Comments | drdoug: Toddler theology

drdoug

Toddler theology

Mar 06, 2009 20:41

**FIMXE is starting to reveal something of his view of theology. While we're keen for him to have a good grounding in the Christian tradition, we're both atheists. We want him to know the stories, but are not remotely seeking to instill belief. Which is a bit of a fine line to walk with a toddler, but **FIXME seems to be making something of it. ( Read more... )

toddler, philosophy, **fixme-daffodil

Comments 7

oldbloke March 6 2009, 21:54:10 UTC

We have similar stuff, as I'm agnostic-shading-into-atheism but L's Christian-but-not-pushy-about-it, and we also think a basic grounding helps makes sense of so much of British (and indeed world) culture. J actually gets to go to church though, about 1 week in 3. We're careful to explain that different people have different ideas about BigG, even about whether or not He exists.

Favourite from yesterday was not religious though: there was a perfect half moon as we walked home, so I pointed it out. J told me all about semicircles then asked what would happen if you tried to walk up the stright side. I think I got through the idea that all the moon is there but not all of it was lit up. Didn't have a torch and a ball handy at the time, and when we got home I was distracted by the need to clean a lot of dogshit off his shoe.

clotilde March 6 2009, 23:38:05 UTC

I had a moment of feeling that I'd managed to mangle both science and religion over Christmas when Kit pointed to an advent calendar and told me, "That's the baby Jesus and her mummy. She came whooosh! out of her mummy's bum".

kissmeforlonger March 7 2009, 10:25:09 UTC

*laughs*

ias March 7 2009, 07:59:09 UTC

My parents (an atheist & an agnostic) relied on my schooling and Girl's Brigade (where I usually won the Scripture Cup[1]) to give me a decent Christian grounding. Mum was very keen I knew the Bible as oherwise how else would I understand Shakespeare, Milton etc etc? Fortunately I grew up in N. Ireland so religion was hard t miss and religious education was always Christian (comparative religion, what's that ( ... )

clotilde March 7 2009, 19:51:58 UTC

I grew up in NI as well, and remember the comparative religion bits we did for GCSE Religious Studies. We got to discuss the difference between Methodists and Presbyterians.

parallelgirl March 8 2009, 20:59:00 UTC

thanks for this grin-inducing post, and also for the opportunity to think about this stuff...my own post is likely to follow, I think!

vinaigrettegirl March 9 2009, 11:36:00 UTC

We're a bit like [info]oldbloke and Linz. Children tend to assume there is some kind of God anyway and they tend to want to believe; we've reckoned that as long as we are clear that some people do believe and some people don't, but these {various sets of types of stories attributed to God, whom we define as the source, energy, and stuff of goodness itself} are what some people believe, we're OK ( ... )