Comments on: Making up my son’s mind on God…

By: Joe Litobarski

Joe Litobarski — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:50:37 +0000

Hi, Jo!

I was going to comment, but ended up writing a post in response instead!

Joe

By: Is it Wrong to Label a Child Religious? | Joe Litobarski

Is it Wrong to Label a Child Religious? | Joe Litobarski — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:46:03 +0000

[...] just finished reading a very thoughtful post by Jo over at Bit More Complicated. She’s written about the new “Atheist Billboard Campaign” (a campaign calling for [...]

By: jo

jo — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:09:14 +0000

Thanks for commenting, both.
I suppose a big bag would need to be carried by someone wouldn’t it… and that’s a whole different creation story!

Yes, Parish Spinster, in my experience imagination comes as standard but does not manifest itself immediately. My son clearly has imagination now and it has manifested itself at the same time as the ability to lie (“what’s tht smell – do you need a nappy change?” “Noooooh! Cleeeean!”) He now makes dolls dance like they’re waltzing on Strictly, has tea parties, pretends to be a train etc. A couple of months ago, he would not have thought to do any of this.
But if he had not observed dancing, been to tea parties and travelled on real and played with toy trains, I think its unlikely that he would have come up with those particular versions.
May be he’d dance like a ballerina, hold formal dinners and love boats instead.
Equally he is not limited to simply limiting what he’s observed – he builds on it, develops his own style, does an unexpected twirl which knocks over all the teacups and dances with a cushion…
What I’m trying to say is that imagination and abstract reasoning of a recognised concept without having access to observe the evidence in either direction are to me two separate things.

Sarah, I agree, particularly with the final sentence. I don’t think being raised without religion is bad and certainly it’s no crime. At least not here.
I’m arguing that it is for parents to decide how to raise their children, not to be told by a group with vested interests that choosing to raise them in the beliefs of their parents is wrong and abusive, whether that set of beliefs is theocentric or atheistic.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:30:23 +0000

I like your posts, I don’t always agree with them but they do make me think.

I don’t think that growing up without a religious education is necessarily a bad thing. It has certainly left me as an adult very open to reading all I can about every faith, listening carefully to people’s opinions and respecting their rights to have them.

It is like all debates in that they can get very heated and very personal very quickly. Not having a faith or a belief is no crime, belittling anyone who doesn’t share an opinion is.

By: Parish Spinster

Parish Spinster — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:57:24 +0000

Slight quibble. How can anyone be certain that children are not capable of abstract reasoning in the absence of physical evidence? All children? It’s a bit of a sweeping statement. I used to do it all the time. It’s called imagination and I’m fairly sure children are fitted with that as standard.

Quite like the idea of the universe being formed from a big bag, though.