The Atheist's Easter

I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination. I do however, believe in being fair, open, and allowing knowledge to permeate those around me. This includes my kids. So although I am not one to push religious doctrine, teachings, or philosophy, I did take the opportunity of Easter to share what I knew about it with my youngest daughter. She was curious and interested to know why it was celebrated, so I told her.

Having grown up in a catholic household and having the benefit (or misfortune depending on how you see it) of attending a parochial school for 4 years in my youth, I was able to give my child a fairly decent overview of why the Easter holiday is celebrated. As an Atheist or Agnostic I think we get a bad rap as the evil scourge of the species. As people who are closed minded and who speak out against anything even remotely religious. Well, that may or may not be the case with some out there but it is not me. Nor is it how I think anyone should act, whether they follow a supernatural deity, a multi-armed goddess, or a mythological creature.

In my opinion, religion is largely on this planet because people living on it needed a way to make sense of the world around them. Over time this grew and evolved into the many religious factions we have today. No matter what the purpose or goal of any of them are, for the most part they are good and look to make other people good as well. Sure, some of the teachings and traditions are silly, ridiculous, crazy, or kooky (depending on the religion and culture) but if you have any common sense about you, you should be able to tell the difference between what is what and just how much you want your offspring to sponge up.

That is the purpose after-all. To mold and guide our children in this world that they will soon inherit. To give them the benefit of our experience and wisdom so that they may one day prove to be more successful at it than we were. At least that is the way that I see it. As for religion, it plays a small part in that even for someone like me. There is a lot of good and interesting stories in say the bible. And while almost every religion is a repeat of every other one it is easy to pick and choose the stories that you might want to point out to others.

All in all life is one big story. It is our job to wade our way through it and make sure that by the time we get to the final chapter that we have had an interesting and worthwhile story. Sometimes we need some help getting there. When we are born we don't know everything ab out life and the experiences of others can help us with that. In a big way that is what religions are, the experiences of others. So we just need to use our common sense, decide what we want or need to filter and let the rest through. Hopefully if we do it right the parts that our kids absorb will help to make them person of integrity, respect, and humanity.

Happy Easter.