Which do you believe on how the earth was made? Science or the Bible version? Skip,(not his real name) my 10 year old grand son asked me which was true. He said he is confused and wants to believe God made the earth. He went to church every Sunday for 7 years until he came to live with us. I said he must decide for himself. What should I have told him? Poppy
Please note I do not give thumbs down.
Dinah
Favorite Answer
I'd continue the conversation with him, for the sake of easing what seven years of indoctrination did to him. I'd tell him this argument has gone on between science and religion forever, that he will learn more as he grows, that it's not imperative to decide at this young age, and that before he learns more, it's a decision he can only make after he's learned as much about scientific origin as he's heard about religious origin.
June smiles
Science and belief in a creator do not negate one another. If people learn and understand it is easy to know both are so. The stories we are taught from the bible are told in a way the writers thought would best teach the people. They really left out the meaning of God's time!
I certainly hope One Berry is not serious! Shame on her for her words, I don't think God would appreciate a human making judgments.
♪Jackie Blue♪
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
He has remarked he wants to believe God made the Earth. That is enough to know he still has an interest. Allow him to go. When he is an adult, he can make his own choices then. Since he has been attending church there should be no reason for him to stop, just because he came to live with you.
Anonymous
You gave the right answer. You see in America children until they reach junior high have almost no exposure to science, nor much of anything else that is factual. Having many years of religion forced upon you is more like torture. Parents should never subject child to any kind of brain washing.
Science is not something you believe. You do not believe the sun rises in the east. It does, that's all. Science is either accepted or denied. If you deny science, then you need to qualify and quantify your denial. Just try to deny that gravity exist.
There is NO such thing a religious theory. Only science has theory. Only science has fact. That is why science has never tried to prove that God exist.
People love to quote Einstein. Think he was a genius. Of course he was not. Here are a few other of his quotes a great deal more worthy:
"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."
"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
Einstein did make many errors. After all he was only human.
http://www.mega-genius.com/editorial_no_20.htm
timepath
The kid has been brainwashed. He wants to believe God made the Earth because that's what's been pounded into his head for the past 7 years. He's a child. Children soak up whatever they're taught by their Elders.
Let me give you another example that hopefully helps you to put this in perspective:
If your grandchild had been brought up going to a church where they taught that the world was made by the Flying Spaghetti monster and asked you which version was correct, the science version or the Flying Spaghetti Monster version, what would you have said? No doubt you would have QUICKLY told him that the science version was correct.
What if he'd been raised to believe that Odin and Ymir were the creators of the world? How about Taiowa? Rangi and Papa? Real people believed in these deities, and yet you'd have no problem telling him that Science is correct in those cases.
My point is that you have grown up in a society where Christianity has been pounded into your head so much that you are unable to separate it easily from other religions. Christianity is a special "case" to you, and so you feel a need to be sensitive to Christians and respectful of Christian nonsense, when you are unable to do the same for other religions.
I'm glad you told him he needs to come up with his own conclusion, that puts you head and shoulders above most Christians. But remember, the kid is 10 years old. Everything he knows at this point is the result of BRAINWASHING. He's too young to have done his own research, he's never lived on his own and he's never read real academic books or taken college courses on philosophy or logic. I doubt he knows the full history of Christianity. Ask him if he's even read the full Bible cover-to-cover (children's Bibles do NOT count). The answer is likely no. So to help him choose which path to take, I suggest you expose him to a LOT of different faith traditions. Share with him different creation stories from all world religions. See the link in my source. Have him read these stories to expand his mind a little.
I don't mean to sound mean or angry in my answer, and I'm aware that I'm making many generalizations, but I am sick and tired of people walking on eggshells around Christians. Christianity is just one of many. That's it. Nothing special, nothing remarkable.