I am agnostic, not in the sense that of being on the fence about belief. I am agnostic in the sense that while I do not believe in the supernatural/gods/religion, I don’t think it is accurate to say that I KNOW there is no god. I don’t believe there is. I life my life based on a non-existence of any gods.

I like some of the tenets of buddhism, but only as they apply to living, and not the doctrines of some of the sects about reincarnation and other ideas.

I DO believe in morality. I hold myself to strict standards and believe the world is a better place for my doing it. I am also a very postive, happy, upbeat person. I am at peace with myself and my life.

You are in a very exciting place. I hope you find answers and a foundation you are secure in. I hope you keep coming back and I’d love to hear more from you!

I liked your comment about your son getting on the agnostic highway and I feel I’m agnostic as well. I’ve felt that it is a big question mark that I’m trying to answer or ‘just make a decision dammit’.

You seem very strongly rooted, in what little I’ve read, in your agnosticism as if it is a place to be, a place you will stay. Do you think/feel/believe you’ll be agnostic the rest of your life? (I almost said forever, but that’s a mighty long time.) Or do you think at some point you’ll ‘pick’ something - Catholicism or Buddhism or a homemade theism or Great Spirit or whatever?

Are you on your path or are you searching for one? I suppose that points to one of my beliefs that we do have paths to find or create.

Thanks!
Val

Confession Time: I am exactly the same way when I dance. That is why I prefer a dance floor with fewer people than a crowded one. How is anybody going to see me on a crowded dance floor?!

Well Noell I LOVE YOU TOO!!!!

hee hee remember the time we were sitting in your living room and singing along to Simon and Garfunkel and then we both spontaneously admitted to each other that we were each singing kinda loudly hoping the other would think, “oh, she has such a pretty voice!” that gives me the giggles!

Fran–Lindy is my good, good friend; my longest-standing friend, way back from high school. I love Lindy even more than she loves Blake!

Maybe the truth is whatever I decide it to be for that moment when I decide it to be true! Truth + Time = False

If we tear down all the gods displayed on the lawn in front of city hall, we’ll end up worshipping the weed.

Drugs take away the innocence of our childhood. Maybe we need to take a Santa drug to keep feeling young.

Noell, I think you need to be straight with Blake and tell him in no uncertain terms that what you taught him before was wrong. Now that you aren’t a Mormon, your children need no less input from you in creating an unambiguous symbolic structure of their world and their place in it than they do for you to provide them with a language to structue their language center. There is ample reason to believe that humans are born with a symbol/identity center in their brains which requires that the social environment supply it with content and structure.

If that structure comes with a built in ethnophobic component in humans, it is something we need to leverage, just like , like everyone else does, explaining to our children that they are special: they are among the few who know the truth. What’s different, in our case, is that this doesn’t necessarily make others bad, only misinformed.

If you ask my girls, 5 & 7, about god in any context, such as, “Can God make it rain, if he wants?, or “If there is a God, what color is he? They both immediately go to the bottom line and laugh, “There’s no gods.” The other contentions in the questions are empty to them. Best of all people aren’t bad for believing in their gods, they’re just silly.

One time he asked me about God and I we talked about all the different types of gods people believe in from around the world. Then I told him that to me God is in our hearts. God is how we love others, how we work to make the world better, how we give and share. Something corny like that, and Blake said, “Nah, I don’t like that.”

My consolation is that he feel free to disagree with me. I do like that.

Last year we revealed to him that Santa is really Mom and Dad. He took it very well. My hope is that the topic will come up again with the Easter Bunny on his way. That would be a good time to tell him who else is imaginary.

From the outside its easier to say this than it would be to feel it from inside your situation: Kids say the darndest things. (and their thoughts can be darndester - a new word)
It is interesting that he was sort of looking for a way to make Muslims “The Other” or “The Bad Guy” - - goes to show that media and the kid’s version of water-cooler talk (cafeteria talk?) has a major impact. Your idea of tribal thinking is probably dead on.

Sounds like you had an exemplary response, though.
Correcting those ideas when they pop up seems to be key.
Answering your kids in a clear way is so so important.

When I was little, I asked my dad what day-beds were for (we were in a furniture store). Whatever words he chose - what I took away from it was ’some people will die if they lay down, so they need to sit up on these things at night - it has something to do with their lungs filling up with fluid, and their throat collapsing’.
I dreaded the fate of these pathetic ‘night sitters’ growing up. Dad either was messing with me, or he didn’t know and made some general statement about some people sleeping that way - but I doubt he went all ‘Steven King’ on me, my brain did that. Freak factory that it is.
My mom wouldn’t let me or my brother have any of her diet soda. She said “Its bad for little boys’ - I grew up thinking diet soda caused testicular cancer - and that only boys couldn’t drink it. I believed that women had a drink that was safe for them, but poison to men. Unnecessary gender specification to kids can do some bizarre things in their minds - including the sense of ‘The Other’ and ‘The Bad Guys’ that your son felt about Muslims.