http://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=cook 2005-02-20T07:14:10Z http://everything2.com/user/cook/writeups/February+20%252C+2005cookhttp://everything2.com/user/cook2005-02-20T07:14:10Z2005-02-20T07:14:10Z <p>When I was <a href="/title/seven">seven</a> I noticed that on Sundays, when my <a href="/title/dad">dad</a> and I were picking through <a href="/title/garage+sale">garage sale</a>s, my friends were putting on nice clothes and going to <a href="/title/church">church</a>. My burgeoning sense of missing out on fun stuff drove me to question our Sunday rituals.</p> Me: Mom, why don't we go to church? <br> <p>Mom: Because when you go to a church they teach you that everyone who doesn't think like you think is going to <a href="/title/hell">hell</a>. And we don't believe that.</p> <p>That was the only conversation I had about about <a href="/title/organized+religion">organized religion</a> with my parents until well past my "you can't teach me anything" years (read: 12). Yet it managed to serve as the basis for my body of beliefs regarding not only <a href="/title/religion">religion</a> but <a href="/title/equality">equality</a>, <a href="/title/tolerance">tolerance</a>, etc.</p> <br> <p>My biggest <a href="/title/fear">fear</a> of <a href="/title/fatherhood">fatherhood</a> is that I won't be able to impart the values I want my children to have. Values that, if absent, are going to make me feel like a <a href="/title/failure">failure</a>. Yet my <a href="/title/mom">mom</a>, who couldn't of known, probably still doesn't know, the impact of her&hellip;