If you were raising a child in either designations, would you allow them to befriend another child who was the opposite? In other words, as a christian, would you let your son or daughter play with the kid across the street who was being raised by staunch atheists?

It depends on the kid. Just how "staunch" are they? It's too vague a scenario to really give an accurate answer.

Yes. I wouldn't raise my child with any sort of religion intentionally. I'd rather he or she figure that part of their life out on their own. If that means being influenced by their best friend from a young age, that's fine. I'd rather said child make his/her own decision rather than me pointing the finger and saying "YOU WILL BE THIS AND YOU HAVE NO SAY."

No that's just silly to me. If someone believes in strength their faith, then they wouldn't need to shield themselves or their children from others who believe in an alternate philosophy. I doubt the kid across the street is going to try and convert them.

When I was growing up, as far as I know, my brother and I were the only Christian children on the block. We always hoped others would move in, but it never happened. And the friends we did have, surprisingly enough we never talked to them about what they believed, we just had fun with them until they moved away. And our mother knew who all the parents were, who were the lowlives, etc., and as luck would have it most of our friends came from parents who we were certainly never invited in to meet them...our mother let us play with them anyway, we just never got an over-exposure of sorts to them.

If I were raising a child, I would absolutely let him/her play with another child's family who had drastically different religious views. To me, that's what religion should be about: acceptance. Kids don't need to be taught ignorance anymore than they already are. Also, kids need to be exposed to different children. A little bit of diversity never hurt anyone.

Rockbird wrote:

Yes. I wouldn't raise my child with any sort of religion intentionally. I'd rather he or she figure that part of their life out on their own. If that means being influenced by their best friend from a young age, that's fine. I'd rather said child make his/her own decision rather than me pointing the finger and saying "YOU WILL BE THIS AND YOU HAVE NO SAY."

I sort of processed all the religious teachings as a child and even then saw some unbelievable bullshit. By the time I was a teenager I was an Atheist (an astute social studies teach said I was an anti-theist agnostic and that worked for me). But exposure to different beliefs would be healthy for a child and it is surprising at how young an age one forms his own beliefs.

Stopping kids from playing together because of different religious views is pretty much the definition of bigotry.

Forgiveness Man wrote:

It depends on the kid. Just how "staunch" are they? It's too vague a scenario to really give an accurate answer.

What did I tell you about that? Just go ahead and be honest and say that you wouldn't. You know you wouldn't.

As long as they weren't like the group that Thepossiplepolice told us about, I wouldn't have a problem.

Sure - I don't see why it would be an issue. As long as my kids weren't wanting to play with some extreme sect or cult, I wouldn't have a problem with them playing with kids whose family beliefs differed from mine.

I had close friends who were Muslim. Much different than my Baptist family. Knowing them opened my mind to much more than I would have ever been taught about religion.

I wouldn't keep my son from any child as long as it was a good kid I trusted. Even an Atheist, though I would not like for them to discount the presence of a higher being directly to my son.

That's a bit archaic.

Correlation isn't causation. A religion wasn't forced upon me, and I turned out just fine.

Government...? Huh?

Chris wrote:

If you were raising a child in either designations, would you allow them to befriend another child who was the opposite? In other words, as a christian, would you let your son or daughter play with the kid across the street who was being raised by staunch atheists?

Yes. Otherwise you are raising them to be prejudice and intolorant of other peoples beliefs.