Thursday, April 8, 2010

Day 7: Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it. Secular Thursday Dish

The title is from a quote, that I just found, from Andre Gide. A quick wiki on him, he was a philosopher who believed in one finding themselves and I believe his little quote, "Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it," is a really good representation of what our take is on our religion, what we believe to be right and the preach that we practice.


The hubs and I are the atheist/agnostic type. He's a little more of the first and I'm a little more of the latter. I was raised catholic and some of those roots are just too hard to let go -a true testament to the effectiveness on catholic doctrines of faith. However, to say that I am a true Christian, a true believer is not being true to myself. I don't believe in joining an all-inclusive club where only the 'right ones' are let in. Oddly enough, this goes along with saying, I'm not a true atheist or a true agnostic. Some may say I'm a fair weathered atheist, and it's only when stuff gets tough, that I cast off my faithless beliefs in favor of the saving hand from an omnipotent being. The real truth is that I'm still trying to figure it out and I'm never going to find that truth so I will be happily ever after searching for that truth. I love it when quotes come along and put words exactly to how you feel.

So, this is how we wish to teach Logan. We want him to have religious tolerance just as much as social tolerance. We want him to be awed filled and show him that educating yourself about different viewpoints, different aspects of life, culture, religion and everything else out there may change his point of view, but he shouldn't be afraid to seek out an alternative because of the chance of losing his beliefs. Reject complacency in the status quo but don't be (and here's the kicker word) lazy and reject the entire status quo. This is what we hope to teach him in this little venture of home school -hopefully he finds it as interesting as science.

I'm sure my explanation has left more questions...but the ultimate thing we believe is that faith, spirituality, religion are a personal choice to be respected, acknowledged, and tolerated. It makes our own quest to seek the truth that much more believable.


Loganism for the day: "I know why the road slopes down! It's so the water can run into the pots and be soaked up." me: "Did you learn about that in school yesterday?" Logan: "No, my brain figured it out because I'm smart." Indeed!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Great post! I love how you phrased what you believe. And the Loganism was too cute!

Unknown said...

Should have added that I found you through secular homeschool forum. :)

Dee said...

Thank you! I guess you could say we're pretty passive about what we believe but we have strong convictions about preserving our right to ours (and everyone elses belief). We don't have to agree, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends :)

I have to try and remember to put up the Loganisms- they really are daily! I may be biased, but the stuff he says is sometimes too good not to share!

Glad to meet you :)

Snoopy/Nathalie said...

Hey Denise, you should add the Loganism to the "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" on Secular Homeschool. Quite a smart little kid you have there, lol!

I'm atheist and DH is a believer of some flavor. After 9 years, I'm still not sure exactly of what he believes in since he refuses to discuss it but he's definitely a believer and not a lover of atheists... well, apart from me, lol. I think that in life it's fine to have your own opinions, of course, but that it should never prevent you from being friends with people who hold different (if not opposite) opinions. Agree to disagree, so to speak. I'm trying to teach that to my oldest son (16 in a few days) because when it comes to potential girlfriends, he is quite specific in what he wants/does not want, and I'm trying to make him understand that sometimes love comes from the most unexpected places. Witness hubby and me. We'll never agree on the whole god issue, but why should we let that deprive us of a perfectly happy life together?

Going back to religion, I raised my 3 older kids without it. Not to say that I raised them to be atheists, I always told them they could be whatever they wanted as long as they didn't try to convert me. Their dad (agnostic when I was married to him) and stepmom (Catholic) have taken them to church but I don't think it's "taken" because they don't seem to have much of an interest. It'll be interesting to see what path they choose. With Noah, I am more mindful of teaching him about religion because of his father, but it's kind of funny as, as much as he dislikes atheists, he totally trusts me to teach Noah and doesn't provide any type of religious teaching to his son.

Dee said...

snoopy: I will definitely add the Loganisms on secularhomeschoo.com - I wish I could follow that boy around with a tape recorder!

See, I've always felt it's my job to teach Logan tolerance, we essentially have tolerance lessons every day (If he says someone is stupid -we talk about it) and it's his job as an adult to pick whatever religous/nonreligous path he wishes to take, just like whatever job he wants to take. I'm not going to inject my beliefs in him (or anyone else for that matter) because I do not want it happening to me! :)

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