Q and God
For her story tonight, Q chose a book of bible stories (re-)told for small children. My stepmother gave her this book for her birthday last year, but Q has just recently discovered it and really likes it. (I’ll save for another time my other, more complex thoughts/struggles/joys about spirituality and religion and how to relate that to my child.) Suffice it to say that the book doesn’t quite cover my own personal beliefs[i].)
Recently we’ve had some discussions about God, and mostly I try to get across to her that God is another word for Love, and it’s all that is good and creative and holds us all together (when, of course, any of us actually *are* together). Inadequate as it may be, that’s the simplest and closest I can come to explaining my version to my preschooler. Oh, and that God lives in our hearts, which is my version of, “God is not an old man in the sky…”
I asked her why she picked that one, just because I was curious what her response would be. She said, “Because I LOVE God!”
I responded, “What do you love about God?”
Q: Because He made the night and the day and all the food and the people we love, and, and, and….”
We went on to read very sanitized (to my relief) versions of Moses, Noah, David & Goliath, and Jesus stories. She went back to the David & Goliath page, where an illustration of Goliath (who “liked to fight” and was “taken down” by David in this version) showed him lying down, his face inexplicably hidden behind David and some other shepherd-like guys.
Q: Why did Goliath like to fight, Mommy?
Me: I don’t really know, honey. I guess he was angry and scared and didn’t know a better way to handle it.
Q: God doesn’t like fighting.
Me: No, I don’t guess He probably likes it very much.
Q: Why did Goliath like to fight?
Me: I think he maybe just didn’t know another way to handle how he felt.
Q: Like me.
Me: Well, maybe, but like all of us, I think. I think we are all learning and trying, and I think that’s something God likes the best.
Q: You know what else God does?
Me: What?
Q: God makes you toot.
Me: What?
Q: God makes you toot. I just tooted, Mommy.
Me: Oh. OK.
[i] An interesting quiz is Belief-O-Matic at Beliefnet.com:
“Even if YOU don’t know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic™ knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic™ will tell you what religion (if any) you practice…or ought to consider practicing.”
My results are as follows, though they seem different than they were a few years ago when I took this (generally, more Eastern at the top). Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism (even though *I* couldn’t tell you the difference between the two!) were 1 & 2 then, and it seems Taoism and Baha’i were higher then, too. I might know why it’s different, but it doesn’t matter here:
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skwarepeg said,
September 26, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Is it weird to comment on your own blog post?
Either way, I want to say that there will be more discussion on the Goliath/feelings/learning/God topic, and I know something of why this came up.
Also, when I look up M. Buddhism (don’t remember how to spell it here…. hahah!), while it reflects some of what I believe, there are some definite disconnects. Frankly, I prefer The Force.
modernicon said,
September 28, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I don’t know anyone who hasn’t taken this test and come out as some kind of Buddhist. I am not sure what it means, whether that reflects the kind of people I hang out with, or if it so particular bias of the test, or if notions of god in this country have changed so much that we resemble Buddhists (from a birds eye view)
That being said, I think there are some changes in the modern perception of god. For one people are less likely to anthropomorphize God as “Father” or Kindly old gentlemen in the sky, and see god as “Holy Spirit” or “Force” or “energy” which, depending on how the questions are worded or slanted, may be equated with Buddhism. Again,is that the test, the people I know, or a wider view of God in the population?
Example: How many people who think of God as an Energy or a Force are also likely to give up eating meat because they believe in the sanctity of the life force within animals? In other words, if a person doesn’t adhere to the tenants of Buddhism, but shares a similar cosmological point of view, does that make them Buddhist?
It seems the criteria for faith should include Believing, Understanding and Practicing the faith, or, another way to say it is, only with the confidence of a sound belief and good understanding one can follow a faith with dedication and honesty.
skwarepeg said,
September 28, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I suppose it might be a combination of all of that. I suspect, though, that outside of your immediate circle, you would find different results. I wish there was some sort of stats on that on the site (I looked). Everyone I’ve known who’s taken it has Buddhism somehwere in there (after all, there are what… some 27 slots?), but not usually very high, and all the Christian ones are still pretty up there, too. I have also found that many people I know in a different group are more likely TO think of God as Father/Son/Holy Spirit or even mostly as Father, so I wonder again if it could be your circle. Of course I could be wrong because I don’t have my own little random-sampling version of a Belief-o-Matic.
Because I don’t, there’s also the possibility that the results are skewed somewhat based on the “type” of people who would be interested in the test to begin with. I don’t imagine (but again, I don’t know for sure) many fundamentalist Church of Christ followers or dailly-Mass-attending Catholics are taking it. After all, there is a certain amount of the population who wouldn’t even ask the question because the answer is so obvious for them. While *my* modern perception of a power greater than myself is different than it was 20 years ago, I do encounter an awful lot of the “Old-Man-In-The-Sky” kind of take on it all, especially when I was working and traveling a great deal for work purposes. If you haven’t taken the test in a while, it would be interesting (for me, anyway, ha!) to have you try it again to see how it is worded and see what you think.
There were several questions that get pretty specific, and again, that’s why the total percentage of agreement on the list doesn’t add up to 100%, I suppose. In other words, I’m not x% Buddhist, x% Catholic, x% Orthodox Jew, etc., but that my beliefs match up x% to some basic tenets of each religion. As far as the criteria for faith, I get the impression that the quiz is looking more at what religions your beliefs match up to (after all, “Belief-o-matic,” rather than which religion you’d be “good” at (lucky me!). For instance, I think of a lot of Catholics (my stepmother for one, my half-sister for another) believe devoutly one way, but don’t necessarily practice it the way even they believe they are “supposed to.”
I do know the test didn’t mention giving up meat specifically, and didn’t mention sanctity of life generally, though it did mention abortion. I answered to that, “doesn’t matter” (or something to that effect) HOW “my religion” considers it, and also weighted it as low or medium priority. [That's because I don't want "my religion" to have an official stance on matters that I consider to be mostly political.] Yet, there was one of the disconnects. In the description of that sect(?) of Buddhism, it said that they are strongly opposed to it. With respect to the meat issue specifically, I know that I would really like to be willing (or able or determined) enough to give up meat. There is a definite cognitive dissonance there for me, yet I find myself unwilling or unable to give it up. It doesn’t change or reflect my beliefs so much as it does testify to some lack on my part for sure. (OK, it does reflect them somewhat because I *am* of two or three or four minds about it.) All the belief and self-knowledge and understanding in the world has failed me at times (most of the time?). And then that begs the question, too, as to what really qualifies as following a faith “with dedication and honesty.” 90% of the practice of it? 75%? 50%? It’s kind of like certain fundamentalist Christians who don’t consider Catholics to be Christian, or other groups who qualify who is a good Christian or who isn’t…. Then there are other groups with minimal requirements, and some individuals who assert these things without the backing of an actual group/sect, etc. at all. Then once again, there is the ever-present issue of interpreting how certain principles translate into practice. I know I’m not being especially clear here, but hopefully you get the gist of what I’m saying.
If nothing else, perhaps it’s a lesson in how much common ground there is in all of us, rather than how much difference there is among us, in matters of religion/spirituality. At any rate, it’s clear that the preschooler version of Bible stories I have is quite inadequate to teach what I believe (or don’t believe) or what I want Q to know about the Universe/God/Love.
It’s a subject I think about a *lot* with respect to Q, and something I am, as always, of 4 or 5 minds about. 
unnarrator said,
September 30, 2008 at 11:52 am
Scared to take this in case I wind up a rabid slavering Jainist, or a zealot in some religion I don’t even know about, and then I have to bone up and learn all its rules and deities.