Atheism and the Family

Atheism for Parents

The connection of religion to family has been well observed in studies; neither seems able to change independent of the other (Thornton, 1985) . For this reason it is important that parents consider the effects of making atheism the religion of the home. While they hope to remove ill effects or beliefs from the household, they cannot help but bring other influences in.

Parents who seek to remove strife from the home might have fled from religiously stifling atmospheres themselves and wish to avoid imposing this on their children. They have a bad taste in their mouth from whatever religion they grew up around. Atheists frequently draw on the example of religious strife throughout the ages as an example that religion is innately bad. If this is mindset of parents, however, they might do well to take a closer look at the facts. Gregory Koukl reveals that for the hundreds of thousands who have died as a result of Christianity, whose crusades and inquisitions are one of the most frequently quoted examples of religious evil, those declaring atheism have been responsible for over 156 million deaths (Koukl, 1994). Many millions of these murders have been committed far more recently than any crusades or witch-trials. Those who use Christianity's darker moments in history as proof of its evil had better think twice on the 390-to-1 ratio touted by those who deny a higher power.

Now, it is silly to use such extreme examples when talking about the individual family. But these are the sort of examples many atheists have used to saturate the American with anti-religious sentiment. Better reasons might be touted by atheists whose qualms are closer to home: hypocritical church-goers in their past, or stifling religious practices in their own childhood. By verbally or practically declaring atheism they are stating that they were personally victimized by someone else's religion and are now enacting a boycott on belief-systems in general. But before the atheist parent blames religion for strife in the world or rebellion in the home they had better consider the whole picture. Just what is religion being replaced with?

Many atheists seem to believe that by replacing belief with disbelief—for, as one journalist put it, this is the only characteristic atheists share in common with each other—they are replacing ignorance with logical certainty. “Strong Atheists” go so far as to decree that teaching children about a god is superstition akin to belief in bogey-men and ghosts. Because atheism is the unspoken norm assumed to provide precious objectivity to modern scientists, many atheists consider it to allow greater room for intelligence. Yet again they seem to ignore the facts of history. Facts such as that the greatest discoveries in history, including the invention of the printing press, the discovery and, later, the founding of America, and the Theory of Relativity, were made by those openly professing their belief in God. Dare they tell Columbus, or Einstein, that religion robs independent thought? Who are they hoping their kids will emulate? No, intelligence is not incompatible with religion.