WHY I WOULD RAISE MY CHILDREN GODLESS

I was born into a Hindu family and like it or not, I had to conform to Hindu practices although I had a detachment from it at a very young age and throughout my teen years and my adulthood simply because the stuff I read, experienced and saw about religion.

Agnosticism tugged at my heart strings at the age when girls like me would have crushes, puppy love - I had a fleeting romance with God and religion.

I was afraid, (still am) that if my lack of belief would cost me the love of my family so I join the religious rites, celebrate religious festivals along with my kin and I don't object when my mother streaks my forehead with vibuthi (Hindu holy ash).

It can be summed up that I'm a closet agnostic atheist; I don't impose my beliefs or the lack of belief on anyone and my future children are on the list - I want to raise my children godless.

For starters, everyone is born an atheist - if all of us are are meant to follow a religion, shouldn't we all have indelible marks of The Cross, Om, Allah, etc somewhere on our bodies? With that being said, isn't it true when I say others determine our beliefs for us? We weren't given a chance to decide what to believe in, god or some cult.

I want to give the freedom to choose for my kids; let them explore their own spirituality. Forcing religion down kids' tender throats is akin to imposing your unfulfilled career dreams onto your kids malleable shoulders. Both burdens them.

I want my kids to act by conscience, not by fear of penalty - telling them to be good because if you are bad, God will punish you is blackmailing, outright. It also gets the intention of helping somebody all wrong if I tell my kids that god will reward you if you be good and help others. Being kind and expecting a reward for it distorts the whole meaning of kindness morbidly I don't want my kids to be good only because of the belief that there is a judging boogeyman up there somewhere in the clouds, keeping tabs on every individual on earth who would list each one of us as 'Naughty" or 'Nice' and that you will go to hell if you are naughty and heaven if you are nice as per differing religion standards. Plus, I think that threat of "God is watching you" is not so effective. If it is, why are we seeing so many criminals in suits and ties?

I would like to raise my kids on the base of humanism, imparting strong values based on reality, not on holy books written centuries ago. But, I won't keep my children away from such books - I'll encourage them to read them up just like how they read story books and come up with questions, their own hypothesis and conclusions. I will only guide them and tell them that their opinion about god or religion does not have to tally with mine - freedom of choice, that's the whole point.

I will equip my children with knowledge and it is up to them what to do with the acquired knowledge. I won't object the decisions they make regarding their spirituality. It is their rights - I was denied that right and I don't want my children to go through what I was made to go through.

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