Innocents' innocence
Children are a marvelous thing to behold. Not only because of the obvious willingness to believe anything and thoughtlessly depend on adults for just about everything -- but because we were all like that at one time. A time so long ago, for some, that the memories seem like a fairy tale told to us about some stranger in an imaginary land. We believed everything we were told. We could believe in dragons, ghosts, superheroes, and even altruism.
But then we get older and reality is the mother of all wet blankets. People really aren't so nice and strangers are rarely looking out for anyone but themselves and are, at worst, nefarious people who want to somehow take advantage of us. The world really isn't a magical place; there are no dragons or superheroes and altruism always seems to have an ulterior motive. I didn't forget about ghosts. Some people jealously cling to the belief that spirits linger and watch us -- mostly because, by nature, ghosts are invisible, unlike dragons and superheroes. People still cling to ghosts for the fact that they can't be seen, so they MIGHT be there. Right? What's the harm in believing?
Well, that's really the point of this post: children and belief. As my girls are now entering first grade, they've begun exercising their own critical thinking skills. They now question things, especially me -- but I don't mind that. They want to know why things are the way they are. Why do clouds stay up there? What are the stars? What do earthworms eat? Why, why, why.
I recently read a story about a woman who became irritated at the invocation of Jesus at a preschool graduation (public school) and, as you expect, the Internet People began posting copious and emotional replies in the forum beneath the story. The posts were largely from Christians, but a few were from self-proclaimed agnostics who had no problem with the prayer. I'd be willing to bet those agnostics don't have kids.
Kids trust adults to a fault. Kids rely on adults to tell them the truth or at least let them know when they're being told a tall tale just for fun. Religion crosses over that boundary. As adults, we know the truth: religion is little more than speculation, dreams, wishes, hopes. It always will be. There is no proof. The existence of any god is indistinguishable from its non-existence. Someone without kids might wonder where the harm is in believing that an invisible friend is always watching and judging us.
There wouldn't be anything wrong with belief in some kind of ever-present, judgmental scribe who furiously takes note of our every action and thought -- if it didn't lead to ignorance and bad behavior. Gods are nationalistic, prejudicial, xenophobic things who coincidentally have all the same nationalistic leanings and prejudices as the believer. Somehow, the Christian god loves all people, hates the sin but not the sinner, damns homosexuals and the unmarried heterosexual co-habitants to Hell, along with murderers and unbelievers. He is equally forgiving and vengeful, hateful and full of love, angry and kind. The deity is all things to all people, as long as they believe and especially if they tithe every week. Oh, and unbaptized children used to go to Purgatory -- until the Roman Catholic Church rescinded that particular plane of existence; apparently, it was just a story and they're sorry about all that. Just like Saint Christopher -- but the official stance is you can still pray to him if it makes you feel better.
So what's the harm in teaching young children about this duplicitous, three-faced god? Well, it teaches them that the universe is a vast, magical place. Adults perpetuate this belief, sometimes vociferously. It teaches us not to pry too deeply because all mysteries must be the will of God. God must have something to do with Dark Energy pushing the galaxies around because we can't understand it. Why bother examining it? How many hundreds of generations passed before Galileo decided to check out the stars? Or before Kepler started to figure out what's going on with the planets? The Church pushed back against knowledge. It always has because it encroaches on the tenet that "God did it." The motion of the planets isn't gravity and momentum, it's God's hand; it's proof he's up there, rolling things around like billiard balls.
But he isn't. Nope, just gravity and momentum. Whoops. I guess it's like that Purgatory thing.
Adults cling so hard to religion because we want, really want, the magic of our childhood to last forever. We want to think there's a parent up there, somewhere, who has the best in mind for us. It all happens for a reason is the common thing to say in the face of tragedy, no matter how shocking it is. We want to be coddled by the universe, not ignored. We want it to be there for our benefit, not randomly wreaking havoc in our lives. We want to be loved by it and not imagine that we've somehow grown up and are now responsible for everything we do. We want the bad people to be punished -- even though "bad" is typically a sliding scale.
Only when we view the universe with adult eyes, unfazed by the belief in ghosts, demons, angels, or ethereal parental figures are we able to marvel at this universe -- from the gluons holding the quarks together to whirling mass of billions of galaxies. No deity is needed to keep this in motion. Children love to ask why, why, why -- but when the answer to all those questions becomes "God did it," we stop wondering and never really learn the true answers to these questions. Adults can rationalize religion away long enough to get answers to many big questions -- but so much effort is spent on that rationalization, so much time lost figuring out that all those adults in your life who told you that "God did it" were just making it up because they didn't have the will or ability to find the answers to those "why" questions.
Teaching children, preschoolers to teens, that a great, unknown, unseen deity keeps everything in order and always watches out for you does them no service. It teaches them that they can be careless and even reckless because a god will always be watching out for them and will always forgive them, no matter how awful their behavior is. And it puts all those precious whys to rest, sometimes forever... to the detriment of us all.
But then we get older and reality is the mother of all wet blankets. People really aren't so nice and strangers are rarely looking out for anyone but themselves and are, at worst, nefarious people who want to somehow take advantage of us. The world really isn't a magical place; there are no dragons or superheroes and altruism always seems to have an ulterior motive. I didn't forget about ghosts. Some people jealously cling to the belief that spirits linger and watch us -- mostly because, by nature, ghosts are invisible, unlike dragons and superheroes. People still cling to ghosts for the fact that they can't be seen, so they MIGHT be there. Right? What's the harm in believing?
Well, that's really the point of this post: children and belief. As my girls are now entering first grade, they've begun exercising their own critical thinking skills. They now question things, especially me -- but I don't mind that. They want to know why things are the way they are. Why do clouds stay up there? What are the stars? What do earthworms eat? Why, why, why.
I recently read a story about a woman who became irritated at the invocation of Jesus at a preschool graduation (public school) and, as you expect, the Internet People began posting copious and emotional replies in the forum beneath the story. The posts were largely from Christians, but a few were from self-proclaimed agnostics who had no problem with the prayer. I'd be willing to bet those agnostics don't have kids.
Kids trust adults to a fault. Kids rely on adults to tell them the truth or at least let them know when they're being told a tall tale just for fun. Religion crosses over that boundary. As adults, we know the truth: religion is little more than speculation, dreams, wishes, hopes. It always will be. There is no proof. The existence of any god is indistinguishable from its non-existence. Someone without kids might wonder where the harm is in believing that an invisible friend is always watching and judging us.
There wouldn't be anything wrong with belief in some kind of ever-present, judgmental scribe who furiously takes note of our every action and thought -- if it didn't lead to ignorance and bad behavior. Gods are nationalistic, prejudicial, xenophobic things who coincidentally have all the same nationalistic leanings and prejudices as the believer. Somehow, the Christian god loves all people, hates the sin but not the sinner, damns homosexuals and the unmarried heterosexual co-habitants to Hell, along with murderers and unbelievers. He is equally forgiving and vengeful, hateful and full of love, angry and kind. The deity is all things to all people, as long as they believe and especially if they tithe every week. Oh, and unbaptized children used to go to Purgatory -- until the Roman Catholic Church rescinded that particular plane of existence; apparently, it was just a story and they're sorry about all that. Just like Saint Christopher -- but the official stance is you can still pray to him if it makes you feel better.
So what's the harm in teaching young children about this duplicitous, three-faced god? Well, it teaches them that the universe is a vast, magical place. Adults perpetuate this belief, sometimes vociferously. It teaches us not to pry too deeply because all mysteries must be the will of God. God must have something to do with Dark Energy pushing the galaxies around because we can't understand it. Why bother examining it? How many hundreds of generations passed before Galileo decided to check out the stars? Or before Kepler started to figure out what's going on with the planets? The Church pushed back against knowledge. It always has because it encroaches on the tenet that "God did it." The motion of the planets isn't gravity and momentum, it's God's hand; it's proof he's up there, rolling things around like billiard balls.
But he isn't. Nope, just gravity and momentum. Whoops. I guess it's like that Purgatory thing.
Adults cling so hard to religion because we want, really want, the magic of our childhood to last forever. We want to think there's a parent up there, somewhere, who has the best in mind for us. It all happens for a reason is the common thing to say in the face of tragedy, no matter how shocking it is. We want to be coddled by the universe, not ignored. We want it to be there for our benefit, not randomly wreaking havoc in our lives. We want to be loved by it and not imagine that we've somehow grown up and are now responsible for everything we do. We want the bad people to be punished -- even though "bad" is typically a sliding scale.
Only when we view the universe with adult eyes, unfazed by the belief in ghosts, demons, angels, or ethereal parental figures are we able to marvel at this universe -- from the gluons holding the quarks together to whirling mass of billions of galaxies. No deity is needed to keep this in motion. Children love to ask why, why, why -- but when the answer to all those questions becomes "God did it," we stop wondering and never really learn the true answers to these questions. Adults can rationalize religion away long enough to get answers to many big questions -- but so much effort is spent on that rationalization, so much time lost figuring out that all those adults in your life who told you that "God did it" were just making it up because they didn't have the will or ability to find the answers to those "why" questions.
Teaching children, preschoolers to teens, that a great, unknown, unseen deity keeps everything in order and always watches out for you does them no service. It teaches them that they can be careless and even reckless because a god will always be watching out for them and will always forgive them, no matter how awful their behavior is. And it puts all those precious whys to rest, sometimes forever... to the detriment of us all.
Comments
Post a Comment