A religious fable: the New history Students in fourth 4 grade

A religious fable: the New history Students in fourth 4 grade

a view from the moon while i will be walking there

introduction, this Fable does not point at any specific religion nor any specific god. also i am not claiming it happened yet, i never experienced the story, or fable, that i will write here but one day kids are gonna mimic their parents:

Once upon a Time on "earth two" a group gathered for the office Independence Day barbecue. the coworkers and their families gathered at a park where the job provided hot dogs to BBQ beside buns and salads.

as expected some of the christian workers were VERY enthusiastic about their faith and had an opportunity of a gathering to make "friends" and "share the treasure" that they found and believed.

i was one of those so i approached a couple and their brat to introduce myself. "hi my name is name. i am new in the company only six months. how long have you been here?" pa replied, "me? my wife is the one in the company and... [in that world i did not get accused of misoginism for asking the man, so you know i am not talking about the real world] "she started, when was it honey?" he concluded. so she added "last month June tenth 2023."

now that i had broken the ice i faith-forged my way. "have you heard about the private school missionary academy by central park chicago?"

the brat age 11 got triggered by the word missionary. "missionary is a waste of time no CHANCE [possibility like probability zero] that god is real".

pa was more cautious, "is that realy the name?"

i explained "yes it was named for the catholic missionaries who came here from spain to make a settlement here." pause, "not the content of the scool lessons" i added.

"good thing too" ma ejaculated "people should not be taking advantage of the young age to plant those silly stories about miracles and god." uh oh i would not be able to spread my faith here... oh well i could still start the friendship and perhaps LATER save their souls. god had been mercifully patient waiting for me, hadn't he? such i quietly consoled myself.

"what do you mean young age?" i guided the conversation. so she elaborated, "at the age when kids BELIEVE their parents about the tooth fairy and santa claus, they then hear about god and powerful plagues before kids realize to be skeptical about anything supernatural."

in that world they did not allow trans education until twellfth grade, not even in 4 grade, when they learnt about reproductive fluids in male and female teens, so i could not use THAT as an excuse to defend/justify, equaly teaching young students that jesus fed five thousand with five fish and five breads which must have been a miracle.

i tried to distinguish "but parents are saying that, [those characters] about someone they know is fake, i contrast to religion they think is real."

in a chorus pa and brat shot back the oft repeated line "not enough EVIDENCE exists to believe in any god".

i had to be careful or the friendship would end within a minute of it starting, and i needed to make at least one friend, to end my loneliness, even if i failed at saving their souls, so i tread carefully, "i agree with you all that the proofs are weak..." before i could finish the thought, "very weak", interrupted pa, "no proofs" interrupted ma, "...but consider people dont complain about that for OTHER parts of history".

ma was ready, "history? god is all about supernatural so that needs better proof than familiar stuff". i did not agree but she was making a fair distinction, so despite i wanted to argue more, i said "very well presented." the silence was awkward as noone knew what to say next, [in the real world she would say i dont need your approval but this was on earth 2 remember?] but i had done missionary training so my instructions had been to talk about popular issues like sports... i quickly filled the silence with "i am really excited about the game, you know miami seagulls will play our panthers in baseball this weekend" brat started spouting stats about the players, and which were his favorite in each position [on field, arg! i mean the baseball diamond nothing more!], and i had time to take my first bite of hot dog with relish double meaning.

i had not realized that my method had swayed the brat, who loved sports, i could not know his thoughts that he thought even the sucker who fell for god talked about cool baseball... but i would hear about it a few days later... from his miffed ma.

for now we ate the tasty food and crunched the fresh salad and talked about baseball pros and games.

July fifth was the last day of school and their son not named brad rode the school bus as usual in the morning. he watched the bullies in his class beating up the 8 year olds as usual. "god does not save them" he smirked... but then a related thought flashed in his mind... yeh the one he heard from me.

brad and the students filed out of the narrow door of the scool bus and he went to his first class.

teacher mr. mistt announced they would review the history final so everyone would know the correct answer regardless if they had bothered to study. the exam had been about the civil war. "one which fort did the civil war start at?" hands shot up. "mary tell us." she said with confidence "fort sumter in 18 sixty..." but before she could say the year, "...WAIT! i only asked about the place."

everybody lowered their hand except brad.

"brad you can't leave we are revieing the test answers" but brad responded, "you can't mark anybody wrong on THAT one. i mean that theory that the first shot was fired at fort sumpter lacks sufficient evidence even to believe, let alone mention in a scool book."

brad was just bluffing he was not refering to the claim that shots had been fired at a different place.

most of the class moaned and the teacher said "history is facts. no shots were fired before the slavers shot at the free-ers who came to negotiate a demiliterization of several forts."

brad shrugged. he was done with his involvement but... my virus had spread.

teacher continued... "two, matt, who was confederate president when the war started?" matt said the same name as the book but... four kids chorused "not him, there is not enough evidence to believe HE was the one." another brat added "we never saw who was president then or army general" but the history teacher ignored them.

mistt was focussing on the goal of teaching the answers, "paul, three which years were the war?" paul answered but not about the question, "it was before i was born, i dont have to believe anything just kuz it is in a book"

my virus became an epidemic, mary again spoke, "yeh i bet they never really needed this war kuz slavery never happened, people know better than to buy any human as a slave. we would never do that".

paul began again, "if there was a war it was probably about border land and greed, like most wars, this whole story was just to hide the shame of the real ugliness and pretend it was for a good cause."

brad added "the winners write the history"

mr. mistt could only gasp, he felt too shocked to answer and fled the room... when their planet exploded, illustration near introduction. in a huge orange fireball. the end.

the lesson of this religious fable helps point at the fact that people BELIEVE stuff without demanding "evidence beyond a book" before believing.

they DO NOT complain as these fictional students complained: when or who or what happened in books, before we were able to see for ourselves. only to avoid committing to any religion people start complaining "no proof" beyond a book.