A Theological Load Of Crap

My Diminutive One is having a spiritual crisis.

Because his mother is a Godless Heathen, who unabashedly scorns the many and varied forms of Christianity that abound here in our little corner of the Bible Belt, neither he nor his brother has a strong religious foundation upon which to depend when it comes to matters of morality or mortality.

He has been exploring all the different theories for quite some time now, but I don't think any of them has satisfied him as yet. I have tried to be open with him. I have tried not to let my theological misgivings influence his need to believe in something bigger than himself.

I feel it myself, this need, and if he can find something to comfort him in times of trouble, grief, or doubt....I will champion that with all the enthusiasm a born skeptic can muster.

More than anything, I want him to have the solace of a convicted heart.

So I've become accustomed to discussing theism off the cuff, as his questions tend to come out of a clear blue sky. I do my best to blunder through, but when I can't answer something thoroughly enought to satisfy his probing nature, we often turn to our friend the internet.

It's a voyage of discovery he's on, and oh how I wish I could give him the certainty of faith...but lacking it myself, I can only give him the means of finding it on his own.

The other day, with his customary matter of factness, he posed this question:

"Mom, is it true that some people think your soul goes into another body when you die?"

HA! An easy one.

Or so I thought. I don't know why, after 9 years, I have still not learned that nothing with Diminutive One is easy. Nothing is cut and dried. And frankly, the kid can think circles around me.

"Yes, babe, some people think that's true. It's called "reincarnation".

"Is there a church for that?"

"Weeeeellll, yes, but not around here. People who are called "Hindus" go to that kind of church. I think there are some other churches that believe in reincarnation too, but I'm not sure what they're called. Maybe Buddhists believe in reincarnation, but I think it's a little different."

"Jeez, how are people supposed to learn about that stuff if there's no church to go to?"

"We can look it up on the internet. Or we can go to the library and get a book."

This of course, is not what he wants. He wants to talk to an actual person who believes in reincarnation. Better yet, he wants proof positive that reincarnation is real. Failing that, he wants to know that the possibility is strong enough and the premise sound enough for him to put some of his none too freely given faith in.

He changes his tack for a moment.

"Mom, do you think people get reincarnated as other people, or do you think you could get reincarnated as a rock or a chicken or something?"

"Hmmm. That's a good question. But since it's your soul that gets reincarnated, you would have to be reincarnated as another thing that has a soul, right?"

"Well rocks don't have souls for sure, but what about chickens?"

"A lot of people believe that animals don't have souls."

"Do you?"

"Boy, that's a hard one. I don't really know, but something tells me that they do. How else could they be so loyal and loving? I don't think a thing without a soul can love."

"Yeeeeaaaaaahhhhh"...he says doubtfully, "But I don't think all animals are loving. Remember that time at the petting zoo when that chicken tried to kill me?!?"

"You were teasing it." I pointed out.

He shrugs, as if this is wholly non-pertinent to the larger issue. Then, he heaves a big sigh.

"I don't know. I thought the reincarnation thing was the answer. But I don't want to end up as a chicken. I need to think about that some more."

"Well," I said, trying my best not to laugh, "At least if you come back as a chicken, you won't have to be a chicken for very long. You'll become somebody's dinner pretty quickly, and then you can move on."

Looking me right in the eye, he says,

"That's not helping Mom."

"Sorry."

"It's alright. I just need to talk to a professional."

Ouch.

Trying to redeem myself, I said,

"Listen, honey. You don't have to rely on somebody else to tell you what you should believe. If you think reincarnation makes more sense than anything else, than you believe it. And if you don't think people come back as chickens, then you don't believe that part. People telling other people what they should believe is part of why the world is so screwed up right now."

"Yeah. That's true." he said, as if he understood what I was talking about. Maybe he did. Sometimes, he's a lot more perceptive than I give him credit for.

He was silent for a moment, processing. Then he said, "Well, I'm not completely sure about reincarnation. But it makes a lot more sense than the heaven and hell thing. That's just a load of crap." *

Amen to that buddy. Amen to that.

*Footnote: His assertion arose from a previous discussion wherein a playmate informed him that only people who go to church go to heaven. So it is not the concept of heaven itself that he finds crapacious, but the fact that only the select few who behave according to the very rigidly defined dogma of Godliness will be allowed to pass through the pearly gates. He realizes that this tenet is designed to exclude an alarmingly large segment of humanity, and it is this which he finds wholly distasteful.