Yesterday my little girl decided to use a coin to draw on the kitchen wall. Seeing what she had done, she drew my attention to it saying “Look mummy, the money drawed on the wall.”
My response was “No honey, the coin didn’t draw on the wall, you did because you are holding the coin”.
Of course, she argued and was adamant that the coin did it by itself.
In Child Development this is an example of animism or the belief that inanimate objects are capable of actions and have lifelike qualities.
It reminded me of how we can approach God and religion, how we can blame God for things that go wrong, embuing blank-slate deities with life-like human attributes and qualities. But can we really blame God? Isn’t God simply the coin we are holding to draw on the wall?
I’m trying something new and sharing shorter thread posts every so often to encourage discussion. I would love for you to share your thoughts as a comment.
The coin did it (Animism)
The coin did it (Animism)
The coin did it (Animism)
Yesterday my little girl decided to use a coin to draw on the kitchen wall. Seeing what she had done, she drew my attention to it saying “Look mummy, the money drawed on the wall.”
My response was “No honey, the coin didn’t draw on the wall, you did because you are holding the coin”.
Of course, she argued and was adamant that the coin did it by itself.
In Child Development this is an example of animism or the belief that inanimate objects are capable of actions and have lifelike qualities.
It reminded me of how we can approach God and religion, how we can blame God for things that go wrong, embuing blank-slate deities with life-like human attributes and qualities. But can we really blame God? Isn’t God simply the coin we are holding to draw on the wall?
I’m trying something new and sharing shorter thread posts every so often to encourage discussion. I would love for you to share your thoughts as a comment.