shift, so I don't go with them to my mom's and as I'm atheist, it need not be said that I don't go to church. She wouldn't want me to anyway, as I tend to be vocal, and more than a little debative in such circumstances. She doesn't argue the points of faith with me, because she knows that she always loses, and it's better if we don't interact in each other's faith.
Thanks for all the help on the home schooling front. Another problem--


My daughter comes in Thursday morning, to tell me that she has learned a new word. It's "hallelujah." Imagine my happiness. I have already worked on critical thinking skills with her(insist a blue bowl is red until she is angry, then ask her how she knows it's blue..."I see it.") but these do not seem to apply to her sunday school lessons. And this morning, she didn't want to go collect bugs and see the lake(maybe catch some tadpoles or something for her to look at...she loves bugs and the like). She said she wanted to go to sunday school, and I'm aware that this is fine in most senses, but she is really bright, but really stubborn. So if this religious thing get's stuck in her head, she is apt to be very difficult to deprogram later. Any advice? I tried to get her to use her critical thinking skills, when she talked about god, asking her what he looked like....but I was merely placing a background thought, for her future use, and not really pushing any particular idea. I want her to maintain her church life, along with her mother, but I don't want her to become fundified....

signed...worried.

lunachick

I'd imagine that she enjoys sunday school because it is social for her. Kids her own age doing fun activities. Don't make a fuss. Make a fuss and you could push her into being fundified as an act of rebellion. Hopefully, she'll outgrow it. Good luck!

captainpabst

I think it would be a mistake to try to maintain too tight a hold on her...like all freethinking people, she must experience things for herself and make her own decisions. If you love her and set a positive non-theistic example, she will most likely end up where you are belief-wise.

On a completely unrelated note, Keyser, I think I saw you playing Counterstrike on Heart of Glass today - I was playing as Thunderclese. Nice to know there are freethinking infidels on the HoG.

keyser_soze

I try not to hold on to her too tightly, I was just looking for some good object lessons to enhance her critical thinking skills.

As an unrelated issue, sorry...While I was Keyser_soze years ago on cs, the cheaters annoy the hell out of me, so I stopped playing when it got bad...three years ago now. I have also been

"< shot me=I killed >"
"running and hiding"
"."
"You should have ducked"
"llamas suck"
and about a dozen other names. My kill ratio was generally about 7 to 1, but I could not improve any more than that, and then the cheaters basically took over the game, so I left it. I cannot stand cheaters, they piss me off. I noticed that several people had started using my name, so I had to change it to "original Keyser_soze", but after a while I just dumped the name altogether.

lunachick

Remember she is only 4 years old. My daughter is 9 now, and has been through (just this Xmas) the I believe in God thing - and I simply say "which God?. Oh, ok, what does he do, then? Are you sure? Wow, that sounds impressive. Kinda like the toothfairy or something, eh?" When she asks me if I believe, I simply say no, and tell her why. At the moment she doesn't believe in god. At school she also learns about Maori myths and legends, so I am able to tell her that they are wonderful stories to treasure, but they are not true - myths and legends - just like god and the bible. Perhaps you could read her stories from around the world - the myths of different cultures, so she still gets to enjoy the stories, but realises they are no more true than Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Hope this helps.

keyser_soze

Interesting idea! I'll give it a go.

lunachick

Here are some links that may help you:

Stories, Folklore, and Fairy Tales Theme Page

More

Book from Amazon.com - Wisdom Tales from Around the World: Fifty Gems of Story and Wisdom from Such Diverse Traditions As Sufi, Zen, Taoist, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, African, and Native American

Resource Book - Spinning Tales, Weaving Hope

World Religions and Cultures for Kids

More from the above site - more general in knowledge - excellent stuff

The more diverse stories she hears, and eventually reads, the better equipped she will be to not grow up to be a myopic and bigotted fundy. IMO, anyway.

Best of luck!

keyser_soze

Many thanks to you luna! With such friends as these, how can I go wrong?

lunachick

You are most welcome!

I hope you are successfully able to capture her imagination, while teaching her both critical thinking, and some knowledge and appreciation of the wider world.

sakrilege

If lunachick's great contribution doesn't already include this, Aesop's Fables is a nice site. It has the fables categorized in all sorts of ways. I knew one gentleman who would bring one out whenever someone tried to use a bible moral to draw a conclusion.