Thirteen things we should tell our children about life, gods, and our origins [View All]

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. The Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, not only 6 000 years.

2. Life on Earth started, began developing and evoluating nearly 4 billion years ago.

3. We as humans are most probably the descendants of the first cellular organisms who lived in a primal soup in the early aeons of the Earth’s existence. We are part of a common tree of life, not special creations by a god who allegedly determined that we should rule over all other species.

4. Our nearest relations in other species are the primates and specifically the chimpanzee and bonobo with whom we shared a common ancestor probably 7 million years ago.

5. Always ask for the evidence when people are making claims, whether it’s about a medicine that can heal your illness, an instrument that its seller or manufacturer claims can change your life, or a god or intelligent designer who says he/she will protect you, and will look after you by giving you everlasting life if you live an exemplary life and believe in him or her.

6. Nobody can beat death, it’s an inevitable part of being alive that we will all die one day. Enjoy this one life you have as there is no evidence of a life after this one.

7. There is not a shred of evidence of heaven and hell. Being good won’t get you in heaven, and being bad won’t send you to hell’s fire.

8. There is no shred of evidence that you have an everlasting soul, that you can speak to the dead, or come back from the dead.

9. There is no shred of evidence that any god created the heavens and earth and all life. God is a figment of humans’ imagination, created in humankind’s image by wishful thinkers.

10. The most reliable way of understanding and interpreting how the world and the cosmos work, is the scientific method, the systematic search for knowledge about the world and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories based on evidence (as E.O. Wilson partially puts it in Consilience).

11. Don’t believe any claims and promises made because you think it is based on authority, not the priest’s, rabbi’s, immam’s, not the teacher’s, not your parents’, not your friend’s, not the sports coach’s, not anyone’s. Always ask for the evidence.

12. Don’t believe any claims and promises made because you think it is based on tradition, not the school’s, not the priest’s or imam’s or rabbi’s, not the church’s or the mosque’s or the temple’s or the sinagogue’s, not the teacher’s, not your parents’, not your friend’s, not the sports coach’s, not anyone’s. Always ask for the evidence.

13. Don’t believe any claims and promises made because you think it is based on revelation, not by a fortune teller, holy persons alleging their claim has been revealed to them by a god or prophet, not the priest’s or imam’s or rabbi’s, not the teacher’s, not your parents’, not your friend’s, not the sports coach’s, not anyone’s. Always ask for the evidence.

http://prometheusongebonde.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/thirteen-things-we-should-tell-our-children-about-life-gods-and-our-origins/