Proof of God for kids

  • Thread starter Thread starter jlr247
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

jlr247

Guest
Hi, I work in youth ministry, and part of my job is making 20-min classroom visits to the Catholic schools in the area. In one grade 6 class, a couple of boys kept asking things like “how do we know God is real?” and “How do we even know Jesus existed?”

I tried the best I could in the time I had, but I thought I would try to find a good resource on YouTube or something to send to the teacher if he has time to show it.

HOWEVER! All of the good videos I can find are very adult-focused. Has anyone seen a good video for preteens on the existence of God?

Thanks!
 
I teach 6th grade CCD and my recommendation is to use the “adult focused” videos. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. The adult focused videos plus the teacher (who can explain the difficult concepts or terminology to the kids) should work best.
 
PietroPaolo said:
I teach 6th grade CCD and my recommendation is to use the “adult focused” videos. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. The adult focused videos plus the teacher (who can explain the difficult concepts or terminology to the kids) should work best.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Get them exposed to the deeper stuff early on, even if (or perhaps especially if) that means that they’ll have to do more pondering.
 
jlr247 said:
Hi, I work in youth ministry, and part of my job is making 20-min classroom visits to the Catholic schools in the area. In one grade 6 class, a couple of boys kept asking things like “how do we know God is real?” and “How do we even know Jesus existed?”
Click to expand...
I would have asked them, “How do you know your great, great grandparents are real?” and “How do you know your great, great grandparents even existed?”

Logic tells us that we all come from someone rather than something.

I would also point out the historically verfiable Jesus Christ, his life, miracles and teachings, even the most sceptical historians all profess the resurrection, the history ties in too well with the Gospel accounts for them to be exaggerated or ‘made up’ the Gospel writers realised that we would need evidence, that’s also why they went to great detail to record nouns, people, places and things, when they do that, they are saying “these people also witnessed these miracles, they can also vouch for what I am telling you.” Paul refers to a body of five hundred eyewitnesses who saw the risen Christ at once. You can’t write that in a document designed for public reading unless there really were surviving eyewitnesses whose testimony agreed and who could confirm what the author had said.

In short, the Gospels were writen and circulating far too early for them to contain any false hood, people would have quickly picked up on such falsehoods.

When people like the New Athiests claims that the Gospels are fairytales, I believe it really shows their ignorance of history.

Please continue to next post -
 
Continued from above post -

Timothy Keller I believe had a great response in his book ‘reason for belief’, I have just paraphrased a small bit of it for you -
Timothy Keller:
The content is far too counterproductive for the Gospels to be Legends.

The working theory for many people today is that the Gospels were written by the leaders of the early church to promote their policies, consolidate their power, and build their movement. That theory does not fit at all with what we actually find in the Gospels.

If this view were correct, we would expect to see many places in the Gospels where Jesus takes sides in debates that were going on in the early Church. That is how (It’s reasoned) the Gospels were shaped by Christian leaders to support their party. But we don’t find this. We know, for example, that one of the great controversies in the earliest Church was that some believed that Gentile Christians should be circumcised. In light of that great conflict, it’s remarkable that nowhere in the Gospel accounts does Jesus say anything about circumcision. The most likely reason Jesus is silent about circumcision is that the early Church did not feel free to fabricate things and put words in Jesus’ mouth that he didn’t say.

Why would the leaders of the early Christian movement have made up the story of the crucifixion if it didn’t happen? Any listener of the Gospel in either Greek or Jewish culture would have automatically suspected that anyone who had been crucified was a criminal, regardless of what the speaker said to the contrary.

Why would any Christian make up the account of Jesus asking God in the garden of Gethsemane if he could get out of his mission? Or why ever make up the part on the cross when Jesus cries out that God had abandoned him? These things would have only offended or deeply confused first-century prospective converts. They would have concluded that Jesus was weak and failing his God.

Why invent women as the first witnesses of the resurrection in a society where women were assigned such low status that their testimony was not admissible evidence in court? It would have made far more sense (If you were inventing the tale) to have male pillars of the community present as witnesses when Jesus came out of the tomb. The only plausible reason that all of these incidents would have been included in these accounts is that they actually happened.

The timing is far too early for the Gospels to be Legends.

The canonical Gospels were written at the very most forty to sixty years after Jesus’ death. Paul’s letters, written just fifteen to twenty-five years after the death of Jesus, provide an outline of all the events of Jesus’ life found in the Gospels, his miracles, claims, crucifixion and resurrection.

This means that the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ life were circulating within the lifetimes of hundreds who had been present at the events of his ministry. The Gospel author Luke claims that he got his account of Jesus’ life from eyewitnesses who were still alive (Luke 1:1-4). At the time the Gospels were written there were still numerous well-known living eyewitnesses to Jesus’ teaching and life events.

They had committed them to memory and they remained active in the public life of the Churches throughout their lifetimes, serving as ongoing sources and guarantors of the truth of those accounts. The Gospel writers named their eyewitness sources within the text to assure readers of their accounts’ authenticity.

Mark, for example, says that the man who helped Jesus carry hiss cross to Calvary “was the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21). There is no reason for the author to include such names unless the readers know or could have access to them. Mark is saying, “Alexander and Rufus vouch for the truth I am telling you if you want to ask them.” Paul also appeals to readers to check with living eyewitnesses if they want to establish the truth of what he is saying about the events of Jesus’ life (1 Corinthians 15:1-6). Paul refers to a body of five hundred eyewitnesses who saw the risen Christ at once. You can’t write that in a document designed for public reading unless there really were surviving eyewitnesses whose testimony agreed and who could confirm what the author had said.

All this decisively refutes the idea that the gospels were anonymous, collective, evolving oral traditions. Instead they were oral histories taken down from the mouths of the living eyewitnesses who preserved the words and deeds of Jesus in great detail.
Click to expand...
I hope this has helped

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
josh987654321 said:
I would have asked them, “How do you know your great, great grandparents are real?” and “How do you know your great, great grandparents even existed?”

Logic tells us that we all come from someone rather than something.
Click to expand...
👍 Great point.

I would also point them to nature and its beauty and wonder. If they are being taught the big bang theory at school, then force them to think about okay, where did the speck that exploded come from? I also heard a preacher say once (I’m paraphrasing here) if you walked into a workshop, and there was no one you could see, and there were paints and paintbrushes lying around and there was a beautiful painting sitting on an easel you’d say to yourself there’s a painter around here somewhere. You wouldn’t say to yourself wow, all the paints in here must have exploded and created this beautiful painting. I don’t know why but that always stuck with me.
 
I must admit you have more patience than me;)

But I would say something like there are 2 options. Either someone created the universe or it came about out of thin air. The Catholic Church is for people who believe it was created by a someone call God and Jesus is his son. As you get older, you wave more freedom to explore different options. One of the gifts God has given me is the gift of faith and any exploring I have done has always led me back to the teachings of the Catholic church

Angie
 
I just though of something else. Tell them, if you pray to God to reveal Himself, you will see His presence
 
If you guys are interested there is a really good book called “Jesus Among Other God’s (Youth Adition)” By Ravi Zacharias, which I believe is fantastic, especially for teenagers, but most importantly, I believe it’s a conversion of the heart that needs to take place and thus why ultimately I believe the Gospels to be the most powerful, so I would suggest providing them with a New Testament book.

The thing that made the most difference for me, was when I finnished High School they gave me a ‘New Testament and Psalms (Contemporary English version)’ and that book alone has been of immense value to me.

It is said that the Gospel hits us hard, and it has to be so, because it is the Word cast onto the world by God. And it is because Jesus possessed a profound vision of that reality, that even in our times, the Word gives His own validity to the past in order to integrate it into our today, and opens at the same time, a great gateway of hope towards tomorrow.

The Gospel is not always fully clear to man; it is rather like a small crystal that, in the manner of a kaleidoscope, being observed in different life moments, causes each of its different angles to emit a different light.

The Gospels I believe are of immense value, I never tire of reading them.
EmeraldOak said:
👍 Great point.

I would also point them to nature and its beauty and wonder. If they are being taught the big bang theory at school, then force them to think about okay, where did the speck that exploded come from? I also heard a preacher say once (I’m paraphrasing here) if you walked into a workshop, and there was no one you could see, and there were paints and paintbrushes lying around and there was a beautiful painting sitting on an easel you’d say to yourself there’s a painter around here somewhere. You wouldn’t say to yourself wow, all the paints in here must have exploded and created this beautiful painting. I don’t know why but that always stuck with me.
Click to expand...
haha, yea, I like Ravi’s one, which is the analogy that the dictrionary came about by an explosion in a printing press. Peter Kreeft’s is good too 🙂

Someone once said that if you sat a million monkeys at a million typewriters for a million years, one of them would eventually type out all of Hamlet by chance. But when we find the text of Hamlet, we don’t wonder whether it came from chance and monkeys. Why then does the atheist use that incredibly improbable explanation for the universe? Clearly, because it is his only chance of remaining an atheist. At this point we need a psychological explanation of the atheist rather than a logical explanation of the universe. - Peter Kreeft

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
Anglewannabe said:
I must admit you have more patience than me;)

But I would say something like there are 2 options. Either someone created the universe or it came about out of thin air. The Catholic Church is for people who believe it was created by a someone call God and Jesus is his son. As you get older, you wave more freedom to explore different options. One of the gifts God has given me is the gift of faith and any exploring I have done has always led me back to the teachings of the Catholic church

Angie
Click to expand...
I would also like to share with you this short story for the existance of God when it comes to the reality of evil, as it’s good I believe for the age group your dealing with.
Barber story for the existance of God:
Does God exist?

A man went to a barber shop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects.

When they eventually touched on the subject of a God, the barber said:
“I don’t believe that God exists.”

Why do you say that?" asked the customer.

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who allow all of these things”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he did not want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with dirty long hair and an untrimmed beard.

The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say that?” asked the barber. “I am here, and I am a barber, and I just worked on you”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!” - affirmed the customer “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist!
what happens, is people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him, That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”
Click to expand...
I like this argument from John Lennox also, but it might be a bit hard for some people to get their heads around -

“Atheism tells us that the human mind is the human brain and it’s the end product of a mindless unguided process, why should I believe anything it tells me if that’s the case?”

This is it in slightly more detail, but I wouldn’t say it’s ‘kids’ version lol

*I believe in God because I believe there is evidence for God, for example, in the very fact that we can do science, we believe that the universe is rationally intelligable. Why does a scientist believe it is rationally intelligable? Atheism tells us that the human mind is the human brain and it’s the end product of a mindless unguided process, why should I believe anything it tells me if thats the case? Whereas theism tells me that there is intelligence behind the universe and behind the human mind which fits perfectly with science. So part of the evidence for God would be the fact that we can do science.

Infact the rise of science in the 16th and 17th century came about because people expected law in nature, because they believed in the Law giver (God). So science and faith in God fit perfectly together.*

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
josh987654321 said:
I like this argument from John Lennox also, but it might be a bit hard for some people to get their heads around -

“Atheism tells us that the human mind is the human brain and it’s the end product of a mindless unguided process, why should I believe anything it tells me if that’s the case?”

This is it in slightly more detail, but I wouldn’t say it’s ‘kids’ version lol

*I believe in God because I believe there is evidence for God, for example, in the very fact that we can do science, we believe that the universe is rationally intelligable. Why does a scientist believe it is rationally intelligable? Atheism tells us that the human mind is the human brain and it’s the end product of a mindless unguided process, why should I believe anything it tells me if thats the case? Whereas theism tells me that there is intelligence behind the universe and behind the human mind which fits perfectly with science. So part of the evidence for God would be the fact that we can do science.

Infact the rise of science in the 16th and 17th century came about because people expected law in nature, because they believed in the Law giver (God). So science and faith in God fit perfectly together.*

Thank you for reading
Josh
Click to expand...
This quote by C.S. Lewis might help to explain the argument John Lennox is making a bit easier.

“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.” - C.S. Lewis

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
When you feel this heat inside your heart when you pray or great love after confession or going to communion, you know without a doubt that you aren’t alone and God is with you.

Scientifically, nobody can reproduce a seed. Nobody. They can combine things, modify them genetically but they cannot start from scratch and do it.

Anyway, faith is a gift from God. When Jesus walked among us, they saw him with their human eyes, now we see him with our eyes of faith.

If you research you will see also miracles with the Eucharist turning into blood and even flesh.

Good luck with your project!
 
I don’t like these searches for “proof” of the Divine.

God speaks to us in the heart and desires a faith not of works.
 
the Issue: In one grade 6 class, a couple of boys kept asking things like “How do we know God is real?” and “How do we even know Jesus existed?”

Hmm, proof.

If you were speaking in a science class, these questions would seem much more relevant, than in a classroom of Christian youth.

Faith is the real answer.
A person cannot prove the existence of God.
This is the WHOLE point of Faith.
The human mind is a wonderful thing.
And, through Faith, our minds can create the existence of God, and Jesus Christ (and even the Holy Spirit).

I have taught this Issue to kids in the context of things they can understand about “regular” life.
This includes a talk about having an “invisible friend” …
Since many kids have had an invisible friend, this makes the Jump easier to having another invisible friend, whose name is Jesus the Christ.
 
Ask them how they know that George Washington, Julius Caeser, or any other person from history existed. The answer is that other people said so, and we look at other people who were not members of their group to see if they are telling the truth. For example, Americans in the 1770’s and 1780’s speak of George Washington. We then look to England, and find that English people from the same time period speak of the Revolution and George Washington, so we can conclude that he was real. There are non-Christian’s from the time of the early Church who verify that Christ was real. Also, all of the Apostles, with the exceptions of Judas and John the Beloved, were killed for their faith in Christ. And it wasn’t a quick painless death, Bartholomew was skinned alive when he refused to renounce Christ. Their willingness to suffer horrific deaths for Christ prove that He was real and that they believed His teachings - they believed that He was and is God.🙂

A good way to show them that God is real is to explain some of the complexities of the universe that show that the material world could not have happened by accident. Also, there are only three possible explanations for the existence of the universe: it has existed for all time (it is God), it made itself (not possible), or someone made it (it was created).

Option 1 is not possible because science shows us that matter, time, and space all had a starting point. Option 2 is not possible because something that is not there cannot make itself be there. Option 3 is possible because it makes sense that something that had a beginning, and could not make itself, must have been made by something else. The fact that time, matter and space had a beginning, means that God must be spaceless, timeless, and immaterial. It is the only logical conclusion.

Check out this video by Sean Forrest:
youtube.com/watch?v=GjGvil3z_XI

In response to 4love2God’s comment on faith, I am a little confused about what you mean. :confused: Science, reason, and Faith are not at odds with each other. We can use science to point to the need for a Creator, and use logic to come to the conclusion that a Creator is necessary. We can come to the conclusion that God/Jesus is trustworthy. This enables us to make the leap from understanding something in its entirety to Faith - trusting in God even though we don’t fully understand Him.

Mankind does not create the existence of God. If God doesn’t exist unless we are thinking of him, then before we were created, we wouldn’t be there to think of Him and that means that He wouldn’t be there to create us! In fact it is the other way around. God created us, and He keeps us in existence by constantly thinking of us and remembering us. God doesn’t make mistakes, what He makes He cannot unmake.

Hope this helps! God bless you, PietroPaolo, in the work that you do!👍
 
I meant to say God bless you jlr247! But God bless you to PietroPaolo! Thank you both for your work helping young Catholics to grow in their relationship with Christ! :extrahappy:
 
4love2God said:
Faith is the real answer.
A person cannot prove the existence of God.
This is the WHOLE point of Faith.
The human mind is a wonderful thing.
And, through Faith, our minds can create the existence of God, and Jesus Christ (and even the Holy Spirit).
Click to expand...
:confused:

It’s not blind faith. If someone taught me like this, it would serve to drive me away from Christ and not to him.

I believe you are right that a person cannot conclusively prove God, there is very little that people can prove, infact I can introduce doubt into anything and everything by calling my senses delusional (like the move ‘The Matrix’). Our Faith in God and his son Jesus Christ is evidence based, it is not blind faith.

C.S. Lewis explains ‘faith’ really well in “Mere Christianity”

Our Christian faith is like my fear of heights, I may be strapped down tightly in a Ski Lift, there may be no incidences in history where anyone has ever fallen from this Ski Lift, my reason tells me that this Ski Lift is safe, but that doesn’t stop my heart from racing and assuming the worst when we start to climb high off the ground. This is where my faith in Ski Lifts would come into it, because I should remind myself that I have good reason to trust the Ski Lift.

Also I take exception to your statement “our minds can create the existence of God, and Jesus Christ (and even the Holy Spirit)” Jesus exists external to the minds of those who believe in him, he is real, a reality for believers and non believers. I believe the discussion should always be focused on whether it’s true or not.
4love2God said:
I have taught this Issue to kids in the context of things they can understand about “regular” life.
This includes a talk about having an “invisible friend” …
Click to expand...
I hope you taught them that Jesus isn’t an “invisible friend” as invisible friends are not real and Jesus is absolutely real. There is a great deal of evidence for him.
4love2God said:
Since many kids have had an invisible friend, this makes the Jump easier to having another invisible friend, whose name is Jesus the Christ.
Click to expand...
If you teach kids that belief in Jesus is alot like Santa Clause than it’s no surprise that people like Richard Dawkins and others file it away under “fairytales/make believe stories” along with Santa Clause and Jack in the Bean Stalk when they get older.

4love2God, I would encourage you to read C.S. Lewis’ book ‘Mere Christianity’ and the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John if you have not already done so, St. John realises that we need evidence, that’s why he writes at the end of his Gospel, that “Jesus did many other things, but these things are writen so that you may believe.” If you don’t have good reason for your belief, than that is like building a skyscraper on shaky ground, the moment a gust of wind comes along, the whole thing will come crashing down.

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
4love2God said:
the Issue: In one grade 6 class, a couple of boys kept asking things like “How do we know God is real?” and “How do we even know Jesus existed?”

Hmm, proof.

If you were speaking in a science class, these questions would seem much more relevant, than in a classroom of Christian youth.

Faith is the real answer.
A person cannot prove the existence of God.
This is the WHOLE point of Faith.
The human mind is a wonderful thing.
And, through Faith, our minds can create the existence of God, and Jesus Christ (and even the Holy Spirit).

I have taught this Issue to kids in the context of things they can understand about “regular” life.
This includes a talk about having an “invisible friend” …
Since many kids have had an invisible friend, this makes the Jump easier to having another invisible friend, whose name is Jesus the Christ.
Click to expand...
Yes and no.

Yes on faith: I heard someone say recently that faith leads to understanding and not the other way around, and he was really right. His way of putting it was this: When St. Peter made his profession that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus did not say, “Good for you, Peter! You are the most clever of this lot! Only a smart guy like you would have picked up on that and put the evidence together so quickly!” No, he said this: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.” Matt. 16:17.

No-- on our minds creating the existence of God. The gods we create in our minds are one of the great barriers to the spiritual life. These are self-comforting, but ultimately they are lies, as some imaginary friends are, too. (I suppose some kids have hallucinations or actually talk to real spirits or who knows what…attacking imaginary friends is not my point, except to say that Our Lord is NOT an imaginary friend!!) An imaginary friend has no power to save, an imaginary friend did not create the Universe, an imaginary friend cannot still the storm with a word, and an imaginary friend is not going to judge all humankind at the end of time.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top