Religion in the crib: how spirituality shapes children

My whole life I thought I wanted to have kids of my own. Childbirth is disgusting to me (to each their own, right?) and regardless I think it's kiiiinda selfish to have children of your own when there are so many kids out there without parents. To be honest I don't think the proper channels exist, and adoption is hella expensive. But still, if you're willing to fork out over 13 000 a year for at least 18 years just because you want a kid that looks like you, or because you want to have a baby and then a child (like how older dogs or cats tend to be adopted after puppies or kittens) or you want the legacy of your genes to move on (I truly don't understand, because I'm guessing those aren't the only two reasons for which people try to make their own babies.) Aaanyways, regardless of my perception on having children of my own, I am still heavily invested in the state of the world's children in terms of education and equality they desperately need.

I think religious, or, moral education, is important for the purposes of learning the inspirational stories. They will help discipline them and guide them through life as honest, compassionate, considerate and aware contributors to society.

Different than most North American pious (those who actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk) Christians though, I would want to incorporate a lot of what I have learned through my spiritual journey. This would mean having them baptized as an infant, and then somehow within the next 10 years of its life, teaching them about other spiritual faiths and belief systems. (I wrote this a while ago, and don't know if I still agree with baptism, but definitely exposure to various world systems of belief).

I know that kids want to act like kids, but I really think having this insight for possibilities of faith would help them understand themselves and the world around them. The false consciousness taught by our mothers and fathers (The "you are so special" feed and usually getting what you want) could be replaced with an immovable faith and hope for humankind, and in themselves to have a positive impact on the world.

Instead, what's currently happening is that the way were are raising our kids is starting to hurt them. Some parents shove blind faith down the throats of their children, in hopes that they will accept the religious beliefs as truth. But how are these beliefs actually truths? They might be truths of the parent because of their spiritual experiences, but I think we need to help our children start their well-rounded spiritual journey so they can make their own judgments on themselves and drive their own spiritual experience.

Religion teaches us to take ownership of our faults, do our best to fix them, and introduces a realistic concept of control that one has over his own life.

We need to teach each other to go along our own path of spiritual discovery! For example, I don't even try to have the 'does G-d exist' conversation with certain people, because G-d has not been revealed to them- yet.

Out of all the atheists I've spoken to on this topic, there seems to be two different ideas of control. The more popular being that since there is no God, everything is random and we have no control over our lives. This is what I like to call narcissism.

The second, which is vivid among people who are atheists but generally positive towards their lives, is the idea that nothing is pre-destined but not pre-determined, and therefore every decision a person makes to act or not act, or to speak or not speak, dictates their life in one way or another. Or as a friend said the other day, "we are all in charge of our own destiny."

As a believer, I sort of combine these two theories for what I believe: I don't have control over everything, but I can do what I can make the best for myself and for others. And, decisions ADD UP.

So, in my opinion, although life is planned by our creator, (look at the beauty of the things around us, natural as well as man made. Someone definitely planned for this stuff to be here, and the way that it is) daily decisions still affect the outcome of life. In Judaism, a person has two destinies: a lower destiny & a higher destiny (bear with me on my understanding of this as it was explained to me by two awesome orthodox Jewish teenagers on a VIA Rail train one holiday season, and I was extremely tired). The basic idea is that even if you have a low destiny to have a horrible life, you could have a high destiny of learning from your mistakes and one day being great. I love this idea, because it teaches we do my have full control, but it's WHAT WE MAKE OF IT that dictates how it affects us. G-d judges us, yes, but G-d loves us regardless of our decisions. It is us that are hard on ourselves (consciously or unconsciously) and the true, pure being of light that we are judges our actions here on earth. So to put it shortly, IT'S UP TO US.

There is a song by April March called Laisse Tomber Les Filles. It just repeats over and over 'let the girls fall, one day it's you we will leave behind.' Just a heads up to those of you who believe that education should only be for those who can afford it, and are willing to pay close to hundreds of thousands for your child... But few others.

Thanks for coming along on my thought path, and I wish you an awakening journey of your own.

Soul Trade? (Not soul train.)

If you could get anything for the price of your soul:    (1) would you sell it, and;

   (2) what would that anything have to be?

For me, answering this hypothetical question is easy, and you can scroll to the bottom to see my answer if you're too lazy or ignorant or close-minded to read what's in between. That's right, I said it.

Although I encourage and appreciate the asking of these types of questions to engage one's imagination, I don't really believe in seriously answering hypothetical questions. It's similar to being asked 'If you were in a lifeboat with 9 people, but the boat only fits 8 people or it will capsize and everyone will likely drown, how do you decide who gets thrown off the boat?'

There are a few factors I personally would consider in this lifeboat scenario that are not mentioned in the question. First, am I the leader of this group? Is the decision completely up to me, or is it a democracy? Secondly, who are these people? Details about whether or not some of the people on the lifeboat are children, military folk, paramedics, racists, rapists, etc. would be quite useful, that is, if the decision was being made based on potential and worldly contributions after survival.

But here's my main question: what about the blatant fact that psychological shock and physiological adrenaline would play a huge role if this scenario were to ever happen? Regardless of how well we know or think we know ourselves, I don't think we can TRULY predict our own reactions to something of such great scale.

However, my answer to this question is still easy as well. I think that people such as myself who may, at some times, have a 'suppressed ego' (not at all related to low self-esteem) would decide to throw themselves out of the boat. It's crazy, especially if the person who does that is the leader and then, once gone, there is no one to lead the group to safety... But sometimes sacrifices have to be made. (Maybe I would work it out so that the people on the boat would have a way to get to safety after I was gone, if I was the leader, hypothetically.)

So anyways, back to the original question.  If I could sell my soul (to a good person, like a good witch or something and not the Devil) for the happiness, peace and health of every single person in the world, I would do it in a heartbeat. Ok, ok, that's cheating, I guess that answer contains three things. In one word then, I guess it would be the well-being of every person in the world. I've had thoughts similar to this throughout my life and that this would be the epitome of not dying in vain, also in the lifeboat scenario. I just keep seeing my new and old friends who have had injustice, hurtfulness and sadness cast upon them for so long, and in so many ways. Day in and day out. "It's not fair," they say. Yes life isn't fair, but knowing that doesn't help.

In the lifeboat scenario (and all of life.. getting deep here; mind the pun) I guess the best I can hope for is that selflessness is an innate quality that triumphs over shock, adrenaline and anxiety. I made myself aware at young age that making my first instinct selflessness in everything I do is my life purpose, and I need to continue improving my pursuit of this purpose and defining a path to fulfill it. I just want everyone to be truly happy, loved, safe, and fed. No false consciousness crap I see every day in 'the big city'. Pretty sure I'm allowed to be an utter idealist, and there is more to come on my idealism later.