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Originally Posted by The Fonz
I'll preface by saying that neither myself nor my wife are theists.
I have 4 & 5 year old children, and I'm realizing I will need to have a conversation with them about religion/God/Jesus/whoever, sooner than later. They're at that age where some of their friends are going to church, and speaking about God - that kind of thing. My kids are likely wondering wtf these kids are talking about.
I really don't know how to approach this topic. I don't think I can share my honest truth with them... they'd surely repeat it to other kids, as kids do. But I also don't want to tell them a "truth" which I do not believe and quite frankly, think the world would be better off without.
I'm curious to hear how other parents have approached this topic with their young children, when the time was appropriate? What worked well? Anything you wish you'd have done differently?
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We’re a species that communicates via imagery. You do it whether or not you’re religious - every time you quote a movie, a meme, a lyric, to make your point, you’re using imagery to convey a message that’s different than the words you’re using.
You’re not theists - you don’t have to be. Every characteristic of God can be applied to the Sun - you wouldn’t deny the Sun is the reason we’re all able to exist on this planet.
You can talk about how people use things like religion to justify their own awful behaviours, and note that people use things like the US constitution the same way. (This might be a little above them)
You can talk about the idea of laying down life for a friend, or for a whole bunch of people you’ve never met. That’s not something anyone should have a problem with. It’s literally the finale of Avengers: Endgame. Iron Man dies so half the universe can live.
Does that mean Jesus literally rose from the grave three days after he died? No.
But everyone gets December 25th off because of the dude, over 2000 years later. That’s kinda godly. Nobody gets to sleep in because of Marcus Aurelius Day.
You can tell them to be wary of anyone who claims to have knowledge of unknowable things - those people usually want your money, or your soul, and you should be careful with both.
You don’t need to be religious or not believe in scientific principles (which, even atheists don’t seem to ‘believe’ in as much as they pretend) to honestly tell your children there’s more to this world, to this life, than just what they can see with their own eyes.
You can tell them that faith, the idea that things will work out if you just do them the right way… is maybe the greatest superpower humans have. The ability to conceptualize things that don’t exist and bring them into being.
Animals can’t do that - not like humans. Chimps using stones as primitive tools is one thing - let’s see them build a wagon. Or a Spitfire.
Miracles - nobody thinks about miracles anymore, because we live on such a hyper advanced civilization, but your perception of miracles might be different if you grew up in a time and place where it wasn’t generally considered automatic that women and children survived childbirth.
I say all this as a non-practicing Catholic who hasn’t been to church in many years.
But I do strongly feel the atheist “it’s all bull####” is as unhelpful and untrue as “it’s in the Bible ergo I’m right.” It’s more true than atheists want it to be, which is why it bothers them so.
And the fundamentalists know they’re more wrong than they’re acting, so it bothers them for the same reasons.
End of the day, be compassionate, listen to what people have to say, and form your own opinions as a human being.
It doesn’t need to be over complicated.