Growing up, one of my best memories was a weekly Bible study with my dad. Of course at the time I thought all the indoctrination was simply the truths of the universe. My father was, for all his faults, a good, gentle, and intelligent man. Our conversations would often stray from the literature provided by the JW's, off into tangents on philosophy, physics, science, whatever I wanted to question him about. He had actually given up acceptance into the University of Chicago when he became a JW to pursue a career preaching "where the need was great". He was going to study physics at one of the best universities in the nation. Instead he got sent to south Georgia to spread the Good News to the bumpkins. Another wasted intellect. But, at any rate, even though he had twisted everything he'd known to fit the small universe of Jehovah's authorized cosmology, these conversations taught me a great deal about critical thinking. He must have detected a growing free-spirit and skeptic inside me, because he constantly warned me against the evils of skepticism and Epicureanism.
As an adult, I've tried to always make time to read and discuss things with my kids. When our daughter was little and we still believed I studied the My Book of Bible Stories with her. Looking back at the book now, it has a surprising amount of bloodshed for a children's instructional book. I'm surprised it didn't give her nightmares. Perhaps it did, and she just didn't mention it. She's always been our li'l Stoic. But that study fell off as I began to truly question my own beliefs. I remember when she was about six I shared with her some of the things I'd been reading about philosophy and epistemology, and she ran around telling everyone "You know, there's no way to truly know anything. I mean you think you know, but don't really know." I'm sure that one pissed off the grandparents. So my reading to them became limited more to story books and animal books, and left out the life lessons. (Though I think Where the Sidewalk Ends counts as an ethics primer.)
But some friends of ours were coming around to atheism about the same time as we were, and they recommended The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins. With such lessons as "What is reality? What is magic?", "When and how did everything begin?" and "Why do bad things happen?" it really helps fill in the instructional void left by the myths. It's fabulously illustrated and really appeals to my kids' innate love of biology. I have a link to it on the right, and, yes, if you use it I get a commission. So buy a thousand copies and I won't have to find a job this month!
Our friends also recommended Parenting Beyond Belief by Dale McGowan, which my wife is halfway through. It seems there's plenty of literature out there to help us raise well-rounded free-thinking youngsters. I'm excited to get started, and hopefully give them rich memories and critical thinking skills, with maybe a little better vantage point than my dad had. I wish you the same luck.
