I am uncomfortable admitting this here and I mean no disrespect to those who do believe. If anything, I’m envious. I have books on meditation stacked by my bed. I have a gift certificate for yoga classes burning a hole in my wallet. I’ve read studies and I’ve witnessed the effects of a strong spiritual center. There’s security, sometimes there’s even peace. I wouldn’t mind some of that.
And yet, I don’t believe in a higher power that calls the shots. I don’t believe that things happen for a reason (though I’ve repeated this cliché in an attempt to comfort friends). I believe that when bad things happen to good people, it breaks your heart and all you can do is get up each morning and try to be good to the people you love who are still here. I often fail at even this. It would be helpful to have a little faith. And yet. Read the rest of this entry →
Last month on Kveller was “God month,” in which we featured all different voices exploring how to talk to kids about God. One thing we learned was that the hardest part of talking to kids about God is often figuring out what you yourself believe. So, we posed a simple question to you, our readers: Do you believe in God?
The results are in, and they’re a little bit surprising.
In our (admittedly unscientific) poll of Kveller readers, 60.7% say they believe in God. 18.6% say they do not believe in God, and 20.7% claim “it’s complicated.” The poll included responses from readers in the United States, Canada, and Israel, all the way to Oman, Czech Republic, and South Africa. Read the rest of this entry →
One thing we learned is that often the hardest part of talking to kids about God is figuring out what you yourself believe. So we’re curious: how many of you believe in God?
Luckily for us, the internet is magical and has just the thing to satiate our curiousity: a poll! Please take our one-click, anonymous poll below.
This post is part of our month-long series featuring different ways that parents of various religions have talked to their kids about God.
God and sex have a lot in common.
Yes, you read that correctly.
God and sex have a lot in common. They are both topics that aren’t to be mentioned in polite company. They are both topics that make us uncomfortable to talk about with our kids. And they are both topics that are not one-time lectures, but ongoing conversations.
This post is part of our month-long series featuring different ways that parents of various religions have talked to their kids about God.
A week or so ago I was contacted by one of Kveller’s editors telling me about their month-long series on talking to your children about God and was asked if I wanted to perhaps write a piece for it. Being the mom of a child on the autistic spectrum might add an interesting voice to the series. “Sure, I’d love to.”
This post is part of our month-long series featuring different ways that parents of various religions have talked to their kids about God.
Fold your arms.
We say this to our 3-year-old daughter whenever food is about to be blessed at my parents’ house. She never folds her arms nor closes her eyes, but instead maintains her energy while everyone else stops conversations and becomes reverent. By this age, she should be well-trained in the Folding Arms & Bowing Head procedure, and maybe even saying the prayer, with some parenting assistance. Everyone finds this adorable. You see, we’re Mormon and Mormons typically teach children early on about how to communicate with their father in Heaven.
After a couple of attempts to get our daughter to fold her arms, we would look at my family, act frustrated, and say something like, “Ah well, she does her own thing. Can’t make her.”
This post is part of our month-long series featuring different ways that parents of various religions have talked to their kids about God.
“I want to try bacon,” my 7-year-old son Zack declared the other night.
“Well, bacon, like, really isn’t kosher,” I said tentatively, always careful of giving him the kind of “because Hashem said so” answer my Yeshiva-educated husband learned to resent early on.
This post is part of our month-long series featuring different ways that parents of various religions have talked to their kids about God.
I live with a little theologian. My eldest daughter has had a lot to say about God for as long as I can remember. The expected questions have come along about creation and death, and they become more complex and challenging as she gets older. What has not changed is that she has consistently referred to God using female pronouns. Until recently, she never asked directly about whether God is male or female. It has been consistent that God is She. “Why did God make dogs and cats Momma? Does She like them both the best?” Read the rest of this entry →
This post is part of our month-long series featuring different ways that parents of various religions have talked to their kids about God.
As a scientist and a person of faith, I get asked the following question a lot: “How do you reconcile your scientific beliefs with your faith in God?” The question seems to concern others a lot more than it concerns me, largely because I see no conflict at all. They exist together, happily, and each supports the other. Read the rest of this entry →
This post is part of our month-long series featuring different ways that parents of various religions have talked to their kids about God.
When people ask what religion we are–me, my husband Justin, and our two small children–I answer, “nothing.”
Then I realize how empty this sounds. I revise, explaining our parents’ religion. As if, to tell the whole truth, one has to start from the beginning.
My Catholic parents believe even dogs go to heaven, I say.
Justin’s parents, I add, are atheists who belong to a temple of socially conscious activists, presided over by a gay rabbi. Read the rest of this entry →
I don’t believe in God.
