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If you had been a lifelong Christian, but then chose atheism, and you wanted your kids to have free will to decide for themselves, would you remove all children's Bible story books from your house?

Asked by Dutchess_III (46827points) September 28th, 2017

I have been an atheist for 10 years, after being a born again Christian and being active in the church. My kids were raised Christian.
When I decided that atheism was the only logical choice, I kept my decision to myself. If my grown kids wanted to believe and that helped them get through the rough patches in life, that was fine with me. However, I’ve gotten indications that their views may be changing as well, and that’s fine. We just haven’t discussed it openly.
Well, a few weeks ago I was at my daughter’s and her four year old brought a book for me to read to her. To my surprise it was Jonah and the Whale. I didn’t think my daughter had anything like that in her house.
So I started reading it, but also asked my grand daughter questions like, “Do you think he could breath in there?” The same kinds of things I would say about any kids fairy tale. I’d simply ask questions about the feasibility of this or that.
Well, my daughter “caught” us, grabbed the book from my hands and angrily threw it away.
Yesterday, for whatever reason, the topic came up. I tried to offer my opinion that you should read those kinds of stories, like you’d read any other story, and encourage critical thinking skills at the same time.
She started going off on me, claiming I was trying to convert her daughter and she wanted her to decide for herself. I guess she wasn’t listening to a word I was saying.
It got to the point where I finally got a word in edgewise and I quietly said, “Daughter. I am an atheist.”
You could have heard a pin drop, LOL!
We were able to have a reasonable discussion after that, but she was still adamant that she didn’t want kid’s Bible stories in her house. I was thinking, “But you have a book about a talking frog and a talking toad in your house, because I gave it to you.” (I LOVE Frog and Toad books, BTW.)

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