explaining god to a 3 year old

jas72

jas72

jas72

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My wife bought a book about Jesus before christmas and there is a line about the shepards going back to their sheep singing praises to god.

So I get the God question.

I have now left it to my wife to explain as although I generally like to believe in God I have no idea how to explain the difference between god and "there's no such thing as ghosts".

My son even at 3 isn't really buying into the whole god thing I can see his skepticism when explaining it to him.

Anyone else had to deal with questions like this?
 
You wait until Christmas, my son used to think Jesus grew up to be Father Christmas!

So much conflicting information at that time of year.
 
Yes Ben but my wife would like him to have a belief where as goldilocks is a lie.

Even I can't explain why god exists and spiderman doesn't spiderman is much more real than god to my son.
 
I would never explain religion in a proper manner to a child so young (read: so impressionable.)
 
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Explain to him that God is a name for all the Good in the World, That should do him for now.
 
Don't brainwash the poor kid. 4 is too young to believe in such things.

And the reason why you can't explain why spiderman doesn't exist whereas god does....... ..... well.
 
If you do tell him god exists, dont forget to add pixies, tooth fairy, elves, unicorns, father christmas, the easter bunny, goblins and other manmade rubbish

edit: forgot another example! :p

edit 2: added more (theres so many!)
 
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Explain to him that God is a culmination of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years of the higher state of Human consciousness needing a tangible explanation for why things happen around it combined with the intrinsic Human need to feel loved, no matter what....

:p

OR, if that feels like it might be too deep for a 3 year old (and conflicts with either you or your wifes beliefs) explain to him that God is something/somebody that/who is everyones friend but is able to change for every single person also, so God is just somebody who he will discover for himself when he is supposed to and you can't explain it beyond that.
 
In almost all modern (and most ancient) cultures there's something of a "God" phenomenon. You're kid is subject to this - like the rest of us. Give him the nicest platitudes you can, without harming the child, and surely he can make his own mind up later?
 
Tell him god is an all mighty being that can see everything you do, and he wants you to convert everyone you see to your religion and those that don't convert are called infidels and should be killed.

How about that?
 
I don't have children (and I don't know how yours would comprehend the following) but I'd probably explain something along the lines of "some people believe that there is an all-powerful being who created us and watches over us, many of the stories relating to him are in the Bible". Then if you choose to/he shows interest then you can read him some of the stories, personally I'd steer clear of the Old Testament at least initially unless he's got an interest in a vengeful God, fire and brimstone type stuff.
 
Tell him there's an invisible man living in the sky called God, and that He's the cause of everything good and bad that happens.

OR

You could do the decent thing and NOT brainwash your child. You could let him form his own beliefs. Frankly, I'm glad he's skeptical at what you're telling him. Skepticism is a good thing, whether it's about religion, science, politics, anything. It means he's thinking for himself.
 
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