Personally my belief comes from inside and I wouldn't want to impose it on anybody, friends, wife or children, I like to believe it comes naturally. Saying that I do wonder how much my Christian upbringing influenced it but then I know myself to know if I didn't believe in God i would still be spiritually aware.

It would seem like the teaching of God serves many a purpose. Would you teach your children about God because your religion or your beliefs dictate it, or as means of keeping them in check, or if you believe your children should be free do you see it as a chain the brain does not need?

It is my opinion that if people need religion to act appropriately, then there is something much deeper wrong with the individual that religion will only suppress and not correct.

I will teach my children real history about all religions in regards to Africans and let them make the choice for themselves when they come to age. Imposing a religion on my child I feel is a crime. It inhibits their intellectual growth because unfettering faith for a particular ideology forces one to reject old and new facts. I wouldonly be raising a little sheepwho could easily be manipulated simply by saying the right faith-based words.

I will teach them that God exists, and so they shouldseek God the best they see fit for themselves.

Shemsi - I like your position.For the most part I'm a man of my word so kind of expect others to be but I know if I trusted my life in man talk and their promises, I'd be a dead man a long time agao.

I think an awareness of a higher force should be made known, or at least the concept and hopefully the childs individual consciousness will seek it or be found by it if it is needed.

It's like sweet reggae music, if your heart is that way inclined, if you don't find the music then the music will find you.

Salaam Alaikum,

I would teach my children about Allah (the invisible and the unknowable) who constitutes the greatest part of all things.

I would do this for three reasons:

1) It would check their egos - this is especially important in the Western world where idolatry is everywhere.

2) It will save them from Hell.

3) Allah ordered me to do it.

Mamoulian - the last thing I know I definitely would not want is to institutionalise their minds by sending them to Church or something but I think this is more to my thinking that religion is a good thing but only if everybody is practising the same one.

I think concepts are more important than any individual religion itself. Putting a name to the higher force I believe is the biggest crime man can commit.

Incognito wrote:

Peacemaker wrote:

The damage that has been inflicted on us as a people is criminal. In the way of religion one used the Bible and had a gun in the other hand. On the other side one came with the Holy Qur'an and enslaved us at the same time. But then in Africa being left on our own we adhered to African spirituality, Idolatry and a form of worship where we always knew of the Creator but never gave HIM a name. When will we find common unity?

However, an emphatic yes to teaching my children about God by being the best example that I can be and by observing the duties and requirements of that which I say I believe.

In the book of the Muslims, The Holy Quran, Allah says (not verbatum), no one knows what benefit your children will bring you. Abraham's son went the way of disbelief, so too have the children of prophets and ministers of today.

But to not teach your children, in my view, the way you follow, is a denial of what you say you are, for surely you are what you are by choice and in your belief the best that you can be. So how can you not want for your children what you want for yourself?

The bible puts it like this - train the children from young and they will not deviate from that which you have taught them - except that the Creator has another purpose for their existence.

I look forward to your comments and I am open to learning and any correction.

Peace.

quint2black - the choice thing does have me at odds because I believe my relationship with the higher force is simply part of my consciousness which I do not believe is the same for everybody. As such I find it a futile exercise trying to impart such conssciousness to people who just could not relate...whic could be my children. For example I would n't even waste my time trying to impart such depth tothe wife.

Incognito - yes I agree with you on the consciousness issue, but if I am correct your consciousness of a higher force took some time for you to recognise it. But I think the point being made is would we teach our children about God/Higher Force.

What we each percieve to be a higher force than our own comes about by cognitive reasoning about the environment in which we live and by observation of life. Children have a conscience but their perception of the workings of life and its mechanics surely needs explaining to them.

Children have an inquisitive nature about what they see around them and for me it is my duty to provide an explanation to the things they enquire about and things I need to tell them so that they have firm foundations as to their existence.

Children asking about why mother's stomach has increased in size has a unique way of testing the ability of adults to explain nature. The consciousness of the child is not going to provide such an answer. This is just a miniscule part of creation which children must be taught.

A child's mind is like a blank piece of paper on which the biological-language and understanding of life is writ on entering this world.

It is incumbent on us to share what we know of knowledge to our children.

Why would you not share such understanding with your wife? I find that unless we share our thoughts with our wives we will never, see the other side of the Creator for He is both male and female and in His second creation - the worman - lies the very secret of life, which we ignore at our peril and is the reason why this world is so imbalanced.

Peace.

quint2black - some admiral points made there. What some people call God others simply call mother nature and the difference between the two concepts I believe is spiritualism or the absence of it. Soif I decided to depart such knowledge I would be inclined to do so from a spiritual perspective i.e the existence of a higher force but then I can equally see eye to eye with someone whorelates moreto mother naturei.e what goes up must come down.

Your point on recognising concsciousness over time is interesting becauseI've always wondered whethereverybody has a spiritual side only some may need stimulating more than othersto bring itto the surface - and whether you go about imparting and sharing this knowledge with this in mind. But then a Jehovah Witness came to my door today. I gave them an inch and told them I'm not involved as soon as theytried to take a mile. Now were they trying to impart a level of consciousness on me to stimulate the Jehaovah Witness hidden deep inside me?- my own consciousness would suggest no which is why I wouldn't want to force mine on anyone else.

As for a wife, If me and a woman are to sharethe same level of consciousness, first and foremost that would have to come naturally.

Butback to the children. I agree they must be taught something but as already mentioned, without labelsand more from a concepts basis.I ran this by a friend who toldme he went full hog and told his son there is a God watching everything you do and will hold you accountable - his son has definitely changed in his awareness and the dad says if that is considered a burden then it's a burden he can accept.

Incognito

What some people call God others simply call mother nature and the difference between the two concepts I believe is spiritualism or the absence of it.

For me I fail to see the difference between God and Mother nature for the are indivisible in my view. 'God' (Powerful) is an attribute of the Creator and from this and other attributes He 'creates' Mother Nature. Mother nature would not exist without God. For Millennia 'mankind' has constantly taught the separation of universal laws from the source of all creation thereby attributing to himself 'Newton's Law of Gravity' when in fact it is Allah (God's) law that Newton discovered. Credit should be given to the Creator first and foremost.

You refer to spiritualism as that ability to differentiate between an indivisible reality. Is spiritualism to you also consciousness?

....wondered whethereverybody has a spiritual side only some may need stimulating more than othersto bring itto the surface - and whether you go about imparting and sharing this knowledge with this in mind.

The 'spiritual side' you allude to is an innate faculty endowed in 'HUMAN' beings (human; from humus, a dark organic material in soil essential to the fertility of the earth). Not everyone has the ability to