Monday, March 05, 2007

On What Religious Tradition to Rear the Bebbehs In: The Baha'i Faith or Catholicism, with the occasional ancestor-worship

Wandering Apricot has been comtemplating marriage and bebbehs. -gw

Spent some time talking to Laura about faith and family the other night. It was such a..nourishing conversation. A question that stuck with me was: what kind of faith will I raise my children in? For me, it’s not a matter of whether to introduce my kids to faith or not. I definitely will; I do think children need it. Even if they go away from it as they get older, at least they’ll know what they’re talking about. As one lit prof told me: it doesn’t have to have literally happened to be true. In any case, if God exists (I believe she does), she is fearless. No mythology or science or ideology can destroy her, and no contradiction is too enormous for God to rise above. I suppose I do agree with Richard Dawkins that highly dogmatic religions are probably too parochial about their view of God, though I’m not so virulent in my repugnance towards them as he is. Evolution does not contradict the existence of God; saying that God can’t create evolution sorta limits the old gal, right? I think all religions have something to offer to human development.

So the question on that front is which religious tradition I’d want to rear kids in. Probably the Baha’i faith, or maybe even Catholicism…? Obviously I plan to continue with the occasional ancestor-worship traditions (Buddhist, technically?) in any case. I like burning paper and bowing.
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{Re-posted with permission}

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