And then, of course, that whole thing just begs the questions that I always like to ask of people of any religion (my own included because, yup, there ARE fundamentalist Pagans who think their trad and their deity are the only one), but I won't ask here simply because it will bring up a whole different set of debate. (I personally do like asking questions, to make people think - people in general just don't seem to think enough.) If one were to stick to the "Do you lie to your children" thread, the question would be more along the lines of, do you explain that the Bible is simply someone else's opinion of things? Because the other gods being "false" is an opinion of the people who wrote the Bible. Like I said, this leads to so much deeper conversation beyond lying, and instead gets more into personal belief, rather than absolute truth. Because nothing in the Bible or any holy book or religion can be held as true beyond a personal level. Hence, when it comes to religion, do we lie to our children? No. We personally do not consider sharing personal religious belief to be a lie when we speak of the elements of that point of view (God, Goddess, Creator, Creatrix, etc.) to our children, but some people here are also careful to explain to their children that these beliefs are personal and truthful only to ourselves, and not necessarily everyone else in the world.

I believe in doing what is right. I would have taken similiar action to you, and I would rep you 100 times right now if I could!!! :thumbup1: When I was about 6 months pregnant with my son, I stopped a gang of kids (ranging in age from 9 to 13, probably) from beating up 1 child. I mean, a gang - like 20 children. I was in a strange neighborhood, in a city we hear about on our local news daily. But I pulled out my cell phone, and started walking up to them (I was at a gas station-convenience store), and yelled, "If you don't get the h*** out of here, I am calling the cops, you little punks!!!" Of course, none of the men filling up their cars with gas bothered to stand up to the injustice. The kids did scatter, though. What you did is 100% commendable. What those parents did to their children by leaving them in that van is child abuse. And if there is any justice in the universe, this is a matter that - if the cops intervened - should be followed-up on by social services.

Maybe Young Whippersnappers and Dumb Broads need to hang out together? This has me totally LOL... :D I'm just waiting for more senior citizen name calling stories to pop up here!

All inter-related, and usually with regard to religion, the environment, or homeschooling: 1. Close-mindedness 2. Ignorance 3. Fear 4. Holier-than-thou-ness/know-it-all-ness

The Bible names bunches and bunches of other deities, as I recall. So, yup, they all existed in the minds of ancient man, but the Jewish people specifically decided to put their god ahead of the gods and goddesses of other cultures. Gosh, I sure hope Thor exists. His daddy, Odin, is part of the Santa Claus story! ;) Of course, there are several archetypes of deity that have been created by man over the years (for even though I do subscribe to Theistic belief, I also believe that man in his arrogance created god in his and her image, and not the other way around). We are fortunate to decide on which form of deity to choose to worship, if we choose to worship any at all. And of course the existence of deity is not fact; it is all in belief, faith and personal experience. Because religion is experiential, one can never pass it off as universal fact and truth, but only as personal fact and truth. Hence, I never tell my child that Hera is real. His spiritual journey is just beginning, and hopefully will not end in this lifetime.

It strikes me as rude, freaky, and hilarious all rolled into one! I'm glad you said something to her, and then referred the issue to one of the employees. How WEIRD! In a funny way...

Glad to know he is well. Make sure he takes care of himself! And I hope you enjoyed your daughter's wedding.

"I Will Survive" is one of my favorite songs to sing, and this HSing version just takes the cake!

I was curious about this one too. I am very knowledgeable about Publisher, and never even considered printing notebooking pages! Thanks to Melissa for starting this thread, and Diana for the link. I am now inspired to create a notebooking template, and then begin creating our pages!

NO! No! Disco was awesome! It really was! Your son has a GREAT sense of humor! I hope you don't forget that one, because it is a gem.

Yeah, this is addicting. I found that I had to pick and choose what to read, and shorten my time spent from about 8 times a day, to 3. Heh heh. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner/right before bed. This is the problem with the various internet thingies - they ARE addictive!

Welcome! I'm still trying to figure out most of the abbreviations too. But it gets easier as I spend time reading the posts. You will definitely get the hang of things. Good luck with your homeschooling!

Wow! Extensive. Thanks! If we can't seem to move on to reading this year, I will look at using this as a supplement.

I would do EXACTLY what you did. My son has a collection of action figures whose arms are easily pulled off; this only happens when my nephews are present. Hence, when my nephews would visit, I would hide the toys they most enjoyed destroying in my own bedroom closet. I don't think my sister appreciated it, but it isn't my fault that her children are destructive. I am responsible only for my child's happiness. I think you did the right thing.

:iagree: We teach our son that deity is a matter of belief or faith, not fact (I personally am a Theist and do believe in a greater consciousness), and that is is up to him to explore the multitude of spiritual and religious paths out there, and come to his own conclusions (and Atheism is totally acceptable if that is the path for him). We definitely promote thinking for oneself. As far as Judeo-Christian and other mythologies, they are explained as metaphorical stories created by people of certain beliefs. Of course, delving into that is fun (I adore discussions of metaphor and theology), but our son is not quite up to those types of discussions yet!