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Atheist parents: Got advice on how to explain Christian mythology to children?

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mkrone:
My seven-year-old-atheist-in-pigtails has finally hit the point where she needs to understand some of the Christian mythology and ritual to understand the books that she reads - and she reads a lot.  Does anyone know of any good resources that don't also tell the kids to believe or burn in hell?  If there were a D'Aulaires' book for Christianity, I'd be all set.

andrewclunn:
Aren't there Jesus comic books?  Get that and Superman and give them both to her at the same time  ;D

EhJayArr:
"People have always tried to imagine where we come from, and what happens when we die. Some people think a magic person created us, and we'll get to live forever after we die."

Audiophile:
When raising my own kid I've found myself telling a lie in order to make him accept or understand something easier.

Like telling him that the King have decided that we must go to school. I might add that it's not exactly like that, but pretty much. The full explanation is so much longer and so much more complex that it would be way over his head. So I tell a little lie that is easily built into the proper explenatipn when he has the brain power to undertand it.

I'm not telling you to lie about the mythology. I'm advising you to explain that before there was laws, police, judicial systems and whatnot people still needed rules. Since there was no real goverment and the common people where often uneducated and saimple folk religion was a simple and effective way of getting them to obey. Basically religion is a way of controlling people and to justify rules, punishment and so on.

I'd also explain that today, when we DO have goverments Christian Mythology is no longer relevant. In fact, many of the rules laid down there are today forbidden.

...but thats just the way I see it and the way I'll explain it to my kids.

jomike:
One World, Many Religions by Mary Pope Osborn got a big thumbs up from my youngest daughter.  It appears to be aimed at tweens.  I don't think it'd hold the interest of the average 7yo, but if your kiddo is precocious she might dig it.

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