What about gods?
by Author Chris Brockman
Prometheus Books, 1978, US
Children's Non-Fiction, 30 pages
Paperback, $12.98
ISBN: 0-87975-106-1
Review by Ruth Cox
According to the King James version of the Bible, Proverbs 22:6, we are to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." To most parents this instruction makes perfect and simple sense so they set out raising the recent addition to their family, basing their child-rearing on their own moral standards. New parents may seek or receive advice from family members, friends, and neighbors, as well as by reading books on the subject of raising a child. Ultimately, the parents will choose to raise their offspring in adherence to their own behavioral attitudes and beliefs.
In his book, What about gods?, author Chris Brockman addresses this child-rearing issue from the perspective of that of an atheist, or non-theist. Not so simple; not back in the mid-seventies when the book was written, nor even still today. For example, it is only within the last decade that atheism has been taught in British schools. In the United States, presidents ask the people to bow their heads in prayer for their nation. The general population of the universe has long believed in a god or gods. The atheist simply does not.
So what resources are non-theist parents to avail themselves of to combat what their children are being told about god by children in the community raised in a religious family household? How do the atheist parents combat the shoving-it-down-your-throatism of a religious community when trying to train their children in the way they believe their children should go?
Brockman answers these questions by providing a non-fiction children's book which parents can read with their children. He begins by defining a god as "a mythical character" made up "to explain things people don't understand." Brockman goes on to explain that through science we have outgrown the need for make-believe gods through "thinking, measuring, and testing." What about gods? instructs children to ask "about what it means to be good, and what it means to be bad," eschewing the need for rules set forth by a god when one can think from within oneself to determine what one should or should not do, for the good of oneself, as well as for all of humanity.
God. It is odd how such a tiny little word can hold the power to wreak limitless havoc in the mind of mankind. Perhaps what Chris Brockman is trying to convey to the believers of an all-powerful deity with What about Gods? is parallel to what Stephen F. Roberts wrote, "I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
And to the children, this message from Chris Brockman: Keep on thinking.
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What About Gods? (Skeptic's Bookshelf Series)
