I think I would do all I could to understand and accept the decision, but I wouldn’t compromise my own beliefs as a result. Perhaps though through understanding I would grow as a person.

Maybe I should have gotten the “four horseman” atheist infant mobile. “Watch your baby coo and giggle as the beloved faces of Harris, Hitchens, Dennett, and Dawkins dance over her crib.”

That said, I wonder how likely this scenario really is? It seems to me that unless the child is raised with some sort of weird beliefs, or unless the child is pushed towards such beliefs by trauma either in her upbringing or her life, it would be unlikely that she would gravitate towards a religious viewpoint.

I gotta disagree with you here. Just because someone isn’t raised with “weird beliefs” doesn’t mean they know how to be skeptical and rational. Religions tend to promise big, grand things. You don’t need a traumatic experience to think that maybe those big, grand things are better than your totally normal life right now. If you never learned to question things properly, you can buy the religious crap hook, line, and sinker… and the fact that it’s all new and fresh to you (having been brought up non-religious) might even make this easier to do.

That’s why some atheist parents take a more active role in encouraging their kids to think critically. About everything. Religion, homeopathy, evolution, should I use paper or plastic bags, etc. Then hopefully when they hear the religious babble, they’ll think, “but this makes no sense” instead of “ooooo neat.” Hence books like Parenting Beyond Belief, programs like Camp Quest, etc.

I’m due with our first in 2.5 months, and this is what we want for her. We want her to think critically. I don’t see how she could be a critical thinker and convert to scientology, but if she did, yup, we would be disappointed, and yup, we’d still love her. I think if she announced she was religious, my first reaction would be to ask her to explain how she came to the conclusion she did. If she has put a fair amount of real thought into it, it might be easier to take.

I assumed I would be open to it, but now I’m not sure. My friend told me he believes in intelligent design, and it took some serious willpower not to get up in his face about how irreducible complexity is bullcrap. I hate proselytizers, and I’m not going to be one.

That is the sum total of her theological grasp.

But still, I hope he thinks for himself. I haven’t really talked about faith yet – he remembers when church was a huge part of our lives, and understands we don’t attend regularly anymore, only when my Goddaughter has something big going on. He prefers to sit in the pew box with me and color rather than go to children’s church, and that is fine with me.

But yeah, it would be hard to swallow my son embracing a hardline fundy faith of any description. I’d feel like I failed to give him what he needed to face the world on his own.

It’s just nuts. And her parents, both atheists, are heartbroken. She and I were fairly good friends up until a little while ago when her Islam veered from “I’m curious about this religion” to full on nutterball fundamentalism. Now I can’t stand to even be in the same room with her because all she talks about is god and religion and if you say ANYTHING that isn’t complete agreement, she just blows up (not literally, unfortunately). It’s gotten to the point that I can’t deal with her anymore.

I’m scared to death that something like this will happen with my future kids. I know that I would love my children no matter what, but how would I manage if I can’t even stand to be in the same room as them? I really REALLY hope it never comes up.

On the other hand, he’s his own person and I’ve tried to instill in him the principle that his life is his own to live. That people who are successful at living invent their own life and don’t look to daddy or mommy or society or authority for the right answers.

If they tell me they’re religious, I’ll tell them they’re not thinking hard enough.

But I do think it matters what sect or religion they choose. Some are destructive and if they cut me out of their life or stopped using modern medicine then I would disapprove and try to have a rational conversation with them. But I think most people, religious and non religious, would not like to see these changes in their children.