Yesterday as we walked through Brighton train station Davies said to me ‘Mummy there are two questions I really wish I had the answers to.’
‘The first is does God exist and the second is why is the sky blue?’
I explained that there was a known and scientific reason for the sky being blue which I was not completely confident of but would find out for him and today at work as part of a colleague’s enquiry desk training I set her the challenge of finding out which she did and I brought the answer home to Davies to share with him.
The God one is rather more difficult…
Does he believe in Father Christmas?
You password works fine for me BTW! (but so did the first one – I’ll have to try again at home)
I think the important thing is that you can’t prove it either way – it’s a matter of belief. Also it’s something that each person needs to decide for themselves. Finally atheism / agnosticism / believing something else aren’t the same as, or at least shouldn’t be the same as, ignorance. I.e. just because you don’t believe in Islam shouldn’t stop you from understanding it. Sorry to be woolly about it, but it’s the only way to brief. 🙂
we talk a lot about the fact god does exsist to the people that believe in Him, but not everybody believes in the same god, or any god at all.
I say I think if there is a God he represents himself to different people in different ways. But that I personally don’t believe there is one. She has to decide for herself.
No Si, he doesn’t. Infact we have talked about how God is similar to FC in that many people do believe and many don’t.
It is something we have talked about lots here anyway, I only really recorded it as an interesting thing for him to come out with while walking along the station rather than to elicit advice (although thanks, I appreciate the comments :)).
I have always strived to teach tolerance and respect for others beliefs and opinions above anything else and been very clear to say on topics where I am not simply giving a black or white answer that ‘this is what I believe….. other people might believe X, Y or Z’ and we have read loads of different books which present different ideas about such things eg creation / evolution.
One of the things we often talk about is how the variety and difference between people is what makes us so interesting and Davies knows that various of our friends have very strong passionate religious beliefs.
The answer that I gave him on the platform was similar to what you lot have said – that there is no definitive answer, that different people believe different things and all of them are beliefs rather than proven facts, that one of the reasons I don’t believe is that I don’t have proof however for many people their existance alone and the beauty of certain things is proof enough. I think what he may well be ready for is some assistance in thinking at the level required to make a decision if that makes sense. I did some browing on amazon and came up with some very interesting looking books although possibly for a slightly older age group I’m sure they would be something he and I could explore together:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0879756071/ref=s9subs_c5_14_at2-rfc_g1_si2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1CHGZ690YF7N7MM6QYVS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463374953&pf_rd_i=468294
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humanism-Whats-That-Book-Curious/dp/1591023874/ref=pd_sim_b_2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1855034131/ref=s9sdps_c5_14_at2-rfc_g1_si3?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1CHGZ690YF7N7MM6QYVS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463374933&pf_rd_i=468294
lol I wasn’t giving advice – would never dare to presume! Was just sharing.