Monday, July 24, 2006
The 'Religious Buck' Stopped With Me
(3)
I realized of course that I had been taught some very good moral ideas by the priests and nuns, but most everything else was crap. I retained much of the morality as, 'self evident,' and rejected the rest. It wasn't that I became some sort of 'moral saint,' far from it; but I retained much of the moral teaching and tried to apply it to my life. Of course I did not think it a good idea to indoctrinate my children into my inherited religion. Nor did Kootch. We raised them as natural human beings who could see that there was a big difference between right and wrong, and that they should strive to do the right.
Did it work? Well, last I heard, neither of them became a suicide bomber, or wasted their lives away in a convent. Excessive religion was not a problem for them. I don't think they ever learned the concept of, 'sin.' Regarding sex education, I relied entirely on Kootch to inform them. Neither of them ever asked m(stomp above me)e a question about sex (that I can remember).
As for me, I settled on the Scientific Method as the most reliable guide for discovering 'the truth' about things. I even made it a family ritual to watch every episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. We saw them all together at least once.
Kootch was the tolerant mother, whereas I was the stern father. They could always hide behind Kootch. I was not the 'perfect' father, of course, but I took pride in the fact that I had done a much better job of parenting than either of my parents had done before me (another stomp).
I realized of course that I had been taught some very good moral ideas by the priests and nuns, but most everything else was crap. I retained much of the morality as, 'self evident,' and rejected the rest. It wasn't that I became some sort of 'moral saint,' far from it; but I retained much of the moral teaching and tried to apply it to my life. Of course I did not think it a good idea to indoctrinate my children into my inherited religion. Nor did Kootch. We raised them as natural human beings who could see that there was a big difference between right and wrong, and that they should strive to do the right.
Did it work? Well, last I heard, neither of them became a suicide bomber, or wasted their lives away in a convent. Excessive religion was not a problem for them. I don't think they ever learned the concept of, 'sin.' Regarding sex education, I relied entirely on Kootch to inform them. Neither of them ever asked m(stomp above me)e a question about sex (that I can remember).
As for me, I settled on the Scientific Method as the most reliable guide for discovering 'the truth' about things. I even made it a family ritual to watch every episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. We saw them all together at least once.
Kootch was the tolerant mother, whereas I was the stern father. They could always hide behind Kootch. I was not the 'perfect' father, of course, but I took pride in the fact that I had done a much better job of parenting than either of my parents had done before me (another stomp).
