My son is now 10 years old and just started 5th grade. Aside from driving me crazy like any child should, he sometimes provokes good intellectual discussions that make me smile because it seems like at least somewhere along the line I did something right as a parent.
The other morning we were on the way to school and somehow got on the subject of the different types of gods people worship. I'm not sure how the conversation started but we talked about how when people didn't understand how things worked they attributed them to a god. So there were many gods: water, sky, thunder, moon, sun, etc.
I said something like "People wondered what that great warm ball of light was that rose every morning in the east. They thought it was a god and perhaps that worshiped it for fear that it wouldn't come up the next morning."
And my son responded: "You would think they would test that out and not worship it one day just to see."
Ah, logic. He makes me proud.
The conversation continued. He said that once people were able to go into outer space they knew God wasn't in the sky. I told him that some cultures believe God is everywhere and in everything, they are pantheists. He liked that idea, he thought it made more sense than trying to put God into one thing or another. We also talked about how the Christian god started out as something of a mountain god or sky god and evolved into an all knowing, all seeing, omnipotent type of god. At this point he got bored (he is 10 after all) and we changed subjects to something about school and homework and how his teacher is mean... :-)
Britain's smoking ban, and bumper sea beasts
20 hours ago
4 comments:
That's awesome! Especially the part about "trying to put God into one thing or another". I'm always struck by the way too many theists try to put their god in a box and or put words in his mouth. That would truly be using his name in vein.
Yeah, he's slowly developing his own views on God and religion. He goes to church with his mom, and has said that he wants to be baptized. I just hope he isn't saying or doing things because he thinks it is what his parents want (baptism for her, freethought for me).
At that age so much is motivated by pleasing one's parents, it's hard to say. Did you see this post from Cori, the wife of Kevin of Memoirs of an Ex-Christian? Our marriage story. Make sure to read the comments too if you haven't already.
Like it says, "Have faith like a child. . ." Kids are full of questions. After reading the Garden of Eden story to my kids, my 8 yr old asked, "Why did God put that tree there in the first place?" He had me stumped.
Post a Comment