Religious education

My mother-in-law became aware that she had neglected her son (my husband)'s religious education, when, on visiting a church for some occasion one day with her little boy, he looked up at the imagery of Jesus on the cross and said loudly in a horrified voice, 'Mummy, what are they doing to that poor man?!'

The other day, we realised that we were going down the same road and were well on the way to a similar incident of our own if we didn't do something about it.

This is particularly shameful for two reasons. First, because my husband is an R.E. teacher, and second, because both children have been christened. We loosely call ourselves Christians, and it was very important - especially to me - to have the children baptised. I don't go to church regularly because, being brought up a nice grim Presbyterian, the fancy C of E services round here don't sit comfortably with me. Also, due to my husband's job, Sunday is our only day together and I reckon God is ok about us just spending it as a family (this is why I say 'loosely' - kind of make up my own rules).

Having made the commitment to have them christened, though, we did decide that the children should at least have some knowledge of Christian beliefs. Unfortunately, discussing theology with a three year old quickly unravelled beyond my ability.

Me: Arran, do you know who made the world?

Arran: (making his 'you are crazy' face) Nobody!

Me: No, somebody did. God made the world. In seven days.

Arran: (making his 'God is crazy' face) Seven! That's a long time.

Me: Mmmmh he made all the people and the animals and all the plants.

Arran: And what else?

Me: He made the, erm, fish and the planets and the... sea and the grass and the food and cars (oops) and ... everything.

Arran: Oh. And who made God then?

Me: .......

Arran: Mummy, who made God?

Me: Nobody made him. He was just always there.

Arran: No, but if he made all the things, who made him?

Me: Oh look, it's not raining anymore! Let's go out on the bikes!

Arran: Yay!

Comments

[Claire]

But who did create God? Based on the causation argument, everything needs to have a first cause, and the first cause of everything could only be God ... But if everything needs a first cause, surely God needs a first cause too? This is the argument that I find the most difficult to accept, it disproves itself! Arran and I can have some fantastic theological debates in a few weeks, Roisin would probably claim that Disney made the world! ;-) I'm going to be a nightmare with the religious stuff with her, I'll be getting her to examine the historical context of creation myths and the link to scientific theories... The joys of being a confused agnostic R.E teacher!

[Caroline]

We've had similar thoughts about our children but want our education to be more multi-religious education. Although we both know much more about the Christian faith. We've had some gems from N, most recently 'God made the world with words because he eats magic.' And we had had some friends around a couple of weekends ago and went into his room and called out 'Who wants to read the Bible with me?' He also thinks the animals who didn't make the Ark are just 'swimming'... I think that's the one that's going to get him when he discovers the truth!