Richard Dawkins calls the extolling of the virtues of
blind faith to children a form of abuse. I can understand how a child who is
completely trusting may be duped and abused but I still think trust and belief
are important things that need to be fostered in young children.
There is no afterlife awaiting us so the rewards must be
here in the short life that each of us has. If you are trusting and then suffer
because of it then that can’t be practical because once something has happened
it is part of history.
A child’s mind is still forming so it is important to
nurture it properly. Imagine a young child too small to have something explained
to them like you’d explain something to an adult; you reward them with a treat
when they’re good and punish them if they are not, right?
Is the same not true of belief? I think that teaching
children through the medium of festive fairy tales that believing without
seeing is very important.
The Matrix highlighted the point that you cannot even trust
your own senses to be truthful to you. When I was ill I didn’t even trust that
my own parents were my real parents! Trust (or belief) is a big thing in each
of our lives so it is important to mould the brain of a maturing infant so that
he or she can believe.
I thought that it was wrong to lie to anyone, least of
all the most trusting. Master Oogway tells us that yesterday is history and I think
that this is a good point. When you’re a child you become lost in the magic so
it doesn’t matter how you feel once you are an adult; the important thing is
that you found a measure of pleasure in the moment.
And belief has an important part to play in that. And
hopefully when you make it to adulthood you will have the wisdom to see that
you weren’t being duped, you were being loved.
But what if you reach adulthood and you have a very –
maybe overly – trusting brain? You may be easily swindled or worse – where is
the good in that? Can you teach children that believing without seeing is good
but at the same time teach them to question the world around them?