My 6 year old is an atheist

[Meshuga]

I went to pick him up today from his Jewish religious school and we were standing outside with some of the kids enjoying the beautiful day while waiting for some more parents to arrive.

So one of the older kids decided to tell us a Jewish joke he heard in a movie:

"There's a priest, a minister, and a rabbi. They're out playing golf. They're deciding how much to give to charity. The priest says 'We'll draw a circle on the ground, throw the money in the air, and whatever lands inside the circle, we'll give to charity.' The minister says 'No, we'll draw a circle on the ground, throw the money in the air, and whatever lands outside of the circle, that's what we'll give to charity.' The rabbi says 'No no no.' We'll throw the money way up in the air, and whatever God wants, he keeps!"

So my son promptly responded, "That's because God doesn't exist."

Some other kid responded, "Well no, he is everywhere. Look! He is up your nose!" so they all laughed. Then some other kid said, "Yeah, he is everywhere. Look! I can pick him up!" while lifting air above his head. And another kid went as far as kicking the air and claiming he was kicking God's butt.

I have never talked about God/theology with my son but I can see that no one can fool kids with biblical myths. Kids are pretty good accepting fantasy but know how to differentiate it from reality. At least for the most part.

There is a story about a little girl who wanted to stay up during the holiday of Shavuot to see God up in the sky at midnight. The parents said she had to go to bed, but tried to compromise by saying that she was too young to stay up all night but could stay up when she turned ten. The little girl refused saying it would be too late since she wouldn't believe it anymore by the age of ten. I don't know now if this is an actual true story about a Rabbi's daughter that was told during a service or just a traditional story that is fictional. But the point is that kids are pretty good at differentiating fantasy from reality.

[rd_kent]

1. We are ALL born atheists...Its our parents that brainwash us with this nonsense.

I am glad your child is so smart so early and that you are not trying to indoctrinate him. My daughter is being brought up the same way.....

[NotGivingUp]

2. Good for him! He knows how to use his brain and think critically and logically. eom

[peace13]

3. Sweet story. You gotta love it!

When my son took his mandatory college religion class the first thing they had to do was write an essay to read to the class. We were a little nervous because he had no structured religious education. When asked how the essay reading went his reply was, 'OK...I was the only one who didn't have the bible stuffed up my *ss though!' We learn the neatest things from kids!

[Odin2005]

4. LOL, that sounds like me at that age. Just replace Judaism with Lutheran Christianity.

[stopchildabuse]

5. this is a good story

It is interesting to see how children think.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Congratulations!

:applause:

[DeSwiss]

7. I Love It!

Thank you for sharing that. It was simply a wonderful story. And I just love when kids tell jokes and I think we adults should encourage them to do it more. Maybe that way when they're adults, they'll want to laugh with each other rather than kill each other.

- It's worth a shot. We've tried just about everything else.....

K&R

THIS THREAD HAS EARNED


on edit: (still woozy from the flu and can't spelelel right)