A recent post by JJtheJester asked for creationists and evolutionists to give some arguments in support of their views, hoping to gain some material useful for religious education.
This made me start thinking about a question my 5 year old daughter recently asked me, and no this isn't an apocryphal tale...
"Daddy, is God real?"
If my daughter was considerably older, I'd have a pretty good idea what I'd say. But she's 5.
Is "Nobody
really knows" a reasonable answer for a 5 year old? Would it be going too far to say "I don't think so because x, y, z" ?
At the moment I intend to address questions on such matters with a non-commital answer: "Lots of people believe different things and nobody knows for sure". I find this unsatisfying, but wonder if it isn't simply the best answer at this age.
I want to avoid "indoctrinating" her (though I don't think you can call the teaching of logic and reason "indoctrination") down a certain path, and yet I want to encourage her to ask questions and not to accept things on "faith" (using the definition: belief without evidence).
I feel that the "Nobody really knows" response is simply too vague, but I worry that adding much more to that would be to guide her down a particular path. And yet, the more I think about this, I'd obviously like to see her become science-minded and skeptical.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that I believe in evolution and I consider religion to be a relic of our infancy as a species, one which we should strive to outgrow. Therefore, I'm mostly interested in how members of a scientific background would handle this, but It will be interesting to see what the religiously-minded have to say on the matter.
Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions.
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