But, Grandma, who made God?

[Rozlee]

Biggest gotcha question out there. My 3 year-old-granddaughter was being read a children's bible story about the creation by her other grandmother. My daughter told me that after she was done with the story, her other grandma told her, in summary, words to the effect that the reason we are all here is because God loves us and made us all so that we could love him and each other.

"But, Grandma, who made God?"

Sputter, stutter. "Well, honey, no one made God. He is eternal. He has no beginning and no end."

Blank look from granddaughter.

How many times has this scenario been reenacted throughout the ages? Probably for every child entering the indoctrination stage. I wonder if there really is a defective area in the brain that makes atheists different from believers as some neuroscientists have postulated? But, then, that wouldn't account for the high number of non-believers in some European countries. I remember my skepticism starting and staying from early childhood, my belief always lukewarm, then cooling in my teens, finally evaporating altogether. I'm sure all of us have our own stories of the evolution of our status as non-believers.

I hope my daughter's indifference to religion keeps my granddaughter from not giving a double damn about who made god or just seeing the nonsense of the whole thing as she grows older.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. As John Stuart Mill said:

My father taught me that the question "Who made me?" cannot be answered, since it immediately suggests the further question, "Who made God?"

[Deep13]

2. My sister told me her then 8-yr.-old daughter found...

...the explanations for baptism and Easter to be pretty amusing.

sister: "Some people believe babies are born evil....

"....and then came back to life."

niece: **After much laughter** "Do you believe that?"

sister: "No."

[PassingFair]

5. I tried explaining the Easter holiday to one of our Chinese exchange students...

it sounded so preposterous that we all just started
laughing.

[progressoid]

6. Ever read the David Sedaris story about Easter?

I think it's in his book, "Me Talk Pretty One Day". He was taking French lessons and the subject of Easter came up and the various cultures in the class tried to explain it.

Pretty funny.

[Odin2005]

3. This is where I suspect my being autistic is partly why I am an Atheist.

The abstract theological nonsense used to describe "god" went right over my head. I see no difference between the writings of theologians and the word salad of Postmodernist twits like Derrida and Lacan.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. I remember asking questions and getting ridiculous answers that even a kid knew was bs.

I craved reality. And now, I live in reality.