Baby's first conversation about religion
As I already said on Twitter, my not-yet-5-year-old Erika had announced, out of the blue: "God created the world". She uttered this in the car, while I was driving with the radio on. So I had to turn down the volume, and ask her to repeat several times until I understood what she said -- it was so unexpected I couldn't even parse it immediately. By then she got bored of repeating. "God created the world. Turn up the radio, please!" I didn't -- I was very keen to discuss what she said.
First I asked her where she heard this. Clearly it must have been at day care. She couldn't remember who told her this, only that it was some kid. Good thing it wasn't a teacher, or I would have to have words with that teacher. Here in Texas you hear too many stories of teachers taking initiative, regardless of the school's official stance of religious neutrality, to push their beliefs on kids.
But that wasn't the case here. Yet there was an urgency for a conversation I wasn't prepared for (though from talking with other secular parents I should have seen this coming). So I said, "Actually, there is no God. At least, I don't think it is." Erika readily agreed: "God is just a word." This, again, sounded like she was repeating something she had heard -- probably from an adult, as it is a bit too glib for a 4-year-old to make up on her own.
I added: "Some people believe that there is a God, but I don't. I believe the world came into being by itself. Nobody created it." Erika responded (though I'm not quoting it verbatim) "because outside of the world, you die!" I believe what she had in mind was that nobody can live outside of Earth (no, I have not indoctrinated her into science-fictional tropes yet :-)), and if there's no one living out there, then nobody could have created the Earth. At least I would like to think she made this chain of logical inferences. But perhaps I, like any mother, thinks her child is smarter than he/she really is. :-)
Such was our first conversation about religion. No doubt there will be many more when Erika is older. Who knows -- the future ones might not lead to such an easy agreement on this topic...
First I asked her where she heard this. Clearly it must have been at day care. She couldn't remember who told her this, only that it was some kid. Good thing it wasn't a teacher, or I would have to have words with that teacher. Here in Texas you hear too many stories of teachers taking initiative, regardless of the school's official stance of religious neutrality, to push their beliefs on kids.
But that wasn't the case here. Yet there was an urgency for a conversation I wasn't prepared for (though from talking with other secular parents I should have seen this coming). So I said, "Actually, there is no God. At least, I don't think it is." Erika readily agreed: "God is just a word." This, again, sounded like she was repeating something she had heard -- probably from an adult, as it is a bit too glib for a 4-year-old to make up on her own.
I added: "Some people believe that there is a God, but I don't. I believe the world came into being by itself. Nobody created it." Erika responded (though I'm not quoting it verbatim) "because outside of the world, you die!" I believe what she had in mind was that nobody can live outside of Earth (no, I have not indoctrinated her into science-fictional tropes yet :-)), and if there's no one living out there, then nobody could have created the Earth. At least I would like to think she made this chain of logical inferences. But perhaps I, like any mother, thinks her child is smarter than he/she really is. :-)
Such was our first conversation about religion. No doubt there will be many more when Erika is older. Who knows -- the future ones might not lead to such an easy agreement on this topic...