A good friend of mine is split from her ex husband. There are shared children between the 2 families. The other family is extremely active and insistent on Baptist denomination and allllll the lovely trappings that come along with it.
My friend is agnostic, not atheist, however, her daughter (11) is really starting to be indoctrinated hard, to the point where my friend feels like her daughter doesn’t respect her because she isn’t part of the child’s faith.
The child is said to be a bright kid. She’s a “sponge” I’m told, with a desire for knowledge. My friend has asked me if I know of any good literature for the occasion (I dont).
I’m looking for something to gift to this child, to give them some options in life for methids to think about these issues, which come from.a source outside of the church.
Nobody’s looking to ruin a little girl’s faith, but my friend is concerned that she’s really latching on too hard and wants to make sure that she has some options available to her, so that she can count on that amazing children’s sense of curiosity to solve the issue itself.
This is weird subject I’m hopefully approaching it appropriately and respectfully enough, I know people can be testy about forcing anything on anyone. It’s not that at all. She literally just wants some literature that might expose the child to either some of the issues with Christianity and the Baptist religion or even just larger theological principles.
If this is a shitty ask I’m sorry, tell me and I’ll nuke this. But as someone who had to work extremely hard to deprogram myself from the same Baptist curse, I too want this child to have some options for how to think about life and frame these difficult questions.
Update: Thanks everyone. I’ve ordered 3 paperbacks and I am going to attempt to make a deal with my friend’s daughter. If she agrees to read these 3 books, I will read the Bible again one more time, all the way through. I think it’s a good deal, and should be hard to pass up for a budding young Christian looking to spread the joy of Christ.
This doesn’t mean I’m not still open to suggestions! This has been a productive conversation and I’d love to keep it rolling. Too much of this sub is hating on faith, not enough encouragement of free thought.
Ooh I like the sound of that, thank you.
Edit: holy crap there’s 41 books in that series! I knew Terry Pratchett was prolific but wow!
I’m going two second the Discworld Novels. I started reading them when I was 9 or 10. Though, what really cured me from religiosity was reading the bible from cover to cover when I was 11 or 12. Story time:
My mother read the bible to me (/us) every friday evening. First she would get slightly irritated when I pointed out contradictions or nonsensical stuff. Then she would progressively get more angry when I did it, until she said: “Maybe you should read it yourself!”. And so I did. I read it from cover to cover within something like two weeks (if my memory serves me right). It was a grueling exercise in boredom and idiocy. But, I pulled through with it and it made me a very firm atheist. I didn’t even catch half the contradictions and absurdities at that age, but it is beyond me how people can read that and remain believers. I suspect most Christians don’t actually read the bible, at least not in its entirety. What would have made it much more pleasurable (or rather much less unbearable) for me, would have been the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible: https://skepticsannotatedbible.com/
I’ll give you just one excerpt and you should get the size of it:
There are a lot of books. They are all stand-alone stories, but have continuity with recurring characters. Some are in more closely linked arcs, like the Death series, the city guard books and the witches books.
The Tiffany Aching series might not be a bad starting point. While they were among the last to be written, they introduce a young trainee witch who’s power is basically being rational (much like other Discworld witches).
This is such a great recommendation. I find it odd that I’ve not heard of them until now. And goodness, there’s a lot of them!
I’m gonna checkout the first and get a feel for which kids of mine might enjoy it.