Soldato
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Tell him to google it!
explaining god to a 3 year old
- Thread starter jas72
- Start date
A three year old is in no way capable of comprehending the concept of "God".
Just tell him that "God" was an important person in the Shepards life (the king of kings perhaps?) and so they praised him. This should satisfy his curiousity until he is older.
I love arguments where people think that being liberal makes them more intelligent or puts them in the right.
I especially love it when people think that because they don't believe in god it makes them more intelligent. 'Religious people have lower I.Q.' I mean when someone says that to me it makes me think that it is they who are of lesser intellect and are trying to demonstrate that they are more intelligent or more intellectual.
I especially love it when people think that because they don't believe in god it makes them more intelligent. 'Religious people have lower I.Q.' I mean when someone says that to me it makes me think that it is they who are of lesser intellect and are trying to demonstrate that they are more intelligent or more intellectual.
Science would be the same if a God existed or a God didn't exist. For all intents and purposes, if a God were to exist, he created the conditions in which science can exist. Ergo, logically, science would be unable to prove or disprove it's existence.
Science is a tool for exploring why things work, not how things are the way they work. To some, God and religion give the why, science explains the how. Some scientists may have chosen to become scientists because of that. That doesn't mean they have some kind of vested interest. Their beliefs are irrelevant to the scientific method. The scientific method does not require any kind of belief.
A God, by definition, would be unknowable and untestable. It would be pointless trying to even do so even if one did believe in the possibility.
You don't seem to understand exactly what science is. Science is not based on beliefs.
Which is why schools teach a broad spectrum of religions to children old enough to properly comprehend.
The best way to learn about different religions would be to study it at university level rather than being spoon fed a single religionat a young age.
Yeah, I'm staying out of this one as too many of you are pulling it out of your backsides again.
the supernatural being conceived as the perfect and omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe; the object of worship in ...
How is telling a kid this is your belief and that it is upto them to decide spoon feeding them, obviously they need to be old enough to comprehend it. Religion at school is pointless, it does not teach anything. Certainly not in my days anyway.
How convenient!
I didn't make the rules! haha.
Yeah, I'm staying out of this one as too many of you are pulling it out of your backsides again.
I thought it was theory based...
Or, you know, using controlled methods to construct a theoretical explanation of how things work...
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Soldato
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Don't brainwash him with religious crap, let him enjoy Christmas as Santa beings presents....its a much more interesting story.
I don't think you should attempt to explain the concept of what a god is to a very young child.
Your danger is that you will quickly get into the dodgy area of where gods live, and don't live. These can be horrible places and can be be a disturbing concept for a three year old.
I think you should let the concept of gods gradually build in the young mind over a period of years as the child is exposed to different aspects of religions.
If you want to indoctrinate your sprogs into a particular faith which you have every right to as a parent, then I am sure that there a many books available on the subject from good book shops - with very simple language and loads of pictures.
Your danger is that you will quickly get into the dodgy area of where gods live, and don't live. These can be horrible places and can be be a disturbing concept for a three year old.
I think you should let the concept of gods gradually build in the young mind over a period of years as the child is exposed to different aspects of religions.
If you want to indoctrinate your sprogs into a particular faith which you have every right to as a parent, then I am sure that there a many books available on the subject from good book shops - with very simple language and loads of pictures.
I'll just take a quick definition of the word belief in order to backup my argument, this is from dictionary.com so perhaps not oxfords best, but meh its an easy copy/paste:
Belief: something believed; an opinion or conviction: a belief that the earth is flat.
You say that a God would be uknowable and untestable, agreed, this in turn leads me to the logical conclusion that even IF a God existed, there would be no way to prove such a thing thus there is no way that it can or cannot be true, therefore there is no reason to ever specifically worship God.
Using my Dictionary.com definition of why I say science is based on belief, a belief is a conviction, it is something one believes to be true. I believe it is true that the effect of the force of mavity is around 9.81m/s towards the earths surface. We can test this, it is a well documented phenonema. I believe it to be the truth as it seems extremely likely that it is, I even use this value in my calculations. However I am entirely open to the possibility that this value has been measured incorrectly, show me tangible proof that this is so and I will form a new belief.
Science is belief, however it is belief based in reality and observation of reality. God worship is not, God worship requires the ability to entirely detach ones thought process from the caveat of belief based in reality. Somebody that is able to do this clearly does not have a mind which is compatible with the scientific process. Certainly they can take measurements, they can record results, do calculations, but when it comes to postulation and applying their own intelligent thought to forming their own beliefs based around that data, somebody who worships something entirely intangible will produce ideas that I will always be more cautious of than somebody who has accepted the fact that as God is unprovable, further thought as to its existence is entirely useless and should therefore be disregarded.
science is a set of rules. Anyone can follow them. Regardless of what else you believe in life. You are just saying that as way of discrediting religion.. Accept it, you can both be religion and a scientist.
But they will not understand your belief until they are quite old. I'm 25 and I am only beginning to understand what a belief really is. Certainly before the age of 18 I doubt anyone can seriously discuss and think about such matters.
The whole notion of a belief is completely absent from any child under 8. They can believe in things, i.e., the Easter Bunny, and to believe in any religious figure. But believing is not the same as a religious belief.
I believe in evolution, (i.e., I trust the scientific evidence and accept the theory as sound) and find it very hard to understand that some people have the belief in intelligent design- I used to argue angrily with them. Only recently am I starting to understand what a belief entails, now I merely feel sorry for people who do not believe in evolution and ignore their irrational statements to refrain from upsetting them.
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