Teaching God To Kids: You Decide
By: Keith
If there is one thing, and there is more than one thing, that I am unqualified to explain it is the meaning of the universe. I can explain the basics about certain theories like the big bang and even a little bit about string theory. Heck, I can even, sort of, explain that time doesn’t have to be linear and that the universe might loop back on itself instead of expand forever in every direction. All of this explaining and scientific talk is great, but there is a problem. I am simply not intelligent enough to produce an answer for my kids about the existence of God. There are too many questions that I can’t answer because I am a human being who is a member of a flawed species that does not know everything. We’re getting closer though. Until the day comes that I have solid answers I am forced to shrug my shoulders and say I don’t know.
Specific Religions
What a contentious issue this is. People get killed for believing, or not believing, in specific religions. Jesus, Mohamed, Vishnu, Quetzalcoatl, Zeus, Thor, and Ra are gods over which people have been killed in mass quantities while defending or denouncing their godly merits. Atheists are despised almost universally among believers. What can we believe in, or not believe in, without drawing the ire of someone? Whatever I believe I will be denounced by someone as a heretic. I don’t go to church and I don’t teach my kids about religion. I believe, and I want my kids to believe, in science. As human beings we have a great thing going for us, our brains. We should use them to make our own decisions instead of blindly following dogmatic teaching which cannot be proven. There are many people who have come to a reasoned conclusion that Christianity is the only way. That’s their business. Of course, the other half of the world believes something else, and that’s their business. I’d rather stay out of it to be honest. My kids will have a hard enough time getting through life without having to go fight someone over religion. I’d prefer they concentrate on the things they can control like scientific experiments and building the strength of their brains.
These are some prominent arguments for and against God. Teaching my kids about religion is easy. It goes like this: “Don’t”. Teaching my kids about God is entirely different. Since it is something that I cannot prove or disprove it will have to be something about which I say, “Find out for yourself.”
Against
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
For
Thomas Aquinas Studies
Finding God through Faith and Reason – Saint Thomas Aquinas, Proof of an uncaused cause
The God Theory by Bernard Haisch
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Ugh! I cannot STAND Christopher Hitchens! He uses his sarcasm laced lips and his spiteful tongue to make people who are a lesser strength of mind think that he is intellectually superior! Once I look beyond his insecure front through his depressing rhetoric, I see a monkey, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind that compliment.
Cool! I’ve been reading your blog here and there for a few months now (mostly just skipping around, reading whatever catches my eye, in no particular order), and I have to say, I totally would have taken you for the religious type. Glad to see a fellow secular parent with great values and parenting skills!