Those in the mood for some thoughtful reading about religion, atheism, and parenting should check out “Godless mom strikes a chord with parents” on the CNN belief blog and the related discussion on “Kids Without Religion,” the “godless” mom’s blog. (Forgive my cringe; “godless” always sounds pejorative to me.) I applaud what this mom, Deborah Mitchell, is doing; it takes a lot of courage in this country to publicly admit you’re an atheist, and even more to state “I am trying to raise my kids to be agnostic, free-thinking, compassionate and peace-loving.”
It all started with her January 14 CNN iReport, “Why I Raise My Children Without God In Pearland TX,” which concludes:
I do not want religion to go away. I only want religion to be kept at home or in church where it belongs. It’s a personal effect, like a toothbrush or a pair of shoes. It’s not something to be used or worn by strangers. I want my children to be free not to believe and to know that our schools and our government will make decisions based on what is logical, just and fair—not on what they believe an imaginary God wants.
Predictably, the report has drawn a record number of comments.
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(For my personal take on atheism, see “Atheist by default.”)
Love it! But, oh boy. I may have made a mistake. I posted a comment starting with “Bravo” (you can imagine the rest) on the CNN article. Ummmm…. the theists are, um, replying back. And I’m being a smart-ass. One said “You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for god” (or something to that effect), my reply, “No, mom and dad had sex.”
effect? affect? jeez… I always have a hard time with that one.
No prob. You nailed it.
Really? Ha! I thought I was wrong….
I can well imagine what you said … and the responses you got. Sounds like the trolls were just waiting for a chance to pounce. People secure in their beliefs don’t need to attack others for theirs.
Actually, my comment rather disappeared quickly. I can’t even find it now. This one is HOT HOT HOT! Thanks for pointing me there. There is a troll, or someone who has nothing better to do, who calls himself F Bacon and he’s commented on just about everyone’s comment.
Not sure how that forum works. I was looking for your comment … until I realized I’d already scrolled back to about three days ago.
Actually, go to the LAST number and start working your way back. I started at “1”… normal, I thought. Then realized those were some of the first ones. So went to the end and eventually found me.
Here I am. Page 48. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/18/godless-mom-strikes-a-chord-with-parents/comment-page-48/#comments
Ohh, no wonder I didn’t see it. I was looking through the 8,000+ comments at the end of Mitchell’s original iReport here: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-910282
I see your comment now and you’re right, F Bacon is a jerk.
Ahhh… I don’t recall my iReport login. The other one is Wrodpress, so didn’t have to worry about a login there.
Hmph. Went back looking and it appears that “sex” is a taboo word on CNN. I thought they just removed my comment about “no mom and dad has sex.” So I replied with the same again. It never showed. So I replied with sex as “s…. e… x….” and it posted. Then I had the wrong tense in my comment. Not able to edit, darn it.
Looks like the comments on HuffPo. People there are always having to type words in weird ways, with spaces or dots or something, to get past the moderation.
Well, good to know. But I usually don’t say words that are auto-moderated. I never would have thought “sex” as one of those words. There are other versions of sex that are, though….