Why are parents commissioned to teach their kids about god? (worship, faith)
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Yes, we're more prosperous now and relatively safer, but now the the fear is that we'll lose all that to terrorism or cancer or the "brown peril," or whatever. Though the circumstances have changed, human nature has not. There are still boogey men in the closet and shadows in the dark. If fear was a motivation for inventing gods back then, there's no reason to suppose we still shouldn't be doing so.
And besides, a good bit of the world's people still live like that, yet they're not inventing new gods.
As for those catalogue pages? I'm assuming you're talking about the automotive and index pages as the glossy, color pictures wouldn't work for that.
When I'm talking about in the late 1930's there were no glossy or colors. That's also when I was hungry...real hungry. One more thing. I'm not scared of anything. When one makes it into their 70's that's not very unusual.
I say "perhaps" because it's hard to know what a child would do without any exposure to language. Still there is Nicaraguan sign language which reportedly developed among kids themselves without any guidance. So that might kill my point, but I still don't think it's odd to want your kid to learn a language rather than have to invent one on their own.
As long as you admit that you point is your opinion, no problem.
If it is presented as an unalterable fact, big problem.
I don't think the "why" matters in terms of belief. In fact, my "belief" is an active decision, which would make it better than any passive non choice.
Yet according to the belief system you stated, this all knowing "god" of your punishes those that do not believe, yet is fooled into accepting you because you pretend to believe, just in case?
When I'm talking about in the late 1930's there were no glossy or colors. That's also when I was hungry...real hungry. One more thing. I'm not scared of anything. When one makes it into their 70's that's not very unusual.
I'm not as old as you, though I am well into my sixties, but my early life was not too unlike life in the 30's. In my part of southern Oklahoma of the early to mid-1950's, conditions were virtually unchanged since the depression. We had no paved roads, no indoor plumbing, no telephones, no TV's and we went to a one-room school which included grades 1-8 in a single classroom with a single teacher. We were poor, but not destitute. We at least did have electricity, though not everyone was on the grid. "Coal oil" lamps were still common, as was plowing with mules, and wagons were as frequently seen on the road as automobiles. It was if we'd been stuck in time.
The point is that those experiences molded me, just as they molded you, yet we seem to have come to an altogether different conclusion about the nature and existance of God. Consequently, your thesis that deprivation and fear led to the "creation" of gods to explain things doesn't seem to hold much water. It should naturally follow that if that's where the idea of God came from, you should have been as eager to accept that idea as I or, conversely, I should have been as determined to reject the idea. Either way, since the outcome varies individually, there must be something else behind the human search for something to explain it all.
I'll have to develop this idea later as it's time to go to Church.
ps: I too have been hungry, but not for a prolonged period of time. The worst I ever remember was going 7 or 8 days with no food at all except for a handful of rice and one, tiny can of peach jelly. By the time I fed again, I was too weak to move very far without collapsing in exhaustion. At least the hunger pains went away after a couple of day.
But, I've seen not only prolonged hunger, but real starvation and it's not a pretty sight.
I'm not as old as you, though I am well into my sixties, but my early life was not too unlike life in the 30's. In my part of southern Oklahoma of the early to mid-1950's, conditions were virtually unchanged since the depression. We had no paved roads, no indoor plumbing, no telephones, no TV's and we went to a one-room school which included grades 1-8 in a single classroom with a single teacher. We were poor, but not destitute. We at least did have electricity, though not everyone was on the grid. "Coal oil" lamps were still common, as was plowing with mules, and wagons were as frequently seen on the road as automobiles. It was if we'd been stuck in time.
The point is that those experiences molded me, just as they molded you, yet we seem to have come to an altogether different conclusion about the nature and existance of God. Consequently, your thesis that deprivation and fear led to the "creation" of gods to explain things doesn't seem to hold much water. It should naturally follow that if that's where the idea of God came from, you should have been as eager to accept that idea as I or, conversely, I should have been as determined to reject the idea. Either way, since the outcome varies individually, there must be something else behind the human search for something to explain it all.
I'll have to develop this idea later as it's time to go to Church.
ps: I too have been hungry, but not for a prolonged period of time. The worst I ever remember was going 7 or 8 days with no food at all except for a handful of rice and one, tiny can of peach jelly. By the time I fed again, I was too weak to move very far without collapsing in exhaustion. At least the hunger pains went away after a couple of day.
But, I've seen not only prolonged hunger, but real starvation and it's not a pretty sight.
Then you were hungrier than I ever was. I remember a lot of rice and beans but when I ate they tasted pretty good. Enjoy your church...I went regularly until I was about sixty years old and the only tangible good it ever did for anybody was provide the minister with a job and his expenses. 'Course he did speak at weddings and funerals.
Christians choose to teach their children about God and the Bible, because God is the truth and the Bible is His word.
If your children were taught an evil, unsupported hypothesis like evolution in school would you not want them to know the truth? I would!
I know no one will ever convince you otherwise, but faith is something you have because you don't actually have answers. It's something you believe, no more strongly connected to proven truth than the existance of ghosts and unicorns. You speak of faith as if there is no room for doubt or question, yet the exact opposite is true. To believe in a god is fine if that's what you want. But to speak of it as if it exists as established fact speaks more to your own self-righteous ego than anything else. No one really knows what's out there. Not atheists, not Christians, no one. We all pick and choose our own way and hope we get it right. For anyone to say otherwise is intellectual dishonesty.
And this is exactly why you should merely raise your children to be decent people, to give them a solid education and teach them to think for themselves and make their own intelligent choices as they see fit. To ram a particular belief on them without giving them any choice seems incredibly selfish.
What a silly statement. So you're saying that simply knowing the truth is to become a puppet? Let's say that God came down and proved his existance to every last doubter and believer on the planet. We would still be able to choose to reject his message or not, to continue our own ways or not. What you are saying is that knowledge equates to a limit on free will. Knowledge just illuminates the choices. We still have to make a choice.
Not true. I'm completely willing to admit that God may not exist, and if he doesn't, it doesn't matter if I believe or not. It only matters if he does, so I believe for that reason alone.
There's a third possibility you don't bother to mention: The god you worship is not the one that exists. Therefore, you're still getting it wrong and you may actually have something to lose. You're still basically randomly gambling and trying to make it sound like an informed decision.
Biblical passages such as Deuteronomy 11:19 has always been puzzling to me. Many Christians have used such passages as justification to drill their brand of Christianity into the heads of their children (without thought) as something noble. My question is, WHY are parents required to do this? Clearly, a parent will teach their children their flavor of belief and besides, isn't it telling that kids have to be TAUGHT god??? If, as some claim, belief in god is innate, but we suppress it because of our "evil nature," why aren't we left to discover god on our own, whenever and if ever?
God used all kinds of ways to keep his people deceived during this age. In the next age, we will obey the law and commandments instinctively because we won't have any corrupt DNA in our flesh.
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