Kids and theism, is it natural?

[bobhikes]

I keep hearing people say I was born this. Having kids and being around kids all my life. I don't believe this to be possible. I believe a specific theism or atheism is learned. Kids in the ages of 2(or speaking age) to 5(or before entry to school) believe everything. Saying the man on the moon is a literal reference for a young child. When you talk about astronauts that landed on the moon they will ask if they spoke to the man on the moon. Until you explain the truth they will continue to believe in a man on the moon. They believe in monsters, ghosts, unicorns and mermaids. I constantly have to tell my kids the things they see on tv are not real. I have never met a kid that was not like this.

From what I have encountered kids seem to naturally believe. This tends to lead to a natural tendency of religion and God. It seems as if kids need belief to be able to learn. If they did not believe in what was being told to them they would not be able to be educated. Education is what specifies it or ends theism.

So are we born with out belief or is belief a necessary part of growing up and if belief is a necessary part of growing up is theism natural.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

I think we are born with an inherent belief in a higher power, as I stated in another thread. This is further evidenced by a TV documentary about kids building their own society, and the first thing they did was assign gods to things. Also kids believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa because that's their way of trying to reach the higher power, and they believe being good appeases it. We must certainly examine these things and conclude children are not born atheist.

 

[Walkntune]

I keep hearing people say I was born this. Having kids and being around kids all my life. I don't believe this to be possible. I believe a specific theism or atheism is learned. Kids in the ages of 2(or speaking age) to 5(or before entry to school) believe everything. Saying the man on the moon is a literal reference for a young child. When you talk about astronauts that landed on the moon they will ask if they spoke to the man on the moon. Until you explain the truth they will continue to believe in a man on the moon. They believe in monsters, ghosts, unicorns and mermaids. I constantly have to tell my kids the things they see on tv are not real. I have never met a kid that was not like this.

From what I have encountered kids seem to naturally believe. This tends to lead to a natural tendency of religion and God. It seems as if kids need belief to be able to learn. If they did not believe in what was being told to them they would not be able to be educated. Education is what specifies it or ends theism.

So are we born with out belief or is belief a necessary part of growing up and if belief is a necessary part of growing up is theism natural.

I believe it is natural. Even Jesus said to come as a child.Kids are naturally born full of faith and they learn fear as they live and grow.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

If we were to totally destroy all society except young children, they'd create religion right off the bat. Why do humans have an inherent need for religion and to know the divine?

 

[Sunstone]

We are born with a predisposition to ascribe agency -- very much including supernatural agency -- to events. This does not necessarily result in a belief in deity, but it could result in a belief in deity. Think animism. That seems to be the natural or original religion.

 

[Walkntune]

If we were to totally destroy all society except young children, they'd create religion right off the bat. Why do humans have an inherent need for religion and to know the divine?

Because I believe we are not just here observing the universe. We are created out of it and we are part of it and we feel this intuitively.We are only separated by thought and when we quiet our mind we get back in tune with our connectedness of creation and where we came from and it is the perfect love.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

I agree walk n tune

 

[Revoltingest]

From what I have encountered kids seem to naturally believe. This tends to lead to a natural tendency of religion and God. It seems as if kids need belief to be able to learn.

I'm the example to the contrary. I never believed. My parents never mentioned religion....although the subject of Jesus
did come up when my father would injure himself in his shop. Rather, I think kids have a natural tendency to believe
what they're told. Tell'm nothing, & they're likely to believe nothing. It worked for me.

 

[Amill]

I don't remember ever being a specific theist. My parents never talked a whole lot about religion or gods but I imagine I came to believe in god because I simply was told there was one. Didn't have any religion attached to it, was simply a god that was watching out for us. I agree with Sunstone though in that we have a tendency to assign agents.

 

[Amill]

I don't remember ever being a specific theist. My parents never talked a whole lot about religion or gods but I imagine I came to believe in god because I simply was told there was one. Didn't have any religion attached to it, was simply a god that was watching out for us. I agree with Sunstone though in that we have a tendency to assign agents. Michael Shermer wrote some stuff on the subject.

 

[bobhikes]

I'm the example to the contrary. I never believed. My parents never mentioned religion....althought the subject of Jesus
did come up when my father would injure himself in his shop. Rather, I think kids have a natural tendency to believe
what they're told. Tell'm nothing, & they're likely to believe nothing. It worked for me.

Other than god you never believed in the loch ness monster or Big foot or maybe aliens. You never believed you could fly or in monsters in the closet.

This is not about a particular god but about belief. I can not recall most of my life before school but I believed in bigfoot and the loch ness monster until my 20's. I remember being terrified of monsters in my bedroom until my teens.

What I am saying is that without be taught a particular god or that god does not exist you would create your own naturally.

 

[joea]

Children are born innocent. The day they become, and go through the process of learning, the innocence drops away. They take on knowledge, learn morals and become conditioned to the values of society.....the real child is lost.

 

[LuisDantas]

It is misleading to use the concept of God in relation to young children. To a point, so is to wonder whether they believe or not. Young minds just don't work like that.

It is not a matter of them believing in God or even of having / leaning towards creating religion by themselves. It is something much simpler. Their mindset is, as Sunstone correctly pointed out, one of attributing agents to effects. Simple as that. Much more like giving a name to things so that they have an easier time refering to them later than like any kind of theological belief.

It is not natural for kids to be theists, or even to have religion, because God is not a natural concept at all. It took quite a few millenia to develop, even. And religion is an attempt to reconnect concrete beliefs with abstract ones, which simply doesn't happen before kids learn to disconnect them to begin with. And even that won't happen before they have a degree of capability for abstract thinking, anyway.

Even when the need to deal with the disconnect between abstract and concrete does settle in, God is still a weird concept that will hardly ever develop spontaneously. Spontaneous belief is usually spirit-oriented, animist in nature, because it exists mainly to allow believers to establish negotiation with the invisible, named forces that they want to believe in. That is why "folk" varieties of religions so often involve animism even when at odds with their nominal theologies.

 

[Tiapan]

Not so much when they are born, more like 2-5years old when critical language development appear imitating the host society and developing social habits to ensure its evolutionary trait to fit in or be outcast. If the society has pagan witchcraft ceremonies like the Abrahamic religions. Then the child will adopt that system while a child brought up in a civilized sectarian environment will follow that path. again to ensure it fits within the society. Does it matter which ... not really they are all just humans.

Cheers

 

[Eliot Wild]

It has been my experience that children will pretty much believe anything adults tell 'em. As a matter of fact, this provides for hours of personal entertainment with my nieces and nephews. I can tell 'em there is a monster in grandma's basement, or anykind of far-fetched blather to shock and awe them. It can be truly hilarious 'til my mom makes me stop.

I have always felt that parents who immerse their children into one particular religion at a very early age are doing the kids a disservice. To me, such a step is a form of indoctrination, especially if it is not diluted and balanced with a liberal education on many relilgions and atheistic views as wells.

 

[Magic Man]

I believed a lot of things when I was a kid. Kids don't have the answers to life's questions. If left up to them, they make stuff up. I don't really see kids as credible sources for much other than cartoons, comic books and make-believe.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Yes so let's indoctrinate the kids with atheism instead, LOL

 

[T-Dawg]

I find it interesting that kids will believe anything, but only so long as it doesn't challenge their pre-conceived notions. I once tried to warn some distant relatives of mine (somewhere between the ages of 3 and 7, I think) that their parents would stop loving them as they got older, and also tried to convince them that their teachers didn't know everything, yet they wouldn't believe me. They couldn't give any evidence to the contrary besides what their parents said (I can't believe any parent would be stupid enough to tell kids that their teachers are omniscient... that's a disaster just waiting to happen).

 

[Sirktas]

So are we born with out belief or is belief a necessary part of growing up and if belief is a necessary part of growing up is theism natural?

I believe it is natural for parents to impose their beliefs upon their children which might be mistaken for "being born to believe".
I think a very young child that is unable to distinguish "right and wrong" is the perfect example of human nature.
I was raised without being exposed to religion. So, I'd say it is definitely not necessary.

 

[Caladan]

When me and my cousin where in kindergarten, the teacher started to explain the kids about how the world was created by God to which my cousin quickly corrected her saying that there is no God and evolution is responsible for us. when I was a kid, I always knew that atheism was the default for me, it was a space beyond the baggage of faith, I did play around with pantheistic or even panentheistic views, but nothing dogmatic.
theism has a huge historical background, therefore its not surprising that children are effected by these social patterns. but I distinctly remember that not believing in God seemed logical to me as a kid, or 'natural' if you will.