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If you don't mind a rather utilitarian approach I will tell you what I did with the kids. I treated God like Santa and the Easter Bunny. We read stories about him, I never ever said he didn't exist, and I took the kids to Sunday school, just like I took them to see Santa at the mall. We have some wonderful books of Bible stories, and we read those, and discussed the morality involved. I also read the kids the Greek and Roman and Norse myths, and I have a wonderful book called The Mountains of Tibet, by Mordecai Gerstien (sp?) based on the Tibetan book of the dead. This book deals with reincarnation in a beautiful and simple way. It is my sons favorite book now. We read it every night, and I never get tired of it. All the stories, and indeed all of my children's lives, are footnoted by my correction and instruction. From that they pick up what I expect in terms of morality, but as far as beliefs I don't tell them until they ask me if I believe or disbelieve in God, or Angels or Santa- and even then my answers are couched in terms of "Well no, I don't belive in angels (for example) but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I just haven't seen one, or been convinced of their existence- but other people have...." which led to a discussion of why some people would see angels and other people wouldn't. Anyway, I don't think religious inculcation needs to be a part of teaching morality- which one can do by example, and it isn't arbitrary if children are taught empathy (which in my opinion is a big part of morality), for anyone who really has empathy will be incapable of doing harm to others. |
