Some other stuff E says or asks
I forgot when E said these things, but within a couple of months to a year ago. So these were about when E was 4+ y.o. I better jot them down now before I forgot about all these things later on when E got older.
Why People Die?
We were looking out our kitchen window when there were some huge march in front of our house. They were marching towards a nearby Sikh's temple for a funeral. The march were huge, I mean really huge with horse carriage carrying the casket, 3 large luxurious buses, 10 extra-expensive black Mercedes and BMWs. I guess the guy/gal was some really important person in their community.
So E asked,
E: What's happening out there, B?
B: Somebody just died. They were bringing the body to their special place.
E: Why did he die?
B: I think maybe he's really old. When people get really old, one day they will die.
E: Everybody will die when they got old?
B: Yes E. Everybody will die when they got old.
E: Are you and M going to die when you got old?
B: Yes. But don't worry. We are not old yet. It will be along long time before we got old.
E: Then I don't want you to get old yet. Because if you are old and you die, I will be alone and nobody will take care of me. I will be all by myself and I will be sad then.
M: Don't worry E. When we are old long time from now and we die, you will become big like me and you will marry and have children so you won't be alone.
E: So I will have children like me when I get bigger?
M: Yes. And you will take care of them so you won't be sad and be all by yourself. But it will be a long long time from now before we get very old. So you don't have to worry.
(After a moment of pause)
E: B, why do people die?
I was like, damn, how do I answer this question. It's not an easy one. Probably one of the toughest one considering you have to explain it to a 4 y.o., and make them understand realistically, than just tell them so bogus stuff that's not true or make up some stupid excuses to avoid the question.
After some thinking, I then thought I've got a perfect answer that tops it all. We're muslim and I've told a few things about Allah the Almighty and that He's the God and that He's the one that we pray to if we need help. So I said:
B: Everybody will die when they become old because we will go to see Allah. That will be a good thing and we will go to a beautiful place if we always pray to Allah. So we don't have to worry.
E: Then I don't wont to see Allah because I don't want to die.
Me and M were loughing out loud, not that it was funny, but because the logic follows perfectly and it was just something totally not right to say but a perfectly innocent thing to say by a 4 y.o.
Me and M were just clueless what to say next. We simply said that it's not good to say that and that E will learn more about it as E grows. But honestly, it wasn't really a good answer because we didn't have a good one based on reason and logic that'll make her understand more. We don't want to simply just give a factual answer without E seeing the logic clearly. That won't help E much.
Some people with our faith might say that we should be firmer to correct the answer by E and tell E right off that that's a wrong thing to say and that the truth is bla bla bla. But the thing is, I think, there's no point to come straight out about the issue with a kid that age. Their brain develops in phases and that it's best for them to learn complex and abstract concepts gradually. That way they'll understand better.
If you just tell them straight out about this fact and that fact and except them to take it as it is, it might seem that you've done your job. But it might make things worse. You limit their ability to reason and just force them to memorize this and that or to just take 100% of whatever you say as true. If you keep doing this on and on to them, there's a big chance that they'll just become another person that have the ability to absorb anything they hear, but don't really have the capacity to exercise their brains to think logically and rationally. I don't want to do that to them!
Okay, another group of people might say that there are things you can use your rational thinking and there are things that you just have to take it as it is. The issue of religion and believe in God for example. You might say that it's best to keep reasoning in these matters limited, because to much logical thinking would lead to disbelief or blasphemy and you might say: "just look at them western people and Darwin theory that says God doesn't exist". So you say: "just follow the experts and don't ask too many questions!"
I only have 2 things to say about this:
Point #1:
"Do not follow blindly any information of which you have no direct knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception) you must verify it for yourself. In the Court of your Lord, you will be held accountable for your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning" - Al-Quran, 17/36.
If you say just follow the right people and stop asking questions, then who's to say who's right? On the issue of religion, if you're born in Saudi you might be a Muslim; if you're born in UK, there's a chance you're a Christian; if you're from Israel, big chance you might be Jewish; born in India, maybe you're a Hindu, and so on and on. So, what's the end of this then, if you blindly follow the 'right' people, which depends on who you are, where you're from, what school you go to, who your parents are, who your friends are, etc etc etc?
The thing is, I think you do have to develop some capacity of rational thinking. Rational thinking doesn't necessarily mean not believing in God simply because we can't see Him. The fact is that what we can really see using our eyes is an immensely small scope of the reality. Our visible light (electromagnetic EM wave) extends from only 400 to 700 nanometer of wavelength, but the whole EM spectrum goes far beyond what we can actually see; the wavelength goes from 0.0000001 nanometer to 100 000 kilometeres.
Plus, those who don't believe in God says that everything that they know about science in the universe tells them they shouldn't believe in one. Especially those guys who think too much of Darwin (guys like Richard Dawkins who's real expertise is more on manipulating words than about molecular biology or genetic evolution). The fact is that what we know about science (if we combine all those knowledge and all the people on planet Earth know) is only a small part of the reality of the entire universe that we can see. The fact is, a large part of what we don't know amounts to more than 95% of the entire universe (70% of them are dark energy and 25% of them are dark matter, which we don't know anything about, even the smartest guy you can find in the world). Imagine that, everything that we ever know about the universe, everything that we ever can see, even with the most sophisticated scientific device ever built, is only about 5% of the entire universe.
So with all that 5% that all the smartest people in the world ever know, how can you let people tell you that God doesn't exist? To the guys who proudly claim that they are atheist simply because all the facts in the world tell them that that is so, their case is even more pitiful than the case of a kid who says that a rainbow is a stairway to the sky. Not knowing so much about the science of rainbows, a kid would innocently say things that they've heard somewhere. But, not knowing that there's only 5% of the entire universe that they know (if they somehow have the capacity to absorb and understand all the scientific knowledge ever produced by man), a proud self-proclaimed intelligent atheist (the likes of Richard Dawkins, again) would write hundreds of books telling people there's no logic in claiming that God exist.
I've read books by atheists that claim that belief in God is absurd because it needs a leap of faith, which contradicts logical reasoning. The fact is, knowing that we only know at most 5% of the entire universe, not believing in God is as much as a leap of faith as believing in God is.
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