[QUOTE=Peanutz;27574]
Quote Originally Posted by troubled View Post
No ones talkig about religion so I may as well derail the topic further by asking:

Hi Troubled, I just want to give a short comment about my religion views. If you know my countries history you will realize how hard it is for us to struggle to get back our national and cultural identity. The teaching of our elders are still strong regarding religion and that is very difficult to change. It might take five-ten generation to make us realize how it affect our life.

I have nothing against Catholic-Christian religion as I have been also raised up smelling candle wax of our small modest home religious sanctuary at times I would find myself remembering all those moments I spent praying with my family. A religion is manipulating it has a power to shape every individual to believe in everything it preach, I should not ignore that it does good thing but it also do us harm. (if any of my family would read this I will be sent to the wailing walls for the rest of my life). My mother became a Christ believer while my Grandma still hold her faith to Catholic Roman church and my Dad is an atheist (and thanks to him for giving me a more understanding view about religion). They hold grunt to each other because of this religious choice of my mother. Now, you see in every Filipino family there is a strong need to believe in a religion. As of me, I believe in doing good thing to others, I do believe that there is something intangible force out there that is beyond of mortal understandings.
I do agree with you in not forcing your beliefs to your children and let them choose when the right time comes. But I will guide my children and make them know that there are things out there that is waiting to be known.

I thought it would be a short comment but there I go again it ended into more lines
I just copied and pasted this from a posting I made back in June 2006. Reading Peanutz posting just reminded me of it as they both seem to say something about the finely balanced approach required in the upbringing of children which will eventually enable them to make a judgement about what is right for them as they grow and develop into adults.

Quote Originally Posted by IainBusby View Post
My Mother was a very religious woman and a very regular churchgoer, but my father on the other hand, was an absolute confirmed agnostic. During my upbringing, which included regular church attendance, I found myself more attracted to my fathers point of view. This was because he explained how he had listened subjectively to the arguments on both sides and had concluded that, although he thought that the bible was absolutely full of very inspiring stories, he had concluded that they were, just that, "stories". But from those stories he had gleaned enough of what made sense to him, to give him some sort of inspiration and something to hold on to throughout his life. As I said, he thought the bible was just a collection of stories written by men, but from them he eventually concluded that whatever your beliefs, you should strive to be Christian in your behaviour toward others (in as much as we can learn from the bible, how Christians are supposed to behave towards others) throughout your life, whether you believe the Bible stories or not. My Mother had the certainty of her faith to see her through, but my Father was, I believe, quite rare in his beliefs, but I don't think either of them died with any regrets. You pays your money and you makes your choice as they say.
Iain.