I was watching ABC Nightline tonight and they had an Atheist "Sunday school" on it, what is that all about?

Wow? I think our way of telling our children what our religion is, is way better than what their doing? There basically saying, "believing in God/god(s) is unethical and if you do than your an idiot?" Yup us religious folk are just a bunch of brain washers!

Right, and ALL religious people are ignorant people.

See I can use gross generalizations too :)

OK, and after I read the story. To me it doesn't sound like indoctrination. It sounds more like they're teaching them about other religions and the motto they're regurgitating is not "I'm right and all other people are wrong" but "It's good to think for yourself"

I'm a little disturbed by the collection plate and the book of songs, though. Very disturbed.

Thank you Pascal B.

Sunday School Atheism? Jeepers~

That defeats the whole point!

a(non) theism is itself a free and spontanious profundity at the absurdity of how racically different the meaning of "truth" is one individual to another,

There may not be a God and I love knowing that but that doesnt mean I like the permanence of the word "atheist"

I believe that it is very un-scientific and illogical to indoctrinate children to believe that there is no God, a theory which cannot be proven.

What cannot be observed cannot be definitively proven not to exist.

I am responsible for the religious upbringing of my son, and from his infancy he was raised in a fairly mainstream, non-dogmatic religious tradition. As he grew older I told him of my less-mainstream beliefs, but always with the cavaet that "these are my opinions, my own beliefs, and I could be mistaken.' It was good to see that someone in the article who was having their child attend these, whatever they are, (services?) was also telling the child that they, the parents, could be mistaken.

But to teach a child atheism in a church-like structure is just plain wrong---it is ok to teach a child to be an agnostic, and we all have our doubts from time to time. But teaching atheism is unscientific and misguided and a little weird.

all children are parrots. it's not as if that's anything new. they regurgitate things they learn in school or heard on tv all the time.

atleast the children are repeating positive things: "I like to think freely" instead of "If I sin I will burn forever in hell"

I admit it is stupid for atheists to create a sunday school and it will only cause trouble with religious people shouting "see! i told you! it's a religion!" they should not put it on sunday to avoid any such stupid comparisons

but i understand the desire to do so. one of the benefits of church is the fellowship, being around other families who have the same values as you, making friends for yourself and for your children. it is probably hard to raise a child in the US where they must be constantly assaulted by religious ideas and come home asking "what do we believe?" "why don't we go to church?" "why don't we believe in god?" so having an atheist sunday school could help to make them feel less of an outsider and help them understand.

it did not sound to me like they were brainwashing their children. it sounded to me like they were giving them information about religions and then telling them they can decide for themselves

there is nothing wrong with that, and i find it a lot better than instilling a fear of hell, sins, and an all powerful god who is vengeful and petty in your child's mind.

Quick everybody say "Individuality" at once.

I do not believe these people are true Atheist. But I guess I should not knock them to hard simply because social stimulous is good for people.

I wonder if they will have pot-luck dinners with an open bar, I might show up for that.

not sure that all atheists do this- we have to be careful that we don't generalize, because we can get upset when they do that to us- however I would say, here is a prime example how some atheists can be hypocritical. I know one of the ways that they say Christians are wrong is that we "teach" our children what they should believe- they are doing the same thing- so for that group of atheists- yes they are being hypocritical.

I knew an atheist in high school whose parents were atheist and who spouted the same things they did.

It's fine if you come to these conclusions on your own, but if you're regurgitating what your parents or teachers or whoever told you you are JUST as bad as someone who learned fundamentalist Christianity from his parents.

Well the answer is very simple. Atheists are people with no religion or beliefs. They have no boundaries and limits for any thing in their life. I mean so its pretty much justified that what they will do they will feel that they are right. They criticize followers of other religions to prove themselves which is impossible.

Ok, calling it athiest Sunda School was the media, not themselves.

Second, they are not preaching atheism, they are teaching kids different points of view. They actually teach points from several different relgions, showing that this group believes xxx while this group believes yyy. If you think you believe zzz thats ok, lets look up what you think and why you think that. As you research what it really is, do you still think that/agree with that? Why?

On the contrary, the Christian church generally teaches this is it, this is the only interp, you cant research it and even if you do, your opinion or thought doesnt matter because I am the preecher (leader, pastor, priest, ect) and I know the Bible better than you do and this is the only way to read it and everyone and anyone else that thinks any thing different is wrong and should not be respected.

Theres a HUGE difference.