
Opening front matter quote from Libb Thims drafting Smart Atheism: for Kids book, the draft prototype for a standard reference children's atheism bible.

Opening front matter quote from Libb Thims drafting Smart Atheism: for Kids book, the draft prototype for a standard reference children's atheism bible.

In publications, Children’s Atheism Bible is a refers any semi-attempt at a children's reading level version of classic adult “atheist’s bibles”, e.g. Baron d'Holbach's The System of Nature (1770), Lucretius' On The Nature of Things (50BC), or Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason (1794), with standard big bang cosmology upgrade, in place of the classical Egyptian mythology based models of standard Bibles (see: Judeo-Christian pantheon), morality is explained based on the modern scientific-based natural view (e.g. natural morality) of the world, and the old children's religious myths are explained, in terms of their precursor mythical origins (see: god character rescripts).

Overview
In c.1850, Harriet Martineau, after spending 1846 travelling around America to study the great religions, concluding "there is no theory of a god, of an author of nature, of an origin of the universe, which is not utterly repugnant to my faculties", began to call for a children's book for the "secular order of parents". [11]

In 1992, Dan Barker, in his Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong, attempted to pen out a atheism for children type of book, in attempts to differentiate “right” from “wrong” without divine-backing. [9] Barker followed this up with Maybe Yes, Maybe Know (1993) a guide for young people to have an open mind, who fact checks things to find out the truth, rather than blindly accepting everything one hears. [10]

In 2011, Horus Gilgamesh started the "Awkward Bible" Facebook page, which, in 2013, turned into the children's book Awkward Moments Children’s Bible.

In 2014, Gene Weingarten penned Me & Dog, an atheism themed children's book, characterized as a "gentle catechism for the random universe crowd" (aka ignorant atheism). [5]

In 2013, Annaka Harris, wife of new atheism initiator Sam Harris, published I Wonder, seeded by a 2012-initated KickStarter (Ѻ) campaign, wherein she uses oil paintings to illustrate an atheist mother-daughter Q&A, aimed at teaching the parent the ability to say: “I don’t know” in response to kid's queries they can't answer, and to begin to develop a capacity for postulating theories without censoring oneself. [6]

In 2015, David Seidman, someone who says he “grew up Jewish”, published What If I’m an Atheist? A Teen’s Guide to Exploring a Life Without Religion, stemming from his 2006 publishing idea “what about the atheist kids”, wherein he steps through a number of interviews of teens who are atheists; Amazon reviews of the book’s writing style and position, to note, indicate that he is not an atheist, however, himself. [1]

On 29 Jul 2015, Libb Thims conceived the idea of penning a Children’s Atheist Bible, amid promotion for the scheduled Aug “Zerotheism for Kids” class, during which time Mr. O, a god-believer, with newly-born child, complained that Thims’ would be “brain washing” the kids before they even have a chance to think, or something along these lines; to which Thims replied that it’s actually the reverse of that, the lecture was prompted into existence, being that one of the children (age 6) scheduled to attend was given a generic Children’s Bible, after which the child asked “how did god create the world so fast?”, i.e. in 6-days, according to standard Genesis explanations; a query to which the parental figure in charge really didn’t have a response (which should have been, something along the lines of, correctly: “In the beginning, according to the current models, based on evidence, the universe came into existence via a big bang, through natural processes, etc., ... what you read was the old-fashion Egyptian cosmology model of origins, that our elders used to teach children to explain morality and meaning ...”). In short, if the child had been given the correct information, in the first place, there would be no need for such as class, which is but a de-brainwashing class or reversal of the original brainwashing, so to say (i.e. to teach kids, from the get go, Egyptian cosmology based morality and meaning, is pointing them in a backwards position, and telling them to go into forward).

In 2016, Thims, based on the previous video recorded "Atheism for Kids" Sunday School class, available on YouTube, had drafted a Smart Atheism: for Kids booklet, based on the questions and content of the class. [12]

In 2016, Jessica Thorpe, in her 30-page booklet Atheism for Kids, presented a very simplistic overview of atheism, with illustration, attempting to answer questions such as: "where did we come from?", "why are we here?", and "what happens when we die?"; the result, however, was mostly lacking in substance. [13]

In Jul 2018, Richard Dawkins was tweeting (Ѻ) that, in followup to his 2011 The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True (Ѻ), which was “partially aimed at children” (Ѻ), he was actively working on two atheism explicit themed books for kids themed books, one tentatively titled Outgrowing God, for teenagers, and the other Atheism for Children, for adolescents.


A 2016 cover to Libb Thims draft stage "atheism for kids" book. [12]

A 2016 cover to Libb Thims draft stage "atheism for kids" book. [12]

Smart Atheism: For Kids

See main: Smart Atheism: For Kids

In Aug 2015, Libb Thims was ruminating on the idea of penning a "Children's Atheist's Bible", as a spinoff of the Zerotheism for Kids summer "Monday school" class (aka atheist's Sunday school). [N1]

On 26 Jul 2016, Libb Thims, prompted by a 10-year-old’s query: ‘prove to me there is no god!’ and rebuttals such as ‘atheist’s don’t have feelings’, to her newly-out atheist mother, began penning Smart Atheism: For Kids.

On 22 Aug 2016, Thims had drafted 127+ pages; and was promoting the following abstract, to people such as Erich Muller and James Ferry, in email discussion:

“Gibbs energy replaces Gods energy, Big Bang cosmology replaces Nile River (Noah’s ark) flood cosmology, and evidence-based physiochemical morals replace angel-based prophesized morals.”

On 5 Sep 2016, Thims had drafted 200+ pages, and amid Reddit diagram discussion on so-called atheistic "brainwashing", summarized the basic message that the kids, in the 2015 Zerotheism for Kids class, had learned as follows:

“It's big bang to human molecules, and there is NO god.”

In Oct 2018, the draft book had expanded into 300+ pages, where a five-volume set seemed to be needed; after which the writing began to stall out in the murky area of the Roman recension, and how Osiris-Horus model was turned into Jesus as Christ in the years 80 AD to 400 AD (see: silent historians problem). [12]

Secular moral relativism
The following was the first and most-dominate query put to Phil Zuckerman, during his Los Angeles Times follow-up interview to his talked about secular parents are doing a better job article: [4]

“The "Golden Rule" (empathetic reciprocity) is derived from Judeo-Christian traditions that lend itself a moral authority. Without that authority empathy becomes purely relative to each individual (secular moral relativism). With no authority we each set out to make our own morality.”

(add)


Data, reported by Phil Zuckerman, from Pew Forum (2015), indicate that 33% of Americans, aged 18-29, now identify as non-religious; which is up from 9% in the 1990s; data which also shows, via long-term longitudinal generational studies, that the secular parents are doing a better job at raising their kids. [3]

Data, reported by Phil Zuckerman, from Pew Forum (2015), indicate that 33% of Americans, aged 18-29, now identify as non-religious; which is up from 9% in the 1990s; data which also shows, via long-term longitudinal generational studies, that the secular parents are doing a better job at raising their kids. [3]

Quotes
The following are related quotes:

“Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he or she be in after years relieved of them. The reason for this is that a superstition is so intangible a thing that you cannot get at it to refute it.”
— Hypatia (360-415)

“You must acquire the best knowledge first, and without delay; it is the height of madness to learn what you will later have to unlearn.”
— Desiderius Erasmus (1497), “Letter to Christian Northoff”

“It takes the latter half of all of one’s lifetime to unlearn the falsehood that was instilled into us during the earlier half. Generation after generation we learn, unlearn, and re-learn the same lying legendary lore. Henceforth, our studies must begin from the evolutionist standpoint in order that they may not have to be gone over again.”
— Gerald Massey (1883), The Natural Genesis

“Christianity may be OK between consenting adults in private but should not be taught to young children.”
— Francis Crick (1969), “Notes from Rickman-Godlee Lecture, UCL” (Ѻ)

“I don’t like being lied to. And I especially didn’t like being lied to as a child.”
— Aron Ra (2011), when queried, about his YouTube atheism channel, about what drives him, or what is the catalyst? (Ѻ)(Ѻ)(Ѻ)

“I believe in the Hubble telescope. My Bible is the cosmos, narrated by Neil Tyson.”
— Jesse (2015), anti-religion pro-science sign-carrier (Ѻ) at Comic Con (6:58-7:06) (Ѻ), San Diego, Jul 16

“I love the Carl Jung quote (Ѻ), very moving. And obviously I love the human molecular formula (Ѻ)(Ѻ). I recently purchased a book Molly and Wally Molecule (Ѻ) for the kids, which is OK but the kids really seem to like it, which reminds me how much a BETTER kid’s book more in your space is needed. Thoughts?”
— Lynn Liss (2015), review of “Zerotheism for Kids” Flickr slides, 29 [1]


Some secular or atheist parents, implicitly using Charles Elton's food chain model, tell their children "the lion eats you" when asked by their kids what happens when they die. [2]

Some secular or atheist parents, implicitly using Charles Elton's food chain model, tell their children "the lion eats you" when asked by their kids what happens when they die. [2]

Notes
N1. Thims had the following title options in the water-testing stage: 1. Children’s Atheist Bible; 2. Atheist’s Children’s Bible. Option #1 in a quick poll of ten people received 80 percent of votes. The “Zerotheism for Kids” lecture overview project page and title (option #1) where sent to Thims’ sister (with kids 4 and 6) for feedback; to which the first response was: [1] “I like your transition to ‘smart atheism’ verbiage, which puts a positive spin on something that many perceive as negative or angry. Could you even go so far as to call it SmartAtheism? I really like that, it sounds fun and lively for the kids segment.” After sleeping on this, Thims, inclined toward the idea, awoke with the following two title possibilities: 3. Smart Children’s Atheist Bible or 4. Children’s Smart Atheism Bible. The following, per synopsis of the "Zerotheism for Kids" lecture abstract, also comes to mind: 5. Zerotheism: the Children’s Smart Atheism Bible, 6. Zerotheism: the Smart Children’s Atheism Bible, 7. Children’s Smart Atheism Bible: Zerotheism. The following title options (11:38AM CST 2 Aug 2015) were thought up, amid-following sleep, as title | subtitle secondary Flickr slide set, to the primary-draft Flickr slides, as a way to address the six-year-old’s “how did god create the world so fast?” query directly, via a smart children’s step-by-step zerotheism evidence-based explanation, i.e. correction to the classical, albeit incorrect, information he was given: 8. Zerotheism Bible: Smart Children’s Atheism Handbook or 9. Zerotheism Bible: Children’s Smart Atheism Handbook. A quick-poll of twelve people (circa 7-8PM CST 2 Aug 2015), as to which was a better title, between #8 and #9, found that 83 percent (10 of 12) preferred version nine; per logic that the former implies that dumb children would not be able to understand it; or something to this effect. The following is a newer, close-to-solidified variant: 10. Zerotheism Bible: Children’s Smart Atheism Guidebook

References
1. Thims’ sister. (2015). “Email to Libb Thims”, Jul 29.
2. Thims, Libb. (2008). "Personal Interview: concerning what she tells her child [or children] about what happens when they die." (female Parent), conducted circa 2003-2007, Chicago.
3. (a) Moore, Tracy. (2015). “Godless Parents are doing a Better Job” (Ѻ), Jezebel.com, Feb 2.
(b) Zuckerman, Phil. (2015). “Op-Ed: How Secular Family Values Stack Up” (Ѻ), Jan 14.
4. Morrison, Patt and Zuckerman, Phil. (2015). “Secular Parenting: Raising Moral Kids without Religion” (Ѻ), Video Chat (32-min), Los Angeles Times, Jan 14.
5. (a) Weingarten, Gene. (2014). Me & Dog. Simon & Schuster.
(b) Weingarten, Gene. (2014). “My First Children’s Book is About atheism … and dogs” (Ѻ), The Washington Post, Sep 17.
(c) Boorstein, Michelle. (2014). “A boy, his dog and atheism: Gene Weingarten talks about his new children’s book” (Ѻ), The Washington Post, Sep 17.
6. Atheists are Brainwashing Kids!? (2016) – Reddit.
7. Harris, Annaka. (2013). I Wonder (Amz). Four Elephants Press.
8. (a) Seidman, David. (2015). What If I’m an Atheist? A Teen’s Guide to Exploring a Life Without Religion. Simon Pulse.
(b) Bio – WhatIfImAnAtheist.com.
9. Barker, Dan. (1992). Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong: Guide for Young Thinkers (illustrator: Brian Strassburg). Prometheus Press.
10. Barker, Dan. (1993). Maybe Yes, Maybe Known: Guide for Young Skeptics (illustrator: Brian Strassburg). Prometheus Press.
11. Hecht, Jennifer M. (2003). Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas (pg. 383). HarperOne.
12. Thims, Libb. (2016). Smart Atheism: For Kids (pdf | 309-pgs). Publisher.
13. Thorpe, Jessica. (2016). Atheism for Kids (illustrator: Teal Barnes). Winter House Books.

Further reading
● Author. (c.1970). Suzy the Atheist Fakes it at Church (Ѻ). Publisher.
● Peter, Lisa W. (2003). Our Family Tree: an Evolutionary Story (illustrator: Lauren Stringer). HMH Books for Young Readers.
● Bennett, Helen. (2005). Humanism, What’s That: a Book for Curious Kids. Prometheus Books.
● Hitchcock, S.C. and Flynn, Tom. (2009). Disbelief 101: a Young Person’s Guild to Atheism. See Sharp Press.
● Fox, Karen C. (2010). Older Than the Stars (illustrator: Nancy Davis). Charlesbridge Pub Inc.
● Hodgson, Martin. (2011). What I’ll Tell Tom: the Atheist Kid’s Bible (Illustrator: Stephanie Micallef). LuLu.
● Anon. (2011). What Do You Believe? DK Publishing.
● Shaha, Alom. (2015). Young Atheist’s Handbook: Lessons for Living a Good Life without God (Amz). Publisher.
● Gilgamesh, Horus. (2015). “Awkward Moments Kid’s Koran: Cancelled” (Ѻ), May.
● Zaimov, Stoyan. (2015). “Atheist Author Behind Illustrated 'Awkward' Children's Bible Poking Fun at Scripture Cancels Follow-Up Quran Project Amid Fears for Safety” (Ѻ), Christian Post, Jun 2.
● Tweet, Jonathan. (2016). Grandmother Fish: a Child’s First Book of Evolution. Feiwell & Friends.

Videos
● Anon. (2012). “Summer Camp for Atheists” [Washington] (Ѻ), ABC News, Aug 23.

External links
● Books for kids about atheism and skepticism (2016) – Reddit.
● Atheism and Religious Disbelief in Children’s Fiction – GoodReads.com.