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Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief Paperback – February 11, 2009

by Dale McGowan (Author), Molleen Matsumura (Author), Amanda Metskas (Author),

69 customer reviews

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Praised by Newsweek as "a compelling read" and Library Journal as "accessible and down-to-earth," Dale McGowan's Parenting Beyond Belief offered freethinking parents everywhere a compassionate introduction to raising caring, ethical children without religious guidance. Now, for the more than 40 million people in the United States who identify themselves as nonreligious, Raising Freethinkers offers solutions to the unique challenges secular parents face and provides specific answers to common questions, as well as over 100 activities for both parents and their children. This book covers every important topic nonreligious parents need to know to help their children with their own moral and intellectual development, including advice on religious-extended-family issues, death and life, secular celebrations, wondering and questioning, and more.

Complete with reviews of books, DVDs, curricula, educational toys, and online resources relevant to each chapter topic, Raising Freethinkers helps parents raise their children with confidence.

Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief

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Product Details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: AMACOM; 1.12.2009 edition (February 11, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0814410960
ISBN-13: 978-0814410967
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #54 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Atheism
- #302 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Ethics & Morality
- #1499 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Parenting

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Top Customer Reviews

Delightful, insightful and simply FULL of ideas

ByLaura Crowleyon March 23, 2009

Format: Paperback

I read extensively, including many parenting books, and although I do nearly all of my reading from library books, I am very glad I purchased Raising Freethinkers, as I know I will be referring to it repeatedly over the years I'll be raising my children.

As a nonreligious parent among a largely religious extended family, I both appreciated the sense of community I felt (I'm not the only one!), but also the sense of respectfulness for religious folks evident in the book's tone. All the chapters come from a place of deep regard for children's capacity to learn and think for themselves, and highlight how exciting an adventure it can be to raise kids free from indoctrination. I love the ideas for encouraging scientific reasoning and critical thinking, as well as ethical living.

Since reading this book, we've modeled the scale of our solar system, read creation stories from around the world, found a way to support our daughter in her quandary with the Girl Scout pledge, discovered new ways to answer questions about death, found ways to handle interactions with religious family members, and uncovered a vast new list of kids' books we plan to read as a family. And this is just what I can remember off the top of my head. There are extensive resource lists and activity ideas at the end of each section.

Raising Freethinkers is simply fantastic, and unlike anything else I've found out there. I most strongly recommend it.

77 comments 191 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Wonderful compliment to Parenting Beyond Belief!

ByKelly W.on February 10, 2009

Format: Paperback

I cannot say enough good things about Dale McGowan and the books he has written for nonreligious parents. This book didn't disappoint. The extensive list of resources and suggestions in Raising Freethinkers is invaluable. How to really give your child religious literacy without indoctrination, how to deal with death, handling the stages of moral development-it's all here.
This and Parenting Beyond Belief will now be in every baby shower gift I buy for my nonreligious friends.

11 comment 63 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Good guide for agnostic parents, but some small issues...

ByR. Knighton September 4, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a good guide with some sensible, practical advice. The only issues I have are the chapters written by the guest authors which really seem to promote unitarian universalism and other organized "non-religious" churches as bases for community. Most of us who are non-believers also have no need or use for such organizations and to base so many solutions in them is not really very helpful. Even if I were so inclined to find such places, there aren't many choices in my area. This is not to take away from what is otherwise an insightful, helpful book, but it does overshadow the book so I wish I had known. Others had mentioned it, but I would want any prospective buyers to really be aware.

11 comment 48 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Valuable for Parents with Agnostic or Unconventional Spiritual Beliefs Also

ByL. Ericksonon May 13, 2009

Format: Paperback

Although the primary target for this book is atheist or secular humanist parents, I do not fall into that category, but still found this book very valuable. I consider myself 'spiritual but not religious', and therefore am confronting many of the same themes as secular parents, in terms of trying to help my children navigate the social and cultural forces often tied to religion, and trying to build a sense of community and family rituals without organized religion as a guide.
This book offers lots of parent questions, exercises, practical advice, and resources for fostering religious literacy, developing an ethical foundation not tied to religion, dealing with relatives and friends with traditional religious beliefs, and developing family rituals and frameworks for helping kids deal with the life passages and death outside of a conventional religious framework. It is not a dogmatic atheist book, and is more oriented around developing tolerance and curiousity regarding religion and spiritual issues, so I was very comfortable with most of it.
In addition to the topics already mentioned, I liked the first 'Inquiring Mind' chapter, which I think any parent should read, in order to more deeply consider the ramifications of feeding your kids your own answers to life questions, and how to best foster a sense of curiosity and 'freethinking' in them. I did have issues with some of the themes and exercises that seemed to equate freethinking automatically with rationality or current scientific thinking, as for me these too have their limitations, but I think the message on those can be tweaked.
So, if you are grappling with unconventional spiritual beliefs, and how to parent your child within those, and/or how to best prepare them for dealing with a religious society, this book is worth a look.

0Comment 45 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Where has this been all my life as a parent?

ByKatharine Milleron January 29, 2009

Format: Paperback

This book is fantastic! Like many nonreligious parents, I'm always on the lookout for resources and activities for my kids that reflect my world view. They are so rare! Now these resources are collected, arranged, and sorted through in this very handy book.

And it's much more than just a listing. The resources are buttressed by practical, thoughtful writing on navigating kids through a religious world with grace, humanity, kindness and respect. What's not to like?

I recommend it as highly as possible. Get it for yourself, get it for your local atheist grandma, get it for that lonesome nonreligious parent in a religious family, get it for your local humanist society! Just get it, you'll love it.

0Comment 47 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Atheist Mom Learns Valuable Lessons

ByK. H. Allenon March 16, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

As a mother of two young children who is proactive in their moral development, and who was herself raised outside a church setting, I found this book enlightening, encouraging and very practical. The take-away lesson I most appreciated was to encourage my kids' biblical literacy, as well as their understanding of other religions and mythologies. I was encouraged by the promotion of non-theistic communities for families around the country, as I'm involved in one in the Atlanta area called The Fellowship of Reason.

0Comment 18 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A MUST HAVE for secular parents.

ByParent of 2on March 20, 2009

Format: Paperback

For 2 years we felt very alone in our approach to raising our children without religion. We feel empowered now that we've read these books! Both books are A MUST HAVE for secular parents.

0Comment 17 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Children are born 'natural' "Free Thinkers"; And shall remain so; if parents refrain from 'forcefully 'indoctrinating' them!

-
Children are born with 'pristine minds'! "Adiamorphic" ("godless"!)
-
If their parents refrain from corrupting their children's minds by...Read more

Published 2 months ago by Anoracle

Five Stars

Great book, full of useful information for an atheist parent.

Published 3 months ago by Dan E.

Five Stars

Amazing book! Showed me the way to "Blasphemy. The game." :-)

Published 5 months ago by Klip de Boer

Five Stars

Good practical advice.

Published 8 months ago by Paul Jones

It is useful as reference material

More a collection of stories and examples than an instruction guide. The stories and examples are interesting and relevant.Read more

Published 9 months ago by Chris C.

helpful book with lots of activities to share with children and good suggestions on how to talk about some difficult subjects

Really interesting, helpful book with lots of activities to share with children and good suggestions on how to talk about some difficult subjects.Read more

Published 10 months ago by carrieb.

Open System Parenting

This book is full of great resources for all those areas where religious vs non-religious perspectives differ.Read more

Published 10 months ago by John A. Gedeon

Every parent should own a copy of this book!

I will start with a confession. I really like Dale McGowan books. I like the resources and research that goes into them. I like the organization of the topics.Read more

Published 1 year ago by J. D.

Great!

So speedy and exactly how described!

Published 1 year ago by Emily Basaldua

A must-have for any parent who wants to raise curious kids.

There's such a wealth of knowledge in this book. Gives a lot of citations and sources and recommendations on activities.Read more

Published 1 year ago by Ajavu

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