At a very early age, its okay to let children learn all those fancy stories about gods and heaven. But keep it at the Harry Potter level. Instead of making them depend on religion or Gods.. perpare them to stand on their own when they grow up; without complicating things.
..seems like most people are now pretty clear that there is only one "supreme" god; no hindu-gods, christian-gods, jewish-gods or muslim-gods.. ..is that a compromise??? However, it a good progress from the dark days. Now, how long will it take to destroy that notion tooo? ______________________________________ "If god created the whole world/universe, who created god?" Or is that the chicken and egg story all over again?? god or man ?? which came first??
I think, it is right to beleive in sacred texts rather than living in a total confusion. For example, a Hindu need not to live in fear of death, as the birth and death are just like changing clothes and you may have to pass innumerable births, life and deaths as described in Texts. What you have to do is that lead a positive life. You need not to change your child according to you belief, later he or she will try to find the answers.if you believe in God you have to submit yourself 100% or it is OK not to believe at all. if you are not believe in a personal God I recommend to read Osho's books to enjoy the very essence of life.Its highly recommended. You will get out of the confusion and will lead a life full of colors. All the best.
Hari om Is this a article or is it a question to us? If it is a question then I would like to say that being in a multi-religion family or single-religion family is not important.U must understand the basic concepts,the good things,learn how to be human-being & tell that all religion speak about the same things & apart from these it has its own way for followers.Respect all religion but follow ur religion. Jai hind.
This is from a child's point of view.When I was small, I was very much confused about the idea of GOD 1stly bcoz thr were so many images of God that I came across & 2ndly bcoz my Mom was a believer & Dad was a non-believer.My mom taught me all religious things & Dad didnt interfere at all.When I grew up a little, I asked him about it & he simply said that everyone is free to believe in wat he wants to.He just told me one thing that he doesnt want to hear me blame anyone for my failure or thank for my achievement bcoz I myself am solely responsible for my acts.In this way he let me believe in whatever I want to but not 'depend' on any power.Now that I've grown up, I visit temple & pray sometimes.But I never go to the temple just b4 exams or something like dat.This has given me a sense of belonging to a tradition which keeps my mom happy but at the same time a sense of independence from a belief.I dont want a proof for the existnce or non-existnce of a suprnatural power or GOD bcoz nobody has got enf proof.So if one parent is a believer he shud teach the child the religious things but not make the child depend on GOD & the nonbelievr shud put forth his beliefs & let the child decide.
I think i can make you understand.. The Animal Human is classified as Man and Woman. Again there are lot Men and women in this world, hence to identify each one, we have names.
So hence there is some-one controlling or very superior to us who is a well wisher of us. But again he is in different forms(belief). So each of these forms are given different names. ie Religion... its upto you which name you like to have. But for a better life and a easy one you need to have some choice.. Can you ever think of surviving without a name???
RE:Its quite Easy...
by Nitin Kale on Mar 03, 2005 07:56 AM
I understand and respect your view. But i think its not that easy. And about your question 'can we survive without name?'. My answer is YES. As a developed animals, human beings existance is just not about survival. And a Name given to an individual is just an identification, not the represantive of that particular human form. Having a name is just the fact that, things made easy for communication and nothing else.
A child should be told good things only. If his/her parents embrace different religions the child can be told of the morals, stories or anything positive in the respective faiths. Never try to make an athiest of your child as it could create feeling of insecurity or depression. Still better a tinge of philososphy, psychologyand succes stories of great men could sow the seeds of positive thoughts so that they could turn any situation to their advantage and to their self development as they grow up
Well, Few interesting observations i wud like to make here. Bcoz our imaginations have got some limitations we have to have some form that represents the concept of God. I dont believe in the point u made in ur article that U want ur children to be good human beings rather than religeous, I know many good human beings who are religious. So lets not mix things here. Probably u dont like a cuple of rituals of ur culture so as ur hubby, which is understandable. So yeah, its better to choose a God each from each religion and make up a story which related two of them and let the kids be happy and you b happy.
