Precocious 10-Year-Old

Status
Not open for further replies.
Yes!!

In the Ignatius Faith and Life religious ed textbooks, grade 5 teaches Aquinas five proofs for the existence of God. 10 year olds often have far more going on in their intellect and need to get a foundation of philosophy in place.
 
I asked, “Why did you ask me that? What’s got ya thinking about God’s existence and afterlife?”
One kiddo later ended up getting a degree in philosophy and religious studies. The other kiddo is currently an atheist teenager.
 
Atheists deal with these questions, too. One comment has me a little concerned…
Viki63 said:
In a nutshell, the cosmological constants and the fine tuning of the universe are irrefutable evidence that intelligence was at work in creation.
Click to expand...
I would be careful with claiming irrefutable as there are some very good refutations. It’s certainly a good argument and a believable one but be careful in overstating the case. Kids remember these discussions!

I never pushed my atheism on my children. I always told them that many people believe very strongly in God and have reasons for those beliefs. I also explained that I just wasn’t satisfied with the answers but they might very well accept them…and that was totally ok with dad and me. Whenever they inquired as to what others believed, we’d go to the library (no internet back then) and we would find young teen or easy adult books on various faiths. By their teens, they had a pretty good foundation on what other religions teach and believe.

My son is an atheist. My daughter believes that there is “something” and it could be called God. We’ve never fought over any of this and fully accept wherever they would have wound up. Well, to be honest, I would have had a few issues if either had wound up a fundamentalist…but, they didn’t. Because my daughter knows I was Jewish, she relates more to Judaism even though I never emphasized it. She knows she will be considered Jewish because her mother is and she likes the idea of having the right of return to Israel but she isn’t religious in any practices.

Sometimes children ask these questions because of some event or worries but sometimes, kids just ask questions to understand something they just don’t understand yet. They are curious sponges and the brighter they are, the harder the questions they ask!

Just honestly answer as best you know how and always assure them the questions are welcomed. It’s even ok to not have an answer and to tell them that. They learn we aren’t perfect, too!
 
I remember being shocked in Catholic high school religion class when one day the discussion topic turned to people’s uncertainties, doubts, fears etc that there wasn’t a God or an afterlife. I have never doubted the existence of God ever and never doubted an afterlife for humans (I did struggle a bit with the “afterlife for pets” concept). I discovered that probably 80 percent of my classmates, most of whom were just ordinary girls who weren’t big into thinking about theology, philosophy, agnosticism/ atheism or really much of anything deep, had these doubts and concerns that they might die and there would just be “nothing”. We ended up all having to write a paragraph on our thoughts to turn in. I came away with the impression that the vast majority of people do have this nagging question or doubt and I was somewhat the odd one out for not having it. So I would imagine a kid asking this is very normal.
 
Last edited:
What did your children eventually decide if you don’t mind me asking?
 
Am not a parent, but an eternal 10 y o at heart. Read up everything factual - however unexpected - including proper logic like Jevons and Newman - and never stop thinking around everything. What a wonderful motive for your own learning!
 
Irishmom2 said:
What did your children eventually decide if you don’t mind me asking?
Click to expand...
No don’t mind at all. Neither share either my or my wife’s interests and attitudes entirely but they are probably more like ours than the attitudes of the grown children of most of my Catholic friends are to theirs! They don’t believe in God but have no strong feelings about religion. It’s not really an issue for them. They have strong family ties and feelings. We don’t live in an area where strong religious belief is very common. I haven’t asked the remaining unmarried one about whether she would think of marrying a religious person. I must do so.
 
I would tell my kid, just because you think something might not be real, or worry it might not be real, it doesn’t mean it isn’t real. The lives of the Saints, experiences of saints who have had direct experiences of the Virgin Mary, or of Jesus, as well as church history might be useful to explain that there’s extremely good evidence that God and the afterlife are real.

You may have a future philosopher or theologian on your hands!
 
We homeschool. I get questions like this from my son all the time. We discuss it in light of faith, reason, logic, and in this case, the absurdity of opining that “everything just happened”.

The Baltimore Catechism does provide a “baby version” of the various metaphysical proofs of God’s existence. And as I always explain to my son, even if I were not a believer, I would still accept the vast, vast majority of the moral teachings of Jesus, because no other moral or ethical system can hold a candle to them. You do not have to be a Christian, or even a believer, to see that following the way of Jesus is better than not following it.
 
We have the Santa lie we tell from a young age, and from there, once the child realized Santa isn’t “real”…and it’s just the parents buying presents…well, now we (possibly) have a materialistic child that thinks adults lie about everything unseen.

I think in resolving to not lie to a child about something as major as Santa might help benefit their belief system, in that nothing comes crashing down before they reach adulthood.

But in hindsight, after such damage may/may not be done, you might consider researching some books by Saints that your child is capable of reading (whether short enough or with language relevant/understandable for his age). …after reading a reply of yours, if you have a theologian-in-the-making, you might want to have him delve into more theological Saints’ books. 🙂 I will note: when I was a child, I loved hearing about all the visitations to children by Our Lady…unfortunately, my parents weren’t well aware of all of these, and it was pre-internet/information age.

Always be honest with your children when you answer or consider answering, so that if you do not know how to answer a question, then you are able to say so.

Also, consider: if there’s no God or afterlife, there’s no harm done, but when one finds that there is a God and an afterlife after all the harm they’ve done, they’re in a much more sore position.
 
TheIttyBitty said:
We have the Santa lie we tell from a young age, and from there, once the child realized Santa isn’t “real”…and it’s just the parents buying presents…well, now we (possibly) have a materialistic child that thinks adults lie about everything unseen.

I think in resolving to not lie to a child about something as major as Santa might help benefit their belief system, in that nothing comes crashing down before they reach adulthood.
Click to expand...
We never taught our son to believe in a literal Santa Claus who is a real person and brings presents. We taught him the story of St Nicholas, taught him that St Nicholas is a real saint in heaven, and that we merely commemorate him through the story being handed down over the centuries. This is the Polish tradition (I’m not Polish, mother and son are).
 
Try responding to a kid who asks if God is everywhere, is God in the toilet? I remember hearing this as a kid from other kids (we would not dare ask an adult) but I recently babysat an 8 year old who asked me that question. (I am in that weird stage of life where I am no longer a kid but kids don’t quite see me as an adult.)
 
“Does Jesus pee and poop in Heaven?” The kid was being serious, not snarky. Kids ask colorful questions.
 
I’d look up psalm 139 with the child.and read that God is everywhere.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top