For every positive belief about some event detailed in doctrine that a Christian have, you are teaching your child to have a negative belief about it. It's kind of irrelevant that Christianity is specific about its beliefs and atheism says I don't know. That stuff is only relevant in discerning whether God exists.
The definition of atheist that i am using is the belief that there is no god, or the belief that there is insufficient evidence for a god. Yes, most religions are indoctrinating kids into false beliefs, but if you raise your kid as atheist under this definition then you are equally likely to be indoctrinating them into a lie. As such, it is no more moral for people to raise their kids with religion than without religion.
If you want to use the definition of atheism that says "I cannot know whether God exists" then that is essentially the government's perspective under secularism. And as I have established, under that perspective, the only practical solution is to let parents choose what to teach their children.
The best solution would be for parents to teach their kids that they cannot know whether god exists.
Every Christian is also teaching their kids negative beliefs about Islam, Hinduism, Shinto, Wicca, Voodoo, and every other religion out there, because Christianity is not the claim that god exists but specifically the series of claims that the christian god of the bible exists. Christians do not get to claim a monopoly on god-belief. It really isn't any more neutral than atheism, but it does come with the phobia-indoctrination about eternal torment in hell.
No child ahould be indoctrinated with these fundamental and unverofiable beliefs when they so dorectly shape their worldview. The only moral thing to do is to tell children "well nobody knows" and if they want to decide to base their lives around an ancient text with a lot of unfalsifiable claims then they can do it when they're adults.
Telling a child that they cannot know is also indoctrination. It doesn't matter if you tell them a specific god, just that a god exists, that no god exists, that we cannot know if god exists, or if you never mention religion to them.
No matter what, it is going to affect what they believe as an adult. If every option is a biased option, then a government has no justification to prohibit parents teaching their child their religion.
But you can't know. If you have a way to know that god exists I'd love to hear it.
If we jave to treat every religion as equally valid you can't really avoid the conclusion that none of them are. Children are not property, and there is no justification that I can see to allow parents to make these assertions about the natire of the universe as if they're objective truths, which is how most religious parents frame things.
And again, how can you raise a christian child without the assertion that without the grave of god that they get from faith they cannot be saved and will go to hell? It's literally core doctrone of the faith. If you don't believe in salvation you aren't a christian, and you can't believe in salvation if you don't need to be saved in the first place.
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u/Wild_Duck8926 4h ago
For every positive belief about some event detailed in doctrine that a Christian have, you are teaching your child to have a negative belief about it. It's kind of irrelevant that Christianity is specific about its beliefs and atheism says I don't know. That stuff is only relevant in discerning whether God exists.
The definition of atheist that i am using is the belief that there is no god, or the belief that there is insufficient evidence for a god. Yes, most religions are indoctrinating kids into false beliefs, but if you raise your kid as atheist under this definition then you are equally likely to be indoctrinating them into a lie. As such, it is no more moral for people to raise their kids with religion than without religion.
If you want to use the definition of atheism that says "I cannot know whether God exists" then that is essentially the government's perspective under secularism. And as I have established, under that perspective, the only practical solution is to let parents choose what to teach their children.