Fundie Disconnect Between Cause and Effect?

[emmiedahl]

I was reading a book called The Philosophical Baby and the author was discussing how babies and small children routinely perform 'experiments' in their play. They basically learn how the world works through endless testing. This teaches them cause and effect, which is so important to developing logic.

The lack of logic in the fundamentalist world gets brought up a lot here and I wonder how much of it comes from a lack of exploration and play. Consider:

-A baby that is forced to stay on a blanket cannot explore and interact with their world.

-A toddler that is hit or punished harshly for making messes or mistakes will be hesitant to check out their world because they might get in trouble.

-A preschooler who is confined to a narrow gender role never gets to 'try out' new personas, which is how they decide who they are and who they want to be. God forbid they participate in imaginative play with witches, unicorns, and monsters.

-The fundamentalist homeschooled child enters school age without the normal scientific experiences of their peers and then is taught that all of life can be described by 'God Made It That Way' and explained by a relatively short, non-scientific treatise written several thousand years ago.

-On top of it, science and other logic-based fields are seen as eebil and in conflict with The Source of All Truth.

Reading this book has been interesting because I keep going back to fundies in my head. They are raising their children to be idiots, without empathy, logic, and the other byproducts of normal child's play.

Thoughts?

[emeraldskull]

Although I am a Christian (albeit a self-proclaimed "feminist" one), I do agree with you here! How is a baby/young child supposed to learn if they can't try and fail?

That sounds like an incredibly interesting book, and it makes a lot of sense. It blows the mind that parents would want to take away their children's creative/inquisitive tendencies and replace them with robotic motions. Children should be able to develop, to learn how the world works through their hands and mouths and proverbial rolling in the mud.

It's no wonder they grow up so easily swayed by their parents. From the youngest age, they learned that any self-expression, any creativity, any thinking out of the box, any interest in "the world" leads to pain. They are so brainwashed... It's painful to see.

[emmiedahl]

I'm not saying all Christian families are this way. I know a lot of great Christian moms. I am talking about the Pearl-style upbringing that, unfortunately, seems very popular with this crowd.

[emeraldskull]

I'm not saying all Christian families are this way. I know a lot of great Christian moms. I am talking about the Pearl-style upbringing that, unfortunately, seems very popular with this crowd.

Yeah, I agree! I should have clarified that I meant as a Christian I find the Bible has a lot of merit, even scientifically. But, I don't think modern science is TEH EBILNESS!, as seems so prevalent among the crazy circles...

Really... the more I read about families using the Pearlesque type of "parenting", and real scientific information about the development of babies/children, the worse I feel for all these kids growing up under that. I don't read any love, any compassion, any real caring about the human beings that these children are. Just, "you're my property, do as I say!". So sick...

[emeraldskull]

Also, your profile picture is fantastic! Do you have it as a large size (link?)?

[deelaem]

It always astounds me too, that fundies just completely discount basic child development. I guess it's because the study of child development is secular in nature, and therefore from the devil. :roll:

Fundie parents are bizarre. It's almost as if they consider their children a threat to be subdued rather than human beings to be nurtured.

[fundiefan]

If Jesus/God were truly responsible for everything and able/willing to fix/affect everything it negates a basic tenet of Christianity, right? Free will. Not to mention God's will.

Over the top Christians have no concept of cause & effect. Everything is god's will, end of story.

[emmiedahl]

The avatar picture is here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-E_S0cp-1es/S ... lirium.jpg It's Delirium from The Sandman series.

Another interesting point that the book makes is the link between empathy and infant-maternal bonding. And then I felt sad about all the babies who are hit for crying instead of having mommy comfort them. Is there any way that Pearl philosophies do NOT harm?

[deelaem]

The avatar picture is here: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-E_S0cp-1es/S ... lirium.jpg It's Delirium from The Sandman series.

Another interesting point that the book makes is the link between empathy and infant-maternal bonding. And then I felt sad about all the babies who are hit for crying instead of having mommy comfort them. Is there any way that Pearl philosophies do NOT harm?

Speaking from my child abuse prevention background, lack of empathy was the number one thing we looked for as a risk factor for child abuse. The others were a strong belief in corporal punishment, unrealistic expectations and lack of knowledge of child development. Sounds just like the Pearls and their ilk, doesn't it?

[bananacat]

I definitely think that fundies do not understand cause and effect, so it makes sense that they want their kids to turn out the same way. They are extremely superstitious and blame every kind of problem on minor sins or just thinking the wrong thoughts. An adult loses an election and it's not because he had a bad campaign or is unqualified; it's because a teenager did something minor. A woman has a miscarriage and it's not because miscarriages are just common and that particular fetus had incompatible chromosomes; it's because of prior birth control use. Another woman is infertile and it's because she had troll dolls in her house and that made God angry. A woman has a complicated and dangerous birth, and it's because she didn't have enough faith in God. The same woman has an uncomplicated birth and it's a reward from God because her faith was strong enough. That same woman has yet another complicated birth, but this time it's because God thinks she's so strong that he is putting her through a test of faith.

In fundieworld, every minor up and down is linked to how much faith they had. They really don't get cause and effect in general.