Recently, two atheist parents wrote in to Slate with a question: How should they talk to their young daughters about religion without disparaging people who happen to believe in those myths?
How do we talk to them about it without sounding like people who believe in it are blooming idiots? Not that we would ever disparage someone for their beliefs, but when you say it like, “Some people believe that there is a God you can’t see that can control things on Earth.” Whaaaat? It sounds ridiculous, and my girls will also think it’s ridiculous. But their friends, teachers, neighbors, everyone believes this! How do we talk to them about this while still maintaining that it is important to treat everyone with respect?
It’s a great question, and it came from a very sincere place. Those parents didn’t want to “indoctrinate” their kids into their atheism, but they didn’t want to hide it either. Are there ways to do that?
Of course there are. They could explain to their kids why belief in God is so powerful. They could say people want hope and God provides that. They could talk about how people are uncomfortable not having answers to everything, and religion fills in a lot of gaps. They could insist that, regardless of what someone believes about God, all people deserve to be treated kindly.
Too bad the advice they received from Slate‘s Carvell Wallace was downright awful. Instead of offering helpful suggestions, Wallace slammed the parents for just being atheists.