So what does he think about their truths as opposed to his truths? Does he think they are mistaken while he was born into the "chosen religion"? Does he believe that an invisible entity cares what he "believes"? Does he think faith is special and good-- particularly his faith? Does he think it must be true since dad endorses it? Or do you let him know it's more about culture and heritage. Does he like it? Does he want to go? Why make him go? How is he better because of it? What are you afraid will happen if you neglect his religious education? Why is his education so important that you would gladly cover for Jesus camp and tell those kiddies to tough it out so that no one could keep you from your important indoctrination?
There's so many assumptions behind these questions that it's hard to answer. mu would be good in some cases.
I don't know about "his truth" vs. "their truth". The idea of "chosen people" isn't really all that current among Jews, especially of the liberal variety, these days. I suppose he thinks it is good to believe in God. He does. He doesn't think that his religion is any better than anyone else's, though, and he doesn't look down on people who don't.
As for why I chose a religious education for him there are two basic reasons. One is simply that I thought the school was better academically than the public school. On a different level, though, I think that public schools are very lacking in that nebulous "values" education. They are justifiably paranoid about venturing into any subject that touches on religion, and so they avoid those subjects. They leave them to the parents, but a lot of the parents then don't bother.
Upthread I posted the "obligations without measure" as something that religion teaches that is important. In his own special way, qayak pointed out that those aren't really religious values and you don't need to teach religion to teach those values. He's absolutely right. You don't. Nevertheless, I think it's good to spend some time thinking about those things, and while you could, as an atheist, do exactly that, frequently people don't. I wanted to make sure that my kid did.
