> Not that I'm a rabid atheist or would deny my child such a thing, but if THAT can enter my 8yr olds brain via his short allowed time where he can browse by himself, i'm worried what else is coming his way through it.
it's completely unsurprising that a child raised with no spiritual grounding would be interested in a book that teaches how to live and attempts to answer the questions that rationalists and atheists have nothing satisfying to say about.
How does one live a good life? Every religion tries to answer that question. Has the GP sufficiently replaced religion with something else to help their child answer that question?
One life is too short and too permanent to figure it out from trial and error so we have an instinct for myth to help guide us. That's why religion evolved.
You can help your child navigate that problem and separate doctrine from the helpful parts, or try to shelter them from scary ideas. Good luck with the latter strategy, especially if you want them to have a relationship with you as adults.
I'm religious myself. What you are describing is not taught by the bible as it is in its pure form, but is a selection of specific parts of it by the tradition that you are part of. A different, lesser known selection was posted in another comment, about rape and murder. You could also select very boring parts about family lists. Or meticulously detailed instructions about the beard of the priest. It is not wrong to try and live a good life, but that is part of a tradition, not purely based on the bible.
I'm sorry to tell you this but an eight year old isn't reading the bible because they had a philosophical meaning crisis and their journey into secular philosophy was unsatisfying, they read the bible because the minecraft influencer told them so, because they would do literally anything the influencer told them, hence the name, and probably why you should keep eight year olds away from them.
This may come as a shock to you, but morality and ethics do not presuppose religion. The rationalists and atheists don't have to replace religion with anything, they just don't need to invoke fear of the wrath of an imaginary sky father to justify being a good person.
I can't find the news/study at the moment but read recently about the opposite being the case: belief in a Christian god / such higher power resulting in weakened feelings of guilt from complicity or participation in wrongdoing
You would have to be completely indoctrinated to think an 8 year old is going to read the bible and see it as a way to live life, and not a confusing blood and sex fest. The only reason you think of it in such sheltered terms is your guardians said "Ignore the parts about donkey dicks, this is a guide to spirituality, we are told."
> Good luck with the latter strategy, especially if you want them to have a relationship with you as adults.
Again, you seem to live a sheltered life that you think people who don't read the bible are somehow broken people from broken families who are afraid of "scary ideas." I imagine if your child was reading the Quran you would not react this way.
> Not that I'm a rabid atheist or would deny my child such a thing, but if THAT can enter my 8yr olds brain via his short allowed time where he can browse by himself, i'm worried what else is coming his way through it.