Their Resistance Starts Young
My wife is a second grade teacher. The other day, she was teaching a cause and effect lesson to the little ones. You flip the light switch and what happens? They all grasped that example.
But why is there snow on the top of the mountain? They were baffled, and a hush fell over the class. Finally one little boy spoke up. “God put it there.” My wife responded with something along the lines of “That may be true, but we don’t study God in school” and then continued to explain cause (high elevation) and effect (snow doesn’t melt).
The little kid looked at her like she’d run over his puppy.
Amazing isn’t it? Here’s a second grader who deftly asks about a theology of nature. True, the phrase theology of nature won’t be in his vocabulary for many years to come, but he’s hit upon the subject nonetheless. And he’s quite unhappy that his answer — God did it — wasn’t accepted. I can only speculate that it’s an answer that’s worked very well for him in his prior experiences with adults.
I don’t know the little boy, his parents, or the family’s religious background. But it seems that the kid has already learned the false dichotomy. Either God put snow on the mountain, or He didn’t. Explain the snow by other means, and you’re attacking his belief system.
I find it sad but interesting because it seems to parallel the thinking of many adult Christians. They resist natural explanations for natural things because to them, it removes any room for God. (I’ve commented before on the irony that Creationists are in effect agreeing with atheists on this matter).
What would happen if we lived in a world where the little boy learned both at home and in his culture that the two beliefs do not have to be contradictory? That mountains, snow, and high elevation can yield their own secrets, but that one can, if one wishes, believe in a deeper underlying meaning to the world and people around us.
It seems to me that by the time our children added theology of nature to their vocabularies, they would be well on their way to having one.
I think I like that wife of yours. It is easy to explain away things that you know nothing about by attributing it to “God”….or “Allah” for that matter. It harkens back to the days of superstition and ignorance. I wish all kids could have a 2nd grade teacher like your beautiful, smart wife.
I am the mom of a second grade boy who comes up with all kinds of creative answers to his teacher’s questions. He spent his first two years (K and 1st grade) of elementary school in a private school and is now attending public school. I don’t think it would be a huge stretch that God may come up in a few of his answers. You seem to be so ready to lunge at even a very innocent young boy who was probably just feeling a little rejected because he didn’t get an answer his teacher thought was “right” (children are very programmed to please and perform, perhaps the more sad issue).
When you have children, I think that you will look back on your commentary and know that maybe you were looking a little too hard at the words of a 7 or 8 year old boy. Lighten up a little! Hang out with little kids more and maybe you will see that they are not as programmed as you think. Eat lunch with your wife and her class. Talk to the kids and see what they have to say.
BTW, I am a biologist and my husband is a PhD research engineer. We hold many of the same views you do on Creationism, religion and science coexisting, etc. We enjoy reading your blog, but I felt that I had to add a little “second grade mom” perspective.
Liz –
It is indeed too tempting to God as an answer only where our own understanding is absent. I guess my point was that for a believer, God deserves a better place than that. A believer should give Him credit for everything not just that which we’re ignorant of, and in doing so, readily embrace scientific knowledge as complimentary, not contradictory. (Recognizing the limitations of science of course).
als —
First of all, thank you for commenting. I’m flattered to hear that you’ve been reading for a while and enjoying. Please allow me to explain… I think some things may have been lost in communication. The moments for miscommunication were many. The little boy makes his statement –> my wife interprets his verbal and nonverbal communication. She tells me the story –> I have to interpret what she’s telling me. I reconvey the story –> you have to interpret what I mean and what my emphasis is… At each step of the “handoff,” somebody can make a mistake.
My point in the post was not that the little boy’s answer of God was wrong. I would never want to comment on a 2nd grader like I would say a college student, who tried to comment on religious aspects in a “cause and effect” lesson.
I found the conversation extremely interesting because a 2nd grader asked a question that properly answered, involved a theology of nature. That is, how we view God in relation to the seemingly natural, predictable laws that are all around us. It’s a very tricky question — one that I’ve found most Christians unable to answer well, usually because they’ve never considered it. (This is okay, most people aren’t scientists. There are things I’ve never considered and couldn’t answer well I’m sure). In essence, the little boy put my wife in a very difficult situation. (My view — I’m not necessarily sure how she feels). He asked a question in which he made my wife carefully tread a line. She couldn’t really answer the theological implications of his questions, she didn’t want to invalidate his belief in God at all, but she also felt an obligation to teach and point out the utility of cause and effect (science if you will).
Also, I went back and asked my wife to make sure my impression was correct. She interpreted the little boy’s disappointment and hurt feelings as directly pertaining to God not being “the answer”, and not simply that he’d gotten an answer “wrong.” This is a subjective judgment, one that my wife can only make on the basis of knowing the little boy and knowing what a “normal” response to a wrong answer looks like. It is possible that my wife has misinterpreted the events. But that said, I did write my post based on what she understood the events to be like.
All that said, it is possible that I’m simply wrong, and that I shouldn’t have even analyzed the comments. I certainly wasn’t trying to be harsh to a 2nd grader.
Thanks again for your comment.