Philosophical 8 Year Old

[bettiboo]

I only have one DS and so have no other experience to go by. My 8 year old asked me tonight who he was, if eyes can see why can't he see himself, who made God, who made the earth, the person who made God - who maade them and so it goes on. Is this normal for an 8 year old? He was very happy to debate it! Has anyone else had these types of discussions with their children?

My DS1 once asked "Why is the sun?" also is god a man,etc...his brain was on the go non-stop. DS2 definitely doesn't question as much, just accepts really.

DS1s secondary school report at 14yrs old included from his Physics teacher,that no matter what was planned for the lesson,DS2 always managed to turn the entire lesson, into a debate regarding what he wished to discuss that day!..his teacher said he was 'quite a character,and it was a pleasure to have him in the class!

These days (at 22)he can win any arguement by totally confusing the opponent,and is student representative for his college.

I would say it's not all DC that think this way or at least not to that analytical extent,other then is the 'tooth fairy real?'.

Hi Jelly, I'm glad it's not just my son then. I suspect children hear a lot more about God today than ever. My son goes to a multi cultural school and it must be difficult to understand the world in which we live today. It's not like when we were at school, you were either a christian and not much else. Not where we lived anyway. I love the fact that my son is so curious about the world. I'd be interested to hear what others have to say. I certainly don't remember being so philophical at 8.

Very common and often starts younger ime.

And as an aside, I may add that this was about the age where I decided I was a Christian- though nobody else in my family was and my school was not a religious one. But that is probably a bit unusual.

I think it's lovely he is thinking about him and the world around him ... very normal to start asking questions around this age. My son once asked me if he was the son of god ?!?! WTF ! Turns out we had always said he was 'special' to us and that's how his HT had described Jesus in an assembly...makes perfect sense really

It is quite common. My oldest started these kinds of questions when he was 5. He is a thoughtful and quiet boy. His brother who is now 5, does not have the same curiosity. Though he has said some astonishing things from age 3...

my youngest DS was just like that and decided also at around that age that he didnt believe in god, and was constantly going on about the big bang etc.
Now at age 13 he told me actually he feels drawn to Buddhism (!) (we are a non religious household with no links to anything like this) - the type of kid he is i think it may be more than a phase...

My ds is like this. I have encouraged him to spend time researching these things on the internet (I am so grateful for the existence of Google). He has become a wealth of information about all sorts of odd and interesting things. He told me today (he is 10 now) that in class they were discussing the universe and the teacher had a list of questions and the class kept picking ds to answer them because he gave such interesting and detailed answers.

Wow, what fabulous children we have. I don't remember ever being so curious. I thank the lord for google too. We were on first thing this morning, DS wanted to know what the Nazi helmet looked like and what Swastika meant. He appears to have a healthy (albeit naive) opinion of the holocaust and Nazi Germany (I had to steer him away from wanting to own a machine gun and shoot all the Nazi's!!). :)