8 responses so far ↓

• 1 LP // Mar 20, 2007 at 3:34 pm

  “Until I was maybe seven or eight, I thought that the location of thought and intelligence in the brain was a metaphor, along the lines of the association of the heart with love.”

  This is interesting. As a kid I spent alot of time talking to ‘myself’ or to the old ‘unseen observer’ hanging out at the back of my head, trying to explain myself and impress him/her/it. Kind of like an invisible friend. At some point I developed the idea that this was what people were doing when they were talking about God — using it as a metaphor for something that was still clearly a part of the self — and that everyone was ‘in on the game,’ just as most kids know deep down that their imaginary friend isn’t really real. One day I found out that, actually, my family and all the other church-going folks thought there really was some guy up there they were talking to. I was very embarrassed for them, because they couldn’t see that their friend was imaginary; I don’t think I’ve ever quite shaken this feeling.

• 2 Julian Sanchez // Mar 20, 2007 at 6:55 pm

  I actually have a similar story: When I first encountered Santa Claus, little skeptic that I was, I more or less immediately (if somewhat uncharitably) concluded that this was a lie parents told in hopes of getting children to behave themselves. And when I first heard of God a little while after, I assumed for quite a while that it was another instance of the same phenomenon, and that the adults themselves didn’t sincerely believe. I don’t remember what finally prompted the realization (I was, I think, six or seven when it hit me) that the adults meant it, but I remember being pretty stunned–and, as you were, vaguely embarrassed for them.

• 3 Anthony C // Mar 20, 2007 at 9:01 pm

  My main, er, only encounter with God went this way:

  ME: Should I believe in God?
  MOTHER: Well, I think that’s something you have to decide for yourself.
  ME: Do you and Daddy [note: I was very young at the time] believe in God?
  MOTHER: No.
  ME: Oh, well I won’t either then.

  Thinking about it, my introduction to politics was similar:

  ME: What’s the difference between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party?
  MOTHER: Well… the Labour Party represent working class people and the Conservative Party represent people like us.
  ME: Oh.

  It’s funny how well intentioned simplification at an early age can stick.

  Also, as a child I was very strongly of the conviction that people couldn’t die with their eyes open. For some time later I was under the impression that this was probably quite a common childhood misunderstanding, but I have since been assured repeatedly by a variety of reliable sources that it’s deeply peculiar.

• 4 Timon // Mar 20, 2007 at 10:42 pm

  I used to think freckles were caused by water droplets magnifying rays of sun and burning an image onto the skin. I also thought “pussy” meant breasts, because I knew the former was a good thing but couldn’t imagine what anyone would want with the actual referent.

• 5 Anonymous // Mar 21, 2007 at 12:01 am

  When i died, i knew worms would eat my body and make me fertilizer for flowers just like other dead animals. Thus, i believed id better not cut worms in half with my garden shovel because they’d remember later when i died and bite me hard rather than nibble gently. i thought some worms could bore holes through my shoes and missed the school bus trying to step around worms when it rained.

  i believed ALL my dolls and stuffed animals had unique personalities and changeable feelings. I believed if I paid more attention to one than another, their little feelings would be hurt and that I was not a good kind person if i didn’t then comfort the slighted creature. This included regular negotiations with all creatures until it was agreed which stuffed animals got to sleep closest to me tonight versus tomorrow night versus which ones would go with me on the next exciting car trip.

  i believed when an adult wanted to have a baby, she just decided it in her head. (NO sex) i believed my father was smarter than my mother (he just thinks he is) and that my mother loved my brother more than she did me. i believed there were wierd looking humanoids living far away on other planets in other solar systems and that you should never trust older neighbor boys unless they were like the hardy boys. i believed canadians were kinder to *all* people, whereas americans made up their history and religions as excuses to be self centered and ignore people less fortunate than themselves. i never believed in God or santa claus.

• 6 Jason // Mar 21, 2007 at 11:58 am

  Julian, at least some of your thinking is going on in nerves outside of your skull, so, strictly speaking, it is a bit of a generalization to say that it’s all in your head.

• 7 Liz // Mar 21, 2007 at 11:57 pm

  I believed that pregnant women couldn’t go swimming or they’d give birth to talking fish.

• 8 James Kabala // Apr 3, 2007 at 8:09 pm

  You know, there are Christians who oppose telling children about Santa Claus on the grounds that when they find out there is no Santa Claus, they will then believe that parents are lying about God as well. I (also a Christian) thought this was an interesting argument in theory, but that it was unlikely to describe something that had ever happened in real life. It’s interesting to see that maybe they were right. (Although, if I infer correctly from the distanced way you speak of “hear[ing] about God,” it seems you yourself were brought up in a secular/atheist household; I think for a Christian child whose family prayed regularly and attended church weekly, who knew from a young age how much art and literature was based on Christianity, and who heard lines like “Jesus is the reason for the season” and “Keep Christ in Christmas” elevating Christ above Santa and implying that to not do so was a character flaw, it would be clear that adults built their lives around God in a way that they didn’t around Santa. And the same for children raised as practicing Jews, Muslims, etc.)