Talking to Kids About God

Kathleen:

Could it be that you (and others) are uncomfortable with religion (God) because deep down you know you don't have real answers? Anyone that says they know God exists, or futher knows his or her mind is obviously lying. After all, faith means 'Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence'.

For anyone to say we have souls, and that they know what happens to the soul after death is lying. If you claim the Bible or for that matter any other religious text (man has invented many Gods and religions), then all you are doing (in the case of the Bible) is living according to the writings of *man* at a time when the wheelbarrow was emerging technology. A time when we knew nothing about the origins of storms, eathquakes and sickness. Things we had to attribute to something and that something was religion and a God. All civilizations have invented them.

Most people who say they live by the Bible in this day, are forced to pick and choose the bits that fit. *They*, are the moral gatekeeper, not the Bible itself. After all the Bible condones, slavery, ethnic cleansing, murder and rape. To live your life as the Bible says, we would be stoning poeple who work on Sunday or as in Deuteronomy 13, muder anyone who tries to lead you away from God.

13:9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

13:10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

A tougher question from your child might be (Numbers 15).

Why did they stone that poor man for gathering sticks on Sunday?

Not comfortable to share the Word of God with her own children? Seriously, Miss Deveny needs to get in touch with her religion more.

dutchbu,
Just where does your "evidence" come from, if not from the experience of life and all it entails.?
To simply shrug off thousands of years of human experience regarding the soul is not using critical thought. You merely show a rather nasty bias against these very real and very human experiences, which when examined critically, lead one to see that there is more to human life than the mere physical aspect of it, wonderful as that is.

Your attacks on the Church are more of the same. The usual one-liners that offer no depth of critical thought, no attempt to look deeply into history to discover the truth, and show again a nastiness and bias which seems to keep you from getting past simply slinging the most superficial, negative summaries of that which you oppose.

Kathleen:
My parents (Mom, at least) was quite diligent in bringing us kids to Church every Sunday at an early age. But my childhood memories don't really capture God coming home with us as a part of our daily lives. It may be for this lack of my parents' living their faith that I fell away from the Church, and God entirely, for 2 decades (the man of science commenter below was me 10 years ago) . I am married and have young children of my own now, and it is because of these blessings that I started returning to the Church. One thing I realize in my rediscovered spirituality is that the most important thing is this world is grow your relationship with the Lord...all else flourishes with this. Sunday Mass, Church doctrine, Catechism are all fantastic aids in understanding the Lord; but they are no substitute for prayer...talking to the Lord daily about His will for your life. I don't know you, but I remember what it was like to live without the Lord's presence by my side. Although you consider yourself a Catholic, your short article hints at the lack of a personal relationship with Him. It is wonderful that you want to expose your daughter to the Church, but to truly give her a meaningful faith that consists of more than Sunday attendance, the best thing for her is to see your example of what it means to live the faith. I hope that your Parish offers retreats, group studies, etc that could help you spark your prayer life.... or you could talk to members of your Parish who shine with the Spirit, they will love to share with you (we are literally on the Eve of the Lenten Season, which is a perfect time to draw nearer to God's presence). Now you are a fairly high-profile writer with, I am sure, an unbelievably hectic schedule. But since you regularly attend Sunday Mass you already know that having a personal relationship with God is by far the most important thing you can possibly do with your time....far more important than making that next Newsweek deadline. So turn the computer off and start talking to Him! May God Bless you on your journey!

Mamasboy,
Notice how you did not use words like evidence or knowledge (instead using experience and thought). Even you know that these words would hardly be applicable to the issue at hand, or at least not in your favor.

Instead of telling a child (or yourself) what a fictional book says about the issue, tell them what we KNOW. Tell them about the EVIDENCE for the evolution of our species and the incredible things we now KNOW about the brain and nervous system. Stories of souls and shape shifting Jesus blood will not help your child learn anything.

Your original post was a laughable ode to critical thought within the Catholic Church. But you have confused critical thought with being forced to change with the times. The Catholic Church, like most others, embodies the opposite of critical thought. The best example is your church???s awful history of destroying or hiding all evidence that contradicts your religious texts and decrees. Or, how about the habit of declaring people and books infallible?

Perhaps worst of all, and certainly outside the realm of critical thought, religion constantly seeks to interject the forces of magic into every conversation. I suggest everyone be honest with their children by first being honest with themselves (corny, but so true).

No wonder that we have children who are experts in sex , drugs and immoral issues than the fundamental way of living- respect for individuals and others. They know more about these things from K.G. but lack the basics of God and His Son Jesus Christ and even so they pride in their lack of that knowledge. Ungrateful creatures!! Add to that are parents who can't wait to talk about drugs and sex than the WORD of GOD.

Like others have mentioned I appreciate your honesty relating the difficultly explaining God to you daughter. It reminded me how I could not really explain to another who and what my father is like unless I knew him first. God wants us to know him. He speaks to us from His word the Bible, and hear us by our prayers. Its a good conversation that will lead to much closer relationship with Him and I suspect a more confortable talk with your daughter in the future.

"Imagine, instead, that you told her something sensible. Something like, ???we don???t actually have souls.?"

Good example of not thinking critically! Blithely dismissing thousands of years of human experience and thought regarding the issue.

My parents raised me very Southern Baptist. Fellow Southern Baptists? Billy Graham, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and... oh yeah... Britney Spears.

I don't think that the fact that my parents taught me about the bible from a young age caused me not to be a critical thinker. I think my parents did a really great job giving me a rounded view of religion, I would not have wanted them to withold spirituality from me until I was "ready" to deal with it. In the bible, Jesus talks about having childlike faith... no one understands what that means as well as a child. :)

I think that as long as you instill the importance of love and respect and truth in your kids, you really can't go wrong.

Imagine, instead, that you told her something sensible. Something like, ???we don???t actually have souls.???
Why do you, and countless other parents have difficulty answering the religious questions posed by your children? It is simply because even you have difficulty believing the very premise of the child???s question. I can???t help but notice that you, like most people these days, hardly believe in your own religion. Unlike most, you actually admit it. I???m guessing its because you are somewhat intelligent, and therefore must reject the majority of supernatural fables found in your faith.
Yet, you are perfectly willing to teach the same nonsense to your young child. So, I ask: why pick and choose between different supernatural explanations for our history? Or, even worse, why try to tackle the silly task of explaining the physics of god? All the effort you are putting in to answering these religious questions are getting you nowhere, because that is where they lead. Instead you can simply tell your child the truth. There is no Santa, no Jesus, and no special heaven for you to burp your magic soul up to. You should start ???googling??? some scientific texts that can actually help you and your child understand our world.
Finally, no child is too young to think critically! You should not wait until ???someday??? to teach critical thought and skepticism. I think the problem is that you need to learn it for yourself first.

Kathleen,

You seem to have a great relationship with your daughter. But if you're going to teach her to think "critically, not doctrinally" then you're going to need to examine the Church's doctrines much more fully than you have.

For one, the Church does not teach that "evolution is a fraud". The Church has taught (see Pope John Paul II) that the theory of evolution is not completely at odds with the history of creation as believed in by Christians.

Also, the suggestion that to think "critically" is in some way in oppostion to the establishment of doctrine and to the adherence to doctrine, is truly setting up a false dichotomy. Church doctrine is the very fruition of much critical thinking, especially regarding issues such as birth control, stem cell research, and abortion.

If you are open-minded enough to find out why the Church teaches what she does on these and other issues, I am certain you will discover that there has been much more critical thought given to these matters, resulting in formal Church doctine, than you will be able to find from sources who oppose the Church's teaching.

Beautiful relationship you have developed with your little girl! Thanks for your warm and honest article.
Ken G

As far as I know, we're free to believe in evolution if we want. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19956961/
I happen to find dinosaurs pretty cool.

Well thought out article. I think this is something we all go thru, as parents or just growing up.