How to Raise Children in Deism

By Raymond Fontaine, Ph.D. - August 2006

E-mail no. 41: Lauren Seeks Literature about God for her Children

Hello Ray, my name is Lauren and I am a deist. I cannot thank you enough for your book and for all your articles on your website located at: http:// www.to-natures-god.net. My husband is also a deist and we have two children, ages 3 and 5. Do you know of any articles or books that talk about raising children with the deist point of view? How to help them understand and connect with our creator. Any thoughts or references to articles you know of would be appreciated. Sincerely yours, Lauren.

E-mail no. 42: I Refer Her to Nature

Dear Lauren, I do not know any articles or books that discuss how to raise children in Deism. Let me give it a try.

The one and only tenet of Deism is that the wonders and designs in nature require supreme Intelligence at their origin. Let's call this Intelligence: God. He exists.

Nature, however, says nothing more about God: nothing about his nature, his appearance, his possible intervention in nature, his location, et cetera.

That's Deism. Quite simple. That should be easy to communicate to children. Unfortunately it means nothing to children. They can know what they can see and touch and hear - like a mother and father and everything in nature.

Luckily there's a connection between all of them and God. He is their creator; He made all those wonderful things in nature possible. At the origin of nature, He fashioned it in such a way that it could evolve in a zillion ways. That's what happened billions of years ago.

Without God's handiwork at the origin of nature, nothing would have happened: no sun, no water, no earth, no humans, no dogs, et cetera. So in a real sense, God made all of nature possible to exist at all and to develop in a zillion different ways: such as flowers and trees, fishes and birds, animals and humans, including you and your children.

So you can talk to your children and say without lying that God made everything possible or simply God made everything. You won't be able to show your children God Himself but you can point to His handiwork: all of nature. I hope this has been helpful and good luck with your children. Ray.

E-mail no.43: Lauren now Reads The National Geographic for Kids with her Children.  

Hello Ray. Thank you for your e-mail. It was very enlightening. One way that I have been raising my kids in Deism is that I purchased a subscription to National Geographic for Kids and I read the magazine with them. The magazine shows many animals and things in nature and, as my kids and I read through the magazine, I explain to them how everything is made by God. This helps them to get a bigger picture and understanding of a supreme intelligence. Best wishes. Lauren.

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