How do you explain religion to kids?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Speaking as a Catholic who actually does teach religion classes for kids…

My answers vary according to how old the child is, and what I know of the child’s family. As a rule, I think any child old enough to ask questions is old enough to hear a straightforward, accurate and honest answer. If asked, I’ll try to explain the basics of what Catholicism teaches on any subject, to almost any child who wants to know.

Now, if the child was one of my son’s non-Catholic friends, my inclination would be to say, “I’d be happy to tell you, but maybe you should ask your Mom or Dad first.”

In my opinion, it’s not my place to proselytize for children, ESPECIALLY not behind their parents’ backs.

22

You do some research together and let them get their own opinion on “religion” it cant be explained by just one persons opinion. There are so many different ones. Each claiming to be the “right one” “best one”. Best to look it up!

23

I don’t have kids, but I have had and have overheard some conversations with my nephews and niece about God and religion. In the case of my eldest nephew, he was raised going to church regularly, and he had the sort of opposite problem that the OP had, where when it came up that people believed something other than what he’d been raised believing, he was baffled that people DIDN’T believe in God, or had different ideas or opinions about the nature of God.

Children, especially at young ages, I think have difficulty understanding that people might think differently than they do (theory of mind and all that), and moreso, I think it takes an even older age before kids are able to understand that some topics don’t necessarily have a right answer, like religion and politics and all of that.

Speaking for myself, though, despite that I was raised Anglican, I never saw God as a Super-Santa, though I do gather that a lot of kids do. Hell, even Santa wasn’t really Santa, but Santa was spoiled for me when I was four or five and I found the gifts by accident, so I don’t even have much of a recollection of believing in Santa.

So, really, I think one of the best things to do is to not send inconsistent messages, and I think it’s exactly something like Santa that does. If you’re religious and raise your kids believing in Santa, when they finally come to realize he doesn’t exist, that could very well undermine their religious upbringing. And on the opposite side, if you aren’t, why would they believe you when you say religion is just myth, but then you fed them stuff like Santa and the Easter Bunny as though they should believe it.

Ultimately, I think the best way to approach it is to avoid cynicism in either direction, and rather than trying to imprint what I may or may not believe about the topic, instead, trying to figure out the motivation behind the question. For example, I remember my nephew asking about someone that looked different, if I recall correctly he was a Sikh, and so naturally arose the question about what that is and all. He wasn’t interested in learning about my opinion on that religious belief, he just wanted to understand why he looked different.

So, I’d say the answer to “What is God?” or “What is church?” or whatever should really depend on the context of the question. Admittedly, I’ve only had to deal with these sorts of questions a few times, since I’m just an uncle and not a parent, but I have felt like when getting on more heady subjects like that, a little bit of effort into figuring out what they’re really asking helped a lot.

24

Lots of kids have imaginary friends, seems as good a place to start as any to me.

25

BTW a ‘church’ is a community of people, not a place or building.

Your Q’s are unrelated, what is religion and what is God.

Religion is the set of man made rules,laws and regulations that are meant to simulate God with the person’s lack of knowing God in one’s life.

God is Love, every time every where, no exception, & nothing else.

26

That sure doesn’t seem to describe the God in the Old Testament.

27

My parents showed me the big Time-Life coffee-table book, “The World’s Great Religions.” Naturally, it led me to more questions than answers…but it was a very good introduction to the overall notion.

28

For the record, I’m religious, and I would also preface my statements with “some people believe” or the like. I don’t for a moment think I have all the answers, and it’s almost certain that some of my notions are wrong. The catch is just that I don’t know which ones.

29

I’m a believer and (as mentioned) did the “some people believe” line.

30

Of course, not all religious people are Christians or Jews.

31

Funny, my kids never asked and my wife and I never volunteered anything. I imagine that between their classmates and their reading they sorted it out. None of them show any interest in religion, although one of their spouses does.

32

My emphasis.
You’re missing the entire point of the OP. jovan lives in Japan, where people don’t have gods. So a 5-year-old has no concept of any god. Shinto is less a religion than a tradition and the Buddhism which most Japanese practice doesn’t really have gods or at least important ones.

A 5-year-old in the States will most likely know that some people believe in “God” with a captial “G.” Then that approach works. **jovan **is asking how to introduce the idea of a god, when he, himself doesn’t belive in one.

Are the kids going to go to a local school? Don’t worry about it, whatever you tell him will be drowned out by the local culture. Since a god isn’t part of your life, it doesn’t really matter.

My kids are six and four now, and it hasn’t come up. We’re in Taiwan now, but my kids went to a Christian preschool/daycare in Japan. My wife knows I’m strongly atheist and was a little surprised that I would agree to send them there, but really, what are they going to absorb? They would pray before meals but that’s meaningless to a four-year-old (which is how old my daughter was when we left.)

If we lived in the States, my mother would try to talk to them about her Mormon God, but I think our example of not being religious would win out.

Santa was spoiled in my family because my older brother and sister started asking questions concerning Santa and Jesus. My uber religious parents quickly said that one was made up and the other real. (If only they had gone the other way. . .)

I disagree that you need to say there is no Santa if you don’t want them to believe in a god. Or really, the other way around. Children are very good at understanding the pretend world and reasons for pretending. In fact, playing pretend is strongly encouraged for raising children.

33

That post was gonna get me banned.

Thus ends the lesson.

34

Both my kids went to nursery school in the Presbyterian church in town - the pastor of which lived across the street from us and was a nice guy. Just having their parents not believe was enough. And singing “God we thank you for our food” in Horsey talk. “Neigh neigh neigh …”

A bit later we went through Genesis and I pointed out the scientific errors and the logical inconsistencies.l But mostly role modeling that religion is unnecessary is enough. They are grown and married now, and still atheists.

One more thing - I never opposed them going with friends to religiously themed activities. Trust worked very well.

35

The God I found in the OT, for example, saved the people of Sodom because God’s daughter (aka Lot’s wife) looked back in loving compassion and was glorified by the parent God to accomplish this. (Pillar = Good, Salt = good).

The God you are seeing is obviously not the same one.

God is Love always. Again it is religion, and it’s teachings, that gets in the way of knowing God.

36

Huh? He didn’t save the people of Sodom, and turning Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt was a punishment for looking back when he’d told her not to. You really are reading a different bible!

37

Open a pit thread!

38

Just to give an example from personal expericne.

I currently teach a “Sunday School” class at my (Catholic) church. I encourage kids to ask me and my co-teacher ANY religious questions they wonder about. I promise them that, when I know the answer, I’ll tell them, that when I don’t know the answer, I will find out, and that when there’s no way of knowing the answer, I’ll say so.

The kids I teach range from 4th to 6th grade. Not yet sophisticated, but old enough and smart enough to have heard about all kinds of other religions and other concepts from school friends or from TV. And old enough to start asking questions about things they used to accept blithely.

I HAVE had kids tell me, “Some people don’t think God is real.” I’ve answered that directly, “Yes, there are. Those people are called atheists.” When they ask why those people don’t believe, I’ve said, “There can be a lot of reasons.” I’ve shown them the account of the first Pentecost in the Bible, and shown them how, when the Apostles first started preaching, most onlookers accused them of being drunk! I’ve acknowledged to the kids, “A lot of the things we teach here at church SOUND pretty crazy, don’t they? A lot of people find them pretty hard to believe.” I’ve also brought up the basics of the Problem of Pain (i.e. it’s sometimes very hard to believe there’s a God who loves us when He allows bad things to happen).

Kids have asked about reincarnation, and I’ve told them the basics. My own son seems to like the idea. Even though I’ve told him that’s not something our Church believes in, he seems to have somewhat embraced the concept. I haven’t seen a need to purge him of that heresy just yet.

Depending where you live, your kids are liable to hear a LOT of ideas you may not approve of. Unless you plan to keep them in a bubble, you have to deal directly, simply and honestly with whatever they ask you.

39

As a general rule, kanicbird’s religious views are idiosyncratic.

40

I don’t have kids, but I was one once.

I’m surprised there aren’t more religious answers. I was taught that it was all real. While not a bible literalist, my father believed it was a generally true account. The only thing my father said about other, non-Christian religions, is that other people may believe different things, but that they are wrong.

My father was not a religious caricature, not a fire-and-brimstone you are all dammed to hell person. He was a good Catholic, and and all around tolerant, easy going person. He taught me a lot about tolerance, and respecting other people’s beliefs. But he worried about their souls, too. They may be wrong, but it was their choice.