In my on-going research on science for young children I ran into this:
Children are naturally equipped to learn through observation and investigations. Every experience, every word, every toy deeply impacts her understanding of her world and the connections she makes. Every time a child learns something new, the brain rewires itself based on the child’s understanding. Every time the child repeats a task or a skill that particular neural pathway is reinforced and strengthened. “Learning changes the brain because it can rewire itself with each new stimulation, experience, and behavior” (Jensen, p. 13). (From Early Childhood News)
If you let a child continue to explore the natural world and help them along the way they would NEVER 'discover' god. There is no set of observations that would naturally lead one to conclude, "God did it". The only reason anyone has a belief in any god is because when they were very young a grown-up that they trusted told them about God. At a young age they are not equipped to challenge and moreover are wired to trust the adults.
God is only part of our cultural landscape because we keep re-telling the same old stories. God is NOT part of our natural discoverable world.
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2 comments:
totally agree...but i am sure there are cases where people were raised as atheists and became religious later in life.
So I would disagree that every single person that believes in God does so because their caregiver told them to.
I think you're probably right but I just can't figure anyone looking around and testing this world and deciding that there must be some magic. Perhaps it's the 'promise' of life after death that seduces some. I'd like to think this is a really small group though.
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