Children’s Books for Secular and Progressive Families: Part One

Today, I came home to find one of my very favorite things: a box of books from Amazon. Last week, I ordered a few books that are going to be Christmas gifts for my daughter; they have arrived, and I am very pleased with all of them. To celebrate (and to distract myself from reading them all immediately), I thought I would make a list of some of my favorite children’s books for secular families.

My daughter, Sylvia, turned 8 in April, and she’s reading far above her grade level now. This has opened up a whole new world of possibilities as far as books are concerned, but as she reads more and more it has also meant more work for me as a parent–selecting books to buy for her, being aware of things she is reading so we can talk about them, and trying to ensure that I am making the most of my (very) limited buying power to provide a good mix of titles that she will enjoy and learn from. We still read at bedtime every night, so I also try to buy books that we can enjoy as a family.

This list includes titles suitable for several age groups, with what I hope is a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. I’m going to break it into two or three parts because it’s going to be lengthy.

Atheists Are Not Responsible for the Poor Behavior of Believers

Squashed Asks: Are you comfortable with the actions of other atheists whose attempts to portray religion as something that is fundamentally at war with science have led (predictably) to the absurd reactionary things like efforts to keep basic science out of schools? Do you think there was a deliberate attempt to get some religious folk to take an absurd position? Do you feel atheists (or a subset thereof) bear any responsibility for the disastrous consequences of their (frequently successful) attempts to link science and atheism succeeded in the minds of many believers?

Efforts to push science out of schools are, sadly, not a reactionary thing, although they are absurd. Religious people have, throughout pretty much the entirety of history, been the enemies of scientific progress, so the current efforts to restrict the teaching of evolution should come as no surprise to anyone.

In the US, over 40% of the populace still maintain that the earth is young and that the Biblical account of creation is accurate. It’s not as if this is some fringe group of weirdos. Only about a quarter of the country accept evolution as being an accurate theory of the development of life. People like Ken Ham, creator of the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky (I have visited! It was weird!), are the driving forces behind much of the insistence on the incompatibility of science and religion. Ken Ham, Ray Comfort, Kent Hovind, Rick Warren, Tim LaHaye, Joel Osteen and others have often claimed to greater or lesser extents that if the Genesis account of creation is false, then it would invalidate the rest of the Bible. Some, like Ham, have even claimed that if you do not believe the Genesis account and reject the theory of evolution you may not really be saved.

With such an enormous pressure even within mainstream Christianity, it seems disingenuous at best to imply that somehow it’s “the atheists” making people believe absurdities.

On [Not] Choosing My [Lack of] Religion

Of the numerous world religions that exist, what made you pick yours in the first place? On what basis have you decided that your particular religion is the correct religion?

I was raised in sort of a casual Catholic family, and I was baptized as an infant. My parents took us to mass most Sundays when my sister and I were small, and when we were old enough we were enrolled in the CCD program–sort of a Sunday school deal, but on one weeknight each week. I went through the First Communion/Confession stuff when I was 7 or 8, and when I was 14 or 15, it was time for Confirmation, the coming-of-age rite in which young Catholics are supposed to confirm their commitment to their faith and to the Church.

It was around that time that I first realized I was an atheist, and I told my parents that I didn’t want to go through with Confirmation because I didn’t believe in it. This didn’t go over well. They promptly threatened to not allow me to get my driver’s license if I didn’t go through with it, but they also told me that I wouldn’t have to go to mass anymore once it was over. When you are a young teenager not being able to drive in high school is a pretty big threat so, of course, I ended up going along with it, although it has never sat right with me. I felt dishonest for lying, angry at my parents, and resentful about the coercion involved, but once it was over with I got on with my life.