Atheist Sunday School

This is a continuation, and confirmation, of my previous essay: “Freethought” Camp of Childhood Indoctrination

Jeninne Lee-St. John wrote an article for TIME Magazine entitled: Sunday School for Atheists



The article was a report on atheist parents who seek to ensure that their children are taught to believe exactly as they do. While is this typically what any and every parent wants, it is refreshing that atheists are admitting that they indoctrinate their children as much as, if not more so than, theists. Atheists are now coming out and admitting that they practice indoctrination of children just like those theistic parents whom atheists have long condemned for doing the same thing.

The practice of atheistic indoctrination of children is, of course, nothing new. I know someone whose father used to tuck her into bed a night, when she was a little girl, telling her that there is no God. The difference now is that the indoctrination is becoming institutionalized in the form of summer camps, classes, various media, etc.

The article states:

“some nonbelievers are beginning to think they might need something for their children. ‘When you have kids,’ says Julie Willey, a design engineer, ‘you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their kids values and to be able to lean on.’ So every week, Willey, who was raised Buddhist and says she has never believed in God, and her husband pack their four kids into their blue minivan and head to…atheist Sunday school…the weekly instruction supports their position that it's O.K. to not believe in God and gives them a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have.”

Note the qualifiers: reinforce what they want their children to have.

Children's Program at the Humanist
Community of Palo Alto, California.
Photo by Kathrin Miller for TIME

“…One Sunday this fall found a dozen children up to age 6 and several parents playing percussion instruments and singing empowering anthems like I'm Unique and Unrepeatable.”

Here we have atheistic hymns and doxologies.

I may be reading too much into this but I thought that it was simply fascinating:

“…Down the hall in the kitchen, older kids engaged in a Socratic conversation with class leader [Peter] Bishop about the role persuasion plays in decision-making. He tried to get them to see that people who are coerced into renouncing their beliefs might not actually change their minds but could be acting out of self-preservation--an important lesson for young atheists who may feel pressure to say they believe in God.”

I do not know if it is a mere semantic accident but—note that even while the class leader sought to warn them about the role of persuasion “He tried to get them to…”
Ok kids, be thou persuaded to beware of persuasion!

Lastly, consider a statement made by one of the parents,

“…‘I'm a person that doesn't believe in myths,’ Hana says. ‘I'd rather stick to the evidence.’”

What evidence?
What is “the” evidence?
Evidence of what?
Evidence for what?
I thought that atheism was merely a lack of God belief—what does evidence have to do with anything?

Note that atheists are not content merely indoctrinating their own children, they also want to stop you from indoctrinating yours and want yours to be indoctrinated into their worldviews—they already do this in what is supposed to be public school classrooms.
I have chronicled these facts in three essays:
Teach Your Children Well…Well, Just Teach Them What We Tell You To Teach Them
Daniel Dennett’s One Way Street of Censorship (Or: On the Hoodwinkification of Children)
Atheism’s Sales Pitch to Children
Protecting the Science Classroom

Also, note that “atheist summer camps for kids” and “an atheist Sunday school” were also mentioned here in a PDF format report on the media’s love affair with atheism.