Thursday, June 16, 2005
Conflicting messages and young minds
I have a very dear friend here in Houston named Stephanie. We met at an educational group for first time mothers shortly after Liz was born. She has a son named Robby who is two weeks younger than my Liz, the two of them are fast friends and regularly play themselves into giggling exhaustion.
Robby loves dinosaurs, he talks about them all the time and devours information on them.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science (one of my favorite places) has a summer series of classes for youngsters on various subjects. When Stephanie found out about them she immediately enrolled Robby in the dinosaur class. The class focuses on paleontology, fossil excavation, the scientific stuff all put into a format that is fun and interesting for four year olds.
Sounds great, right?
Stephanie has run into a bit of a conflict, her husband Todd. Todd is a good man and a great father so this isn't meant as an insult to him but he is sending his child some seriously mixed messages. Todd is a hard-core fundamentalist Christian, he believes the world is only 10 thousand years old, he believes dinosaurs and humans walked the planet at the same time and he believes that the dinosaurs were wiped out in the Noah's Ark flood. He is an intelligent man, so I'm sure he has given a great deal of thought to these ideas, but let's face it...It isn't exactly main stream thinking.
Todd tells these things to Robby who then goes to his museum class where he is given very different information. Robby, who is trying to absorb as much dinosaur data as possible, gets confused.
Stephanie asked me what she should do. Not being the most tolerant person when it comes to extreme religious ideas (I know...Character flaw.), I took the fifth. What do you guys think? What should she do?
Robby loves dinosaurs, he talks about them all the time and devours information on them.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science (one of my favorite places) has a summer series of classes for youngsters on various subjects. When Stephanie found out about them she immediately enrolled Robby in the dinosaur class. The class focuses on paleontology, fossil excavation, the scientific stuff all put into a format that is fun and interesting for four year olds.
Sounds great, right?
Stephanie has run into a bit of a conflict, her husband Todd. Todd is a good man and a great father so this isn't meant as an insult to him but he is sending his child some seriously mixed messages. Todd is a hard-core fundamentalist Christian, he believes the world is only 10 thousand years old, he believes dinosaurs and humans walked the planet at the same time and he believes that the dinosaurs were wiped out in the Noah's Ark flood. He is an intelligent man, so I'm sure he has given a great deal of thought to these ideas, but let's face it...It isn't exactly main stream thinking.
Todd tells these things to Robby who then goes to his museum class where he is given very different information. Robby, who is trying to absorb as much dinosaur data as possible, gets confused.
Stephanie asked me what she should do. Not being the most tolerant person when it comes to extreme religious ideas (I know...Character flaw.), I took the fifth. What do you guys think? What should she do?
posted by GodlessMom, 6:04 AM
7 Comments:
BarbaraFromCalifornia said:
Posted at 8:41 AM
GodlessMom said:
OH! Believe me! I have no intention of opening my mouth on this one! Stephanie is a wise person and I'm sure she will come up with some solution.
What I find intriguing is the whole issue of religious beliefs coming smack up against scientific views and the fact that the whole thing is playing out in the little microcosm of Robby's dinosaur interest. I don't envy Stephanie, or Todd for that matter. This is a difficult parenting dilema.
What I find intriguing is the whole issue of religious beliefs coming smack up against scientific views and the fact that the whole thing is playing out in the little microcosm of Robby's dinosaur interest. I don't envy Stephanie, or Todd for that matter. This is a difficult parenting dilema.
Posted at 9:00 AM
Meegan said:
Wow. I know that people who think that way exist, but it really freaks me out when I hear about one of them. Sorry, but it's true. He's "intelligent" but then says that he thinks dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time? Intelligent in what way, exactly? I just don't understand people who refuse to acknowledge scientific facts. I don't know what you should say to Stephanie. She married him, so she must have known that he felt that way. Please tell me he's not one of those people who are trying to get "intelligent design" taught in science classrooms instead of evolution. Those people drive me bonkers.
Posted at 9:13 AM
dddragon said:
My DH is Catholic, I'm Unitarian Universalist. Pretty much opposite sides of the religious coin. Our girls have been going to both churches since they were very young. All along we've told them that we have different beliefs and that after they've learned from each church they will have a chance to make their own decision.
Posted at 9:17 AM
United We Lay said:
Tell hom Scientists believe one thing, daddy believes somethign else, and if he learns everyhing he can about the subject, when he's older, he can decide for himself what he thinks.
Posted at 12:20 PM
The Lazy Iguana said:
Simple. Get a large table. Have the man put any evidence he has that the earth is only 10,000 years old on it. Then, get all the evidence you can collect that says the earth is several billion years old, and that dinosuars walked the planet a good hundred million years before the first humans.
Whoever has the largest pile of evidence wins!
Whoever has the largest pile of evidence wins!
Posted at 1:54 PM
dAAve said:
Regardless of who is right or wrong about evolusiton, I think Stephanie should ask Todd the question as to what to do. He is 1/2 of the kid's parents and has the right to as much say-so as she does.
Also, the child should be made aware that there are different opinions as to when things took place. It can't be made very difficult because he's only 4.
Also, the child should be made aware that there are different opinions as to when things took place. It can't be made very difficult because he's only 4.
Posted at 8:16 PM
About Me
- Name: GodlessMom
- Location: Houston, Texas, United States
I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. I've been happily married for ten years to someone I've known since I was eleven years old. We are the parents of a wonderful four year old girl.
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