Sunday school for atheists? Jesus H. on a stack of hymn books, don't folks understand that the whole point of being an atheist is being able to skip out of Sunday school?
The Palo Alto Sunday family program uses music, art and discussion to encourage personal expression, intellectual curiosity and collaboration. One Sunday this fall found a dozen children up to age 6 and several parents playing percussion instruments and singing empowering anthems like I'm Unique and Unrepeatable, set to the tune of Ten Little Indians, instead of traditional Sunday-school songs like Jesus Loves Me. Rather than listen to a Bible story, the class read Stone Soup, a secular parable of a traveler who feeds a village by making a stew using one ingredient from each home.
Down the hall in the kitchen, older kids engaged in a Socratic conversation with class leader Bishop about the role persuasion plays in decision-making. He tried to get them to see that people who are coerced into renouncing their beliefs might not actually change their minds but could be acting out of self-preservation--an important lesson for young atheists who may feel pressure to say they believe in God.
Atheist parents appreciate this nurturing environment. That's why Kitty, a nonbeliever who didn't want her last name used to protect her kids' privacy, brings them to Bishop's class each week. After Jonathan, 13, and Hana, 11, were born, Kitty says she felt socially isolated and even tried taking them to church. But they're all much more comfortable having rational discussions at the Humanist center. "I'm a person that doesn't believe in myths," Hana says. "I'd rather stick to the evidence."
It all sounds eerily like some sort of church function, doesn't it? Community gatherings, feel-good songs with strong moral (oops, I mean ethical) teachings--I wonder how far from religion they've actually strayed? They've pulled the best out of the religious experience, left the fire and brimstone and the human sacrifice behind, but all of the superficial vestiges of religion are still there. We have to recognize that their ritualization of the Atheist experience is ostensibly religious in and of itself. I'm trying to be my PC best here (I'll bet you'll never tell how I come down on this: atheist? agnostic? clergyman?). I guess that what it comes down to is, does it work for them? Does it? Truly?
Posted by: Brian | December 04, 2007 at 07:40 PM
hmmm...I agree with your comments Brian...not to mention that those young children may themselves may be coerced in to 'believing' in their own 'atheism.' Thank goodness we all grow up to think for ourselves...eventually.
Posted by: joeschmoe | December 04, 2007 at 11:53 PM
humans being social animals is the "best [of] the religious experience"? i thought religion had something to do with God or gods? atheists are no different from other people - they merely disbelieve in one god more than monotheists do.
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