Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
*crickets* Any suggestions? Obviously I can't get too deep with her. She has no concept of God.
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My 6 yr old just asked me what is religion?
- Thread starter Days like these...
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bender
What time is it?
Watch this with her.
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"Futurama" Godfellas (TV Episode 2002) ⭐ 8.8 | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
23m | TV-14
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Rockondevil
Member
My kid goes to a catholic school and my wife and I just nod and smile when he talks about religion.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Maestr0
Member
FIFY, it's nothing more than popular sectarism
NecrosaroIII
Ultimate DQ Fan
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
I would probably add a a system of rules based around a group of beliefs.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
My dad handled it pretty well when I was young. He explained that people from the beginning of civilization tried to explain things they didn't understand. First they worshipped fire. Then they worshipped the sun. Some people worshipped animals, or the weather, or the seasons. Eventually, people get more knowledgeable and grow out of it as they learn how things actually work. That's a good starter base that's not really insulting to anyone to start out with. I think I was a bit older than 6 though.
Trogdor1123
Member
When I was young was very young, 3-5 years old, I asked my mother to baptise me. We were not practicing Christian’s at all but To this day, I remember it. It matter to me and I thank my mom for it. She completed the ritual and I’m so glad she did.
Religion is the same. It is a group of people getting together that share a similar, but different, view of the afterlife and how we should live moral lives.
Religion is the same. It is a group of people getting together that share a similar, but different, view of the afterlife and how we should live moral lives.
FatallyYours
Member
At around 6 years old Jesus shouted at a couple of dragons that ran out of a cave to attack him, and told them not to attack humans ever again
Not been a single recorded death by dragon since
Was the same journey I think that he mind controlled a lion from the desert to bring him water and food. Praise baby Jebus!
Also, religion is a bunch of nonsense stories from thousands of years ago, written down hundreds of years after the fact, rewritten, translated poorly, interpreted and revised hundreds of times and fought over by idiots about who's invisible bearded friend in the sky is the biggest bastard
If God is unable to prevent evil, then he is not all-powerful. So why follow his religion?
If God is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not all-good. So why follow a cunt?
If God is both willing and able to prevent evil, then why does evil exist? Because he is a cunt
Why would you want to follow and believe in any cunts rambling from 2000 years ago?
Tell your child to belive in Batman or pokemon instead
Not been a single recorded death by dragon since
Was the same journey I think that he mind controlled a lion from the desert to bring him water and food. Praise baby Jebus!
Also, religion is a bunch of nonsense stories from thousands of years ago, written down hundreds of years after the fact, rewritten, translated poorly, interpreted and revised hundreds of times and fought over by idiots about who's invisible bearded friend in the sky is the biggest bastard
If God is unable to prevent evil, then he is not all-powerful. So why follow his religion?
If God is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not all-good. So why follow a cunt?
If God is both willing and able to prevent evil, then why does evil exist? Because he is a cunt
Why would you want to follow and believe in any cunts rambling from 2000 years ago?
Tell your child to belive in Batman or pokemon instead
TheAtomicPile
Member
Turn it around on the kid and ask them what *they* think religion is.
By doing so, I was able to learn from my kid that Jesus lives on the moon and that God would "probably" lose a fight with Santa Claus.
By doing so, I was able to learn from my kid that Jesus lives on the moon and that God would "probably" lose a fight with Santa Claus.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
A miserable little pile of secrets
StylishMGTOW
Member
I have nothing to pitch in except that she's a lucky girl. Getting out of the mindset of being in a religion was especially difficult for me as I had no support through it (edit: not true, I had YouTube... which, I guess, was good enough ='( lol), because people around me were all religious. It has had lasting effects in how I think (not a good thing). Do I think it's a good thing? It gives people hope and a crutch on life. Personally, it made me feel insulated and protected from the outside world, which I kind of miss. Would I go back to it? I'm not sure. The alternative (atheism) isn't really doing itself any favours.
On topic though, I can only imagine how difficult it might be to explain this to your child without insulting others who do believe in religion.
On topic though, I can only imagine how difficult it might be to explain this to your child without insulting others who do believe in religion.
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Kenneth Haight
Gold Member
Tell her that someone invisible is always watching her every move and thought and judging it. And when she dies she’ll either go somewhere really nice or really awful, so she better tidy her toys up and listen or else.
or don’t do this and just tell her to be a good person
Banjo64
cumsessed
Shame to see so many edge lord comments in here.
Christian values and law and order remain the two pillars of a civilised UK. Whether you have belief or not, the alternate that we are gradually being exposed to is an absolute nightmare culturally and safety-wise.
I’m glad my son, who’s younger than OP’s daughter, goes to a Church of England school.
Christian values and law and order remain the two pillars of a civilised UK. Whether you have belief or not, the alternate that we are gradually being exposed to is an absolute nightmare culturally and safety-wise.
I’m glad my son, who’s younger than OP’s daughter, goes to a Church of England school.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
I didn't need that shit, that's for sure. I got a great moral upbringing from a South Korean teaching a traditional Tae Kwon Do class we all went to as a kid. That's really all it takes. Discipline, self-control, respect, learning that you're supposed to protect and not hurt others. It's not that complicated. Didn't take any religion.
Banjo64
cumsessed
Some Eastern nations clearly have it figured out. Do the US and UK? We have built our civilisation upon this, you can’t just remove the very essence of what we are without severe negative impact.
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Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
I think it's ultimately up to the families to figure out something. I guess my main point was that virtually any kind of moral instruction really gets the job down, secular or not. A lot of people are just devoid of any discussion of morality at all. This class I was in was run like a traditional, disciplined class. They stood all the kids up and went through lessons of what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to conduct yourself. Combining that with an outlet for physical activity (while also demanding extreme self-control) is just a great combo.
Anyway, there's an infinite amount of ways to reach that same goal, as proven by every culture around the world. People just have to pick one and do something.
TheGreatMusashi
Member
Take him to see Longlegs, explains it well enough
March Climber
Member
This is implying that the removal of said system would suddenly cause the exact opposite behavior, when instead it’s entirely possible that there are more factors at play than ‘this bad stuff happened because no religion’.
DJ12
Member
here's what copilot has to say on the issue of explaining religon to a 4 year old:
Certainly! Religion is a set of beliefs that people passionately hold. It shapes their views about how they should behave. Some religions involve gods, while others don’t. People have followed different religions for thousands of years, and some religions have been around for a long time, while others are more recent12. It’s like a colorful tapestry of ideas and practices that people use to understand the world and find meaning in their lives.
Majima Everywhere System
Member
I would just explain it in a nice way. If you make it off limits, she will want if. If you trash it and she brings that edge to school, maybe it makes her weird. If she wants to learn more, go to church a couple times. That surely would end it.
It’s a lot cheaper than a pony and there are people in churches that will help in life. Some are bizarro religious folks, but the goal of religion is better than where society is heading. Keep an open mind like her.
It’s a lot cheaper than a pony and there are people in churches that will help in life. Some are bizarro religious folks, but the goal of religion is better than where society is heading. Keep an open mind like her.
Embearded
Member
We are expecting our first and as an agnostic atheist and secular mystelf, raised in an Orthodox family just like my wife, i am skeptical on how to handle it without making our families look like the fools they really are.
I will surely make it clear that religion is false hope. That there is no proven existence of God and that experimental data is what truely matters and the burden of proof relies on those who claim God exists.
Pretty heavy stuff for a 6 year old, so i would accompany it with an ice cream.
I will surely make it clear that religion is false hope. That there is no proven existence of God and that experimental data is what truely matters and the burden of proof relies on those who claim God exists.
Pretty heavy stuff for a 6 year old, so i would accompany it with an ice cream.
RJMacready73
Simps for Amouranth
I simply explained it as there is no god, never had been, we humans like to make up stories to explain shit we couldn't understand or comprehend and throughout the ages differing gods came and went, now we have science and understanding that pretty much explains everything for those of us with intelligence, all the other idiot humans on the planet still need a God to explain the shit we now know.
Both my kids are now teen atheists and view adults believing in God as dumb as adults believing in Santa Clause, therefore I have done my small part in the eradication of this mental disease called religion.
Although you will have a blip when they realise death is absolute and the thoughts of a God and afterlife really do fucking appeal to kids mind, hell if I lost my kids I'd want there to be an afterlife so I do envy the nutters that part
Both my kids are now teen atheists and view adults believing in God as dumb as adults believing in Santa Clause, therefore I have done my small part in the eradication of this mental disease called religion.
Although you will have a blip when they realise death is absolute and the thoughts of a God and afterlife really do fucking appeal to kids mind, hell if I lost my kids I'd want there to be an afterlife so I do envy the nutters that part
Dr. Suchong
Gold Member
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
*Nightwing
Banned
Theology: It’s the antithesis to the existing hubris that humanity knows everything
Organized religion: peer pressure compliant control
Organized religion: peer pressure compliant control
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The Cockatrice
Member
Let her watch The First Omen and you will be safe from her ever talking about religion.
xrnzaaas
Member
Questions about religion are easier to explain, it's much worse to describe what happened when the kid has to go through the first death in the family. From my experience pretty much everyone try to explain that this person went to heaven, even if they're atheists. I guess it's better than to freak out the kid with "they're gone forever".
Werewolf Jones
Member
Could've just said it's a club. lmao.
TheInfamousKira
Reseterror Resettler
I finally remembered where my Marilyn Manson Hot Topic tee went, thanks.
Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
Simmer down there little buddy. I'm not even an atheist or agnostic much less a militant one. She has no concept of God or religion. She knows what a fairy is from Vidya games though she just turned 6
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poodaddy
Member
This is such a lazy, gross way to handle parenting and it's largely to blame for how many kids these days "raise themselves" and why my daughter's classmates in school are yelling porn references at 12 years old. I know you're just joking so I'm not necessarily directing it at you, but a lot of parents legitimately handle childrearing like this and it's horribly depressing to see what it does to kids.
On topic: So every parent approaches this in their own way OP, and there's no real right or wrong answer. A lot of how you handle this depends on whether you're religious or not. I can tell you what I told my daughter, who is a wonderfully accepting girl, very kind and empathetic, but I should mention I'm not religious. She asked me that and I told her that religion was a structured belief system generally inspired by a notable mythology that one adopts as a sort of set of rules to guide many aspects of their life and morality. She then asked me why I don't have a religion and I told her it's because I couldn't convince myself that any one mythology was anymore convincing than the other, and that I've never really needed to believe that there was an existential figure watching me to get me to be decent to my fellow man and try to be a good human being, but some people genuinely need religion to be a good person and that it's completely fine for them. I also informed her that if she ever wanted to adopt a religion she would have my full support and I'd take her to whatever services or observations are part of the religion. She never did adopt a religion, but she regularly reads and watches educational videos on various mythologies, as she finds them fascinating. She might very well be a theologist one day, I don't know, I mean she's really into the stuff, and I think that approaching the topic without a bias or putting down religion or religious people really helped her to see it from a purely academic eye, or at least I hope that's the case.
Anyway, that's my experience with this question. I've already been asked all the "big" questions by my 12 year old, as she's a curious one, and I don't know that I answered them "correctly", but I know I was honest with her and respected her intelligence every time, as I wish my parents would have done for me.
TheDreadBaron
Member
You could take her to a real long boring church service, tell her this is religion. Don't expect she'll be so curious after that.
Mistake
Member
If it helps any op, I second going to a few church services just for the experience. After 6 years old you can show them different cultures or aspects of life. Hell, I was taken to a nude art exhibit once when I was little. Sure I was confused at the time, but I'd say it was positive. Some things you appreciate more when you get older
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Jack Videogames
Member
Since people exist they have been drawn to the idea of being able to make good things happen by casting spells or singing or dancing or making art. They did this to talk to the sun and the clouds. Now we know this is probably not possible, but they really believed it.
People also like being with other people that think like them. So they began forming groups around who had the best magic to make good things happen. These are religions.
Yes I believe that you should introduce your five year old to magical thinking and basic anthropology. Can't be worse than going "IF YOU DON'T PRAY GOD WILL SMITE YOU!" OR"I LAUGH AT YOUR SILLY CULTS YOU UNEVOLVED MORTALS!"
People also like being with other people that think like them. So they began forming groups around who had the best magic to make good things happen. These are religions.
Yes I believe that you should introduce your five year old to magical thinking and basic anthropology. Can't be worse than going "IF YOU DON'T PRAY GOD WILL SMITE YOU!" OR"I LAUGH AT YOUR SILLY CULTS YOU UNEVOLVED MORTALS!"