Learning By Example

I’m sitting in the car with the kids, waiting for my wife to retrieve something from the local craft store, when this breaks loose:

E: “Daddy?”
Me: “Yes?”
E: “What’s the Flying Spaghetti Monster?”
Me: “It’s a little mass of spaghetti with two meatballs and two eyes.” Technically correct, I suppose…
E: “No, I mean what’s it all about?”

Uh oh…

Me: “Well, sweetie, what if I asked you what 2 + 2 was?”
E: “2 + 2 is 4.”
Me: “Ok, but let’s say I believe that 2 + 2 is 5. What would you say to that?”
E: “That’s silly. It’s 4.”
Me: “No, I believe it’s 5.”
E: “Daddy, look…”, she proceeds to count on her fingers, showing me the digits. “Four, see?”
Me: “Yes, that’s a nice demonstration, but I still believe it’s 5.”

After a few rounds of this, she seemed to get the point that no matter how much she showed me her four fingers sticking up, I was going to adamantly insist that 2 + 2 was 5, just because I believed it was so.

E: “I don’t get what this has to do with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.” she finally said.
Me: “We’re getting to that, now. Remember the other day when you asked me how people got here?”
E: “Uh huh.”
Me: “Remember how I said that life started with small, simple animals, and bigger, more complicated animals grew up from them?”
E: “Right.”
Me: “Well, there are some people that don’t believe that. There are some people who believe that people and animals and plants just appeared like magic, because God decided he wanted to do that.”
E: “Ok…”
Me: “So we can either look at the proof, and decide what’s true, or we can just believe what we want. Get it?”
E: “Oh, like 2 + 2.”
Me: “Right.”
E: “I still don’t get it.”
Me: “Well, after a while of trying to explain something to someone, is it easier to explain why you’re right, or show them why they’re wrong?”
E: “I don’t know.”
Me: “Well, if one doesn’t work, then you can try the other, right?”
E: “Ok.”
Me: “So one way to show people how they’re wrong is to give them a different way to look at things.”
E: “Ok.”
Me: “So one way to show people who just believe something that there might be another answer, is to show them a different belief, even if that belief is made up.”
E: “Oh, so the Flying Spaghetti Monster is made up?”
Me: “Right, and it’s an example to show people that you can make up any kind of belief, without proof. That doesn’t make it right. Just believing in something doesn’t make it real.”

She fell silent for a while, and then.

E: “I can’t wait for Santa to come. I really hope I get my Fancy Nancy book.”
Me: “We’ll see, sweetie. We’ll see.”

Some lessons are best learned by example.

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