How to Teach Children About God August 16, 2009

How to Teach Children About God

By Guest Contributor
August 16, 2009

Children are prone to ask questions like this:

4-year-old boy: Mom, is God real?

The mom’s response is entertaining. Better than forcing an answer onto the child as if it were true, I suppose.

(Thanks to Justin for the link!)

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  • Becky

    LOL! I think I would have lost it had I overheard this.

  • Lots of results for that query. Should keep him occupied for quite a while.

  • Google IS god.

  • I don’t think it’s a very appropriate response. I don’t know any 4 year old that googles. 6 year old? Maybe.

  • Jude

    My daughter and I were tent camping at Arches National Park when she was 4 years old. A violent thunderstorm came up, with lightning crashing all around us for about 45 minutes. It was scary. At one point, my daughter asked, “Do you believe in God?” I said, “I don’t, but a lot of other people do.” She replied, “I wish there was a God and I wish he was here RIGHT NOW.” I could see her point–the protection provided by a thin nylon tent seemed insignificant in the face of nature.

  • Dan W

    Nice response there. Not sure how I’d answer that question to any future kids of mine.

  • medussa

    The response I got when I asked my mom was “as real as Cinderella, but don’t tell Grandma that, she thinks it’s all real. And don’t make fun of her for it, either”.

    I still think that pretty much covers it.

  • The problem with this response is that many sites with lots of failures of logic and irrationality on religious issues have very high Google rank.

  • Staceyjw

    Atheists can be a witty bunch- what a good response! The only one I like better is Medussa’s 🙂

  • mdcurler

    Entertaining queston…but google is not the place to find that answer. The first pages of google for the search “is god real” bring back tonnes of religious bullshit. Would warp the little kid forever.

  • To the question “Is god real?” my response has always been “I don’t think so, some people do. What do you think?”.

  • We say “Honest to google” in my house, as well as “I swear to google” and “Google knows how that happened.” We’re thinking of adding “Oh my google!” Why not?

  • Alexis

    The Official god faq: http://www.400monkeys.com/God/

  • Haha! Brilliant! 😀

  • medussa

    Great link, Alexis!

  • John L

    When you do Google the question you get a lot of god exists in DNA sites which are always strange to me. Like they aren’t trying to prove the bible is true, but rather that basic life was engineered which I suppose is possible in a Matrix-esque sorta way.

    So point being, googling the question would just confuse the child even more.

  • George

    I’m puzzled by your use of the phrase “forcing an answer onto the child”.

    Why would simply answering the question honestly, to the best of your ability, be considered “force”?

    What other answers to questions might you consider overtly forceful?

  • K

    Not such a good idea. I did just Google the question. The first site they listed was a pseudo-science site trying to explain that the DNA helix is proof of God’s existence.

    Basically, “it’s science because the bible says it is.”

    What??

    Still, that was a funny (if not original) answer to an age-old question. So long as she doesn’t try to use the same response when it comes to the question “Where did I come from?” Sex-ed isn’t something you should allow a child to Google, either…

  • TXatheist

    My 5 year old was told last week that Buddha was a real person. This week he asked if god was a real person. I said I don’t know. My deist/very liberal UU wife said no. I just smiled at her being more sure than me cause I”m always right 🙂

  • medussa

    I believe Buddha was a real person. Whether he achieved total enlightenment and broke the cycle of reincarnation, however, is definitely debatable.

  • Eliza

    “Debatable” on what grounds? I’d say it was highly unlikely, probably apocryphal, and something we’ll never know – & leave it at that.