Should You Tell Your Kids That God Doesn't Exist?
Should We Impose Our Views On Our Kids?
Recently I read a Facebook post and viewed video content from someone I respect in business. I completely disagreed with her actions on the subject, although not her opinions as everyone is entitled to those. I didn’t share those opinions, but I did feel compelled to write something on the subject.
Her child’s class had been told by their teacher that the world had been created in seven days by God. She was crazy mad about this and decided to take it up with the school. I must point out that it was not a church school.
I do have an opinion on this, quite a strong one as it happens. It’s just that I didn’t want to voice it on the comments section as everyone, and I mean everyone, was in agreement. What? I thought. I mean, seriously, can our teachers not do anything right? Don’t they have enough to worry about without being publicly ridiculed because they dared to quote something from the bible.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not religious in any way. That said, I don’t think it does infant school children any harm at all to believe in God while they are small. Would you tell your child that Father Christmas does not exist? No, you wouldn’t because it’s magical for them and you. So why feel the need to tell them that there isn’t an almighty being up there taking care of us? It makes them feel safe. Well it did me when I was young.
Apart from that. Kids are smart, they will draw their own conclusions. My niece recently said ‘They said at school that the earth was created in seven days, but I can’t see that. It’s not possible. I don’t think I believe in God.’ And there you are, she’s seven. She didn’t blindly believe what she was told, she thought about it and decided it might not be a fact.
Our kids do not need us marching to the school in protest, every time we hear something that doesn’t fit with our own belief system or lack of it. There are far too many real things to be concerned about. If you have to have a cause, then make it a big one. Something that will make a real difference to society. Whether or not our kids believe in God is up to them not us. Don’t assume all kids will simply believe whatever they are told because then you’re saying you’ve brought them up to never question. And of-course you haven’t because if you had then you wouldn’t be taking the time to complain. Schools are under enough pressure as it is. Sometimes it’s best to let the little things go. If you really don’t want your child to believe that the world was created in seven days, then simply tell them that it isn’t a fact, merely a belief and let them decide.
Evie Sparkes – Author of Wishful Thinking
