But most atheists aren't "overtly" so. Maybe if it's a kickback against personal history with religion, but most atheists simply don't believe in a deity. Could say the same for the born-again Christians: No faith in the past and are suddenly militantly holier-than-thou tedious bores just because they "found a god" and think everyone else is somehow lesser than them because of it.

Extremes at either end are bad, but thankfully not the norm. At least round these parts.

EDIT: I agree with Flakk - believe in whatever you want but leave it as personal choice, and don't try to force others to take on your personal beliefs.

I'm personally blessed to have many theist and atheist friends. We all agree no one has the authority to judge one another (there's only One Judge obviously )

Nevertheless, I'm always flattered when an atheist is offended by my personal choice in God.

More than that, believe what you want but respect the laic/secular laws of the state. Even if you think blood transfusion is evil, you have no right to refuse medical treatment to your family members. Or, in the case of other religions, decide whom you daughter or sister will marry or how they'll dress, cover or not cover their head.

Nothing like forming a religious affiliation out of spite for others, eh?

In my experience, they just don't care about what other people believe in as long as it doesn't affect them personally. But among my acquaintances there's a certain level of humorous criticism of the zealots (and rightly so).

Was it your choice though?

I'm pretty sure for most people, their parents forced it upon them and didn't say something like, "What religion would you like to choose?"

"What's the choice, mum?"

"Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikism, Aztec sun worshipping, Jain , Spaghetti monster, ...."

"Cool - I'll chose Church of the Spaghetti monster because I love spaghetti!"

Just out of scientific curiosity. Did you do a confirmation as teenager/adult? Otherwise, baptism it's only the parent's choice.

Interestingly, I've seen some Christians who hold off on confirmation until the person is 18, rightly so as they can then make a slightly more educated decision about the whole thing.
In Ireland it is usually the last year of primary school, aged 11-12ish. With the promise of presents and the peer pressure, I'm sure about 80% of Atheists in Ireland are also confirmed Catholics.

So, it's the Western tradition of imposing things on literal little people

Satan, or Trump?

Tom

The argument that you shouldn't force ideas onto your kids is flawed. As a parent, you are responsible to bring up your child in the best way as you see fit.

Some children are brought up vegan, do I agree? No, but I would never dream of interfering (exception would be if the child was malnourished). In the vast majority of cases such decisions are purely those for the parent. Exceptions should only be the case when the health and wellbeing of the child is at risk.

The flip side of this argument is that you let children do whatever they want. Do we ask kids if they want to go to school? We have age limits on voting and alcohol purchasing for a reason.





FWIW, this thread is going way off topic.

__________________
Thou/Thee

Sure, but even so you have to take into consideration the child's needs and personality. Example: you try to feed your child as healthy as possible, but at one point you should give up feeding them with food they absolutely hate. Make a compromise, find something they also like. Same for schooling, they have to go to school but they should be able to follow their own interests and not pursue a career chosen by parents etc. etc.

I agree, we're way off topic..

It's a shame there isn't a thread dedicated to this topic. As long as people can try to be respectful of one another, it is an interesting subject to discuss or debate.

Sorry, you brought up Christianity in this thread

Let's go back to people being fired using "Cancel culture" as a way to avoid thinking about their own actions.

Yes, because children are not considered to be old enough before then to make informed decisions about them.

Obviously the law feels making a decision about religion is a triviality and harmless activity - which is fine - unless of course the parents are fundamentalists and brain-wash their children into believing that women are less important than men, for example.

Are you trying to cancel us?

Or that gluing yourself to a road will solve climate change, or that men taking part in women's sports is fair, for example.

I'm pretty sure it's not children doing this.

For the sport part, there are some trans children competing. The numbers are tiny and have been blown up.

That whole thing is a mess, trying to quantify who can do what and when is a minefield.

Well, Amazon did not confirm or deny they were cancelling Mr. Clarkson's shows.

Mr. Clarkson just made a great example of "tell me you got fired without telling you got fired", full rant on Sunday Times:

https://archive.ph/1dZ2K#selection-897.0-899.329

Fun fact: it's about the world, absolutely not about him

I don't see any problem with young boys and girls competing together in sports. It's only when testosterone kicks in and sex differences give males a competitive advantage that it becomes an issue.