This is just lame. Atheist parents in Palo Alto have set up an atheist Sunday school:
The Palo Alto Sunday family program uses music, art and discussion to encourage personal expression, intellectual curiosity and collaboration. 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, set to the tune of Ten Little Indians, instead of traditional Sunday-school songs like Jesus Loves Me. Rather than listen to a Bible story, the class read Stone Soup, a secular parable of a traveler who feeds a village by making a stew using one ingredient from each home.
Down the hall in the kitchen, older kids engaged in a Socratic conversation with class leader 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.
Come on, guys. I left the Church because I believe in evidence and not in God, elves, Santa Claus and all that nonense, but I also left so that I wouldn’t have to spend my Sundays doing lame crap. If I wanted to sing Kumbaya over and over again, I would have stayed Catholic. Just because it is atheist Sunday school does not change the fact that Sunday school is lame.
Further, if you want your kids to be ethical, all you need to do is have them participate in the collective American Sunday ritual that is the NFL. They will learn that there are only two virtues in this world: hard work and third down conversions.
That or *gasp* playing outside and socializing with other children in a non-structured environment.
