Review: “Atheism for Kids” by Jessica Thorpe & Teal Barnes
Having “the (other) talk” with young children
Atheism today can be such a sensitive topic that, if a child asks “Mom, what’s an atheist,” the mother might well reply:
“…Have I ever explained how Mommy and Daddy make a baby?”
Fortunately, author Jessica Thorpe and illustrator Teal Barnes make this conversation much easier, with “Atheism For Kids” — a helpful learning tool to explain atheism and religion at an elementary-school reading level. Thorpe’s and Barnes’s work, in only 29 pages, packs an impressive amount of material and discussion-starters while offering an accurate description of what atheists believe (and don’t believe) about society and the world.
Thorpe begins by addressing religion in general — what it is and why people may belong to one — to lay the groundwork for contrast between believers and atheists. The book describes ancient religious beliefs, and how we know today that many of them are no more than stories — atheists today generally take this a step further and believe the same thing about today’s religions.
From here, Thorpe focuses on what atheists do believe rather than what they don’t. This is a constructive (if unintended) acknowledgement of secularists who may shy away from the “atheist” label, as the word — strictly speaking — defines someone by an absence, rather than being an affirmative statement.
Since atheists lack a sacred text, Thorpe emphasizes the role of science in both helping us understand more about the world, and its use in improving it (with the invention of vaccines, for example). This section devotes a page to evolution by natural selection as an explanation for why living being are what they are; I found this as the book’s only questionable inclusion, since more religious followers today accept evolution and thus it is not a concept specific to atheism.
Perhaps the most sensitive topic here is the question of what happens to us when we die. Thorpe gently yet confidently explains that, rather than believing in an afterlife, atheists tend to believe that our bodies “become part of nature again” (p. 18). The book acknowledges that thinking about death can be scary, but its handling of the topic ties neatly back into a prior statement that the world becomes less scary when things have an explanation.
As an admirable inclusion, Thorpe moves on to themes of secular humanism and tackles questions about how to live our lives without religion — questions that will need confronting as more people leave religious faith behind. Thorpe answers that life’s meaning can be found by improving the lives of ourselves and others, since this life is the only one any of us will get. She also notes that atheism is more common than ever before, stating that about 1 in 10 people worldwide are atheists. (I don’t know if this includes people who are simply “Nones” rather than explicitly atheist. Either way, I appreciate this inclusion as a normalization of atheist people and the very term “atheist.”)
The book’s last bit of teaching promotes a pluralistic viewpoint: good people can come in all stripes of belief, and can share a community with mutual respect.
The final pages leave the reader with questions rather than conclusions, asking the individual readers to ponder and decide for themselves what they believe.
Going in, I had longshot hopes that the book would be neutral enough for religious (read: Christian) parents to read with their children, to better understand families different from them. But alas — worthwhile though the messages may be, I understand why Christians may pass this one by. First and most critically, the book’s ending message of deciding for oneself what to believe is unlikely to win approval with Christian families, who put greater social stakes on believing their specific tradition. Secondly, I can concede that the book draws perhaps too hard of a line between science and religion; as I have written before, science and Christian faith can coexist in an individual’s life (as long as you don’t look too closely).
Nevertheless, I would still strongly wish for Christians to read it, even if only for them and not to their kids. The book gives clear, basic explanations to address common complaints lobbed at atheism: How can you have morals without religion? How can you live a meaningful and fulfilling life without belief in a god? The short answer to both is that, through deciding what kind of community you want to build, you very much can. I wish for more Christians in the mainstream to understand this, and stop saying that we have no answers to those questions, rather than simply disagreeing on what the answers are.
As America accelerates away from organized religion, and as secularists inhabit a greater share of society, more children will encounter secular peers at an earlier age, and (as all children do) they will have questions. “Atheism for Kids” provides a solid presentation for families who are atheistic, agnostic or otherwise religiously-neutral, and who are looking for the right words to introduce their worldview to their young ones.
