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Sunday School for Atheists
Time ^ | November 21, 2007 | JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN

Posted on 11/23/2007 6:59:38 AM PST by NYer

On Sunday mornings, most parents who don't believe in the Christian God, or any god at all, are probably making brunch or cheering at their kids' soccer game, or running errands or, with luck, sleeping in. Without religion, there's no need for church, right?

Maybe. But some nonbelievers are beginning to think they might need something for their children. "When you have kids," says Julie Willey, a design engineer, "you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their kids values and to be able to lean on." So every week, Willey, who was raised Buddhist and says she has never believed in God, and her husband pack their four kids into their blue minivan and head to the Humanist Community Center in Palo Alto, Calif., for atheist Sunday school.

An estimated 14% of Americans profess to have no religion, and among 18-to-25-year-olds, the proportion rises to 20%, according to the Institute for Humanist Studies. The lives of these young people would be much easier, adult nonbelievers say, if they learned at an early age how to respond to the God-fearing majority in the U.S. "It's important for kids not to look weird," says Peter Bishop, who leads the preteen class at the Humanist center in Palo Alto. Others say the weekly instruction supports their position that it's O.K. to not believe in God and gives them a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have.

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: atheism; atheists; dncfalseprophets; godshapedvacuum; humanists; moralabsolutes
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Sunday morning at The Children's Program at the Humanist Community of Palo Alto, California.
1 posted on 11/23/2007 6:59:38 AM PST by NYer
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To: Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


2 posted on 11/23/2007 7:00:18 AM PST by NYer ("Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" - Ignatius of Antioch)
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To: NYer
"Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."—Ronald Wilson Reagan
3 posted on 11/23/2007 7:03:17 AM PST by FormerLib (Sacrificing our land and our blood cannot buy protection from jihad.-Bishop Artemije of Kosovo)
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To: NYer
Atheists are organizing. I wonder, if they come to power, if they will be the "perfect" group? No hate, no discrimination, utopia for all?

Every bad thing in our history is all religions fault you know...it has absolutely nothing to do with humans. /s

4 posted on 11/23/2007 7:09:01 AM PST by Earthdweller (All reality is based on faith in something.)
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To: NYer

Actually Atheism IS their religion, admit it or not.


5 posted on 11/23/2007 7:12:20 AM PST by fish hawk (The religion of Darwinism = Monkey Intellect)
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To: NYer

“Okay, kids. Today’s lesson is on the meaning of life. Anyone know what the meaning of life is?”

“...”

“Exactly! Life is a meaningless, existential void! Very good, children. Now, since life is meaningless, what’s the point of living? Anyone?”

“...”

“Very good! There is no point to living! We’re all just cosmic accidents, and our existence matters no more in the big scheme of things than a termite’s life does! Now, who can draw me a picture of a termite?”


6 posted on 11/23/2007 7:13:57 AM PST by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: NYer

PS - Teacher’s hot.


7 posted on 11/23/2007 7:14:30 AM PST by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: NYer

Its hard for me to comprehend the wrath of the “Christian God” at these parents for teaching their kids this sort of thing. And I wonder why they do these classes on Sunday morning? Some sort of repressed guilt?


8 posted on 11/23/2007 7:23:41 AM PST by Bulldawg Fan (Victory is the last thing Murtha and his fellow Defeatists want.)
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To: FormerLib

“...And finally, that God would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves, with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.” (General George Washington, in a letter to the governors of each of the thirteen states upon his disbanding of the army after the successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War.)


9 posted on 11/23/2007 7:25:04 AM PST by kittymyrib
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To: B-Chan
PS - Teacher’s hot.

Dare I say, not as hot as she's gonna be...

10 posted on 11/23/2007 7:30:58 AM PST by TN4Liberty (A liberal is someone who believes Scooter Libby should be in jail and Bill Clinton should not.)
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To: Bulldawg Fan; NYer
And I wonder why they do these classes on Sunday morning?

No schedule conflicts?

The public schools have a "good character" curriculum, devoid of religious underpinnings. Maybe this "humanist" center is doing something similar.

11 posted on 11/23/2007 7:31:00 AM PST by Tax-chick (Every committee wants to take over the world.)
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To: NYer

Poor kids. Duped by their ignorant parents. How sad.


12 posted on 11/23/2007 7:32:27 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Ron Paul put the cuckoo in my Cocoa Puffs)
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To: Earthdweller
I wonder, if they come to power, if they will be the "perfect" group? No hate, no discrimination, utopia for all?

Yup. Except or course for those who fail to toe the party line: "Hie thee to a gas chamber."

13 posted on 11/23/2007 7:37:06 AM PST by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: B-Chan
“Okay, kids. Today’s lesson is on the meaning of life. Anyone know what the meaning of life is?”

“...”

“Exactly! Life is a meaningless, existential void! Very good, children. Now, since life is meaningless, what’s the point of living? Anyone?”

“...”

“Very good! There is no point to living! We’re all just cosmic accidents, and our existence matters no more in the big scheme of things than a termite’s life does! Now, who can draw me a picture of a termite?”

Actually, the rest of us should be so lucky. They're not teaching these kids that the world is meaningless (though that's the logical conclusion of their philosophical foundation) but to become crusading fanatics for social justice and a worldwide totalitarian state to save the "earth mother."

Modern atheists don't think G-d has too many rules. They think He doesn't have enough.

14 posted on 11/23/2007 7:38:13 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Lo' Ya`aqov ye'amer `od shimkha ki-'im Yisra'el; ki-sariyta `im-'Eloqim ve`im-'anashim vatukhal.)
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To: B-Chan
“Very good! There is no point to living! We’re all just cosmic accidents, and our existence matters no more in the big scheme of things than a termite’s life does!"

"OK, is there any reason not to exterminate termites?"

"..."

"VERY good! No reason at all. We exterminate termites whenever we feel like it. Now, Is there any reason to go on living?"

"I want to"

"And so? I suppose the termites want to, also. Is there any reason I shouldn't exterminate you?"

(Children--- the littler ones now intuiting what the big word "exterminate" means --- start slowly scootching their butts backward across the carpet towards the door.)

15 posted on 11/23/2007 7:40:15 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("The only philosophical question that matters is whether or not to commit suicide." Albert Camus)
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To: B-Chan

Atheists never seem to realize that such thinking makes slaves of men; If your life is just an accident, and morality is relative, then I can say My morality commands me to enslave you.


16 posted on 11/23/2007 7:40:42 AM PST by Clock King (Bring the noise!)
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To: Bulldawg Fan

They’ve already read them Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy, so what’s next?


17 posted on 11/23/2007 7:41:29 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o ("The only philosophical question that matters is whether or not to commit suicide." Albert Camus)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
"Modern atheists don't think G-d has too many rules. They think He doesn't have enough."

All hail the earthy external control power. What shall we call it? The UN? The New world socialist order? Big Brother? The New Mafia?

18 posted on 11/23/2007 7:47:56 AM PST by Earthdweller (All reality is based on faith in something.)
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To: Earthdweller
All hail the earthy external control power. What shall we call it? The UN? The New world socialist order? Big Brother? The New Mafia?

You said it, bro. And these would-be tyrants think of themselves as liberators for the single reason that they want to replace G-d's rules with their own!

19 posted on 11/23/2007 7:49:57 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Lo' Ya`aqov ye'amer `od shimkha ki-'im Yisra'el; ki-sariyta `im-'Eloqim ve`im-'anashim vatukhal.)
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To: B-Chan
Anyone know what the meaning of life is?

The continued existence of the human race... Without that there would be nothing, at least as far as we're concerned.

20 posted on 11/23/2007 7:52:57 AM PST by Realism (Some believe that the facts-of-life are open to debate.....)
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