Well, this says a lot more about your own mental state and your ability to handle children than it says about anything else.
Hey, don’t be so hard on me! You don’t know anything about my mental state although you attempt to psychologize about it and my ability working with children. You have ABSOLUTELY no idea. However, I’m not going to get into personal stuff. My point was the same point made similarly by St. Augustine. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord.” In other words, God calls us to Himself, in many ways, especially in the “whisper” in our hearts/souls/intellects. We may not respond consciously at first, but there is a longing. It’s built in. Why are you on CAF? Are you searching for something beyond the beyond? Are you here to “convert” Catholics and other Christians? To what? To nothingness? For that is what atheism is, how atheists prefer to think of their “religion” or lack thereof.
What you should do is show kids a picture from a time when they weren’t born, and you say, “Look – here was a time when you didn’t exist yet.” And then you explain that just as there was a time when they didn’t exist yet, there will one day again be a time when they don’t exist.
Thanks for the educational lesson. “Show kids a picture from a time when weren’t born.” How about a sonogram? Anyhow, the fact that they DO exist at a particular time in God’s plan, why would they cease to exist? There is that part of us that is God-ness (for lack of a better word–calling all theologians!). It’s true for believers and nonbelievers, or we wouldn’t be able to exist. Yes, God keeps us in existence. He’s reaching out to us whether we like it or not, and whether we even realize it or not.
See that? Not so scary or sad. It’s the way of things. You didn’t exist for billions and billions of years, and after your death, you’ll go right back to not existing. You happen to be alive for a little while, and you owe it to yourself to make the best of this time.
Sure, I’ll make the best of this time because
I have good reason to! God sees all. He will judge all. But this is the time of Mercy. Use it to your benefit.
But then you tell them that even though people go away, they leave behind all the nice things they’ve done and all that they’ve accomplished for other people to enjoy. And when a grandparent dies, you show them all the pictures and stories and legacy of that person, and you try to convey the message that even though we’ll miss the person in question, there’s really no reason to be depressed about it.
I agree with all you said in that paragraph. Christians have no reason to be depressed about the passing of another Christian into eternal life, yet, of course, we miss that person and grieve. But in the way St. Paul reminds us that we don’t despair since we will see each other again. So . . . the Christian has hope, REAL HOPE and much to look forward to.
So you changed your mind because the truth wasn’t acceptable to children, and you kept thinking about it until you came up with an answer that would delight their little childhood imaginations?
Uhhh . . . there’s a LOT more to the story. My children were a catalyst, you might say, that speeded up my conversion story, but they were not the first chapter to the story. Once I wrote my conversion story on CAF some time ago. Btw, do I detect a slight mockery in your tone? Tsk, tsk.
What a glimpse into the religious mind.
I don’t think that this is the proper way to approach the truth or falsehood of claims.
You’re lacking in something. Go figure.
