Speaking of Children

The psychologist Robert Coles was featured on Krista Tippett’s Speaking of Faith program this last Sunday, January 4, 2009. The topic was “The Inner Lives of Children”, http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/robert-coles/. Coles discussed his work with children and especially his work that connected with the spiritual side of children. The thing that resonated with me was how his description of the way kids went about life as ‘problem solvers’, learners and strivers, just as are all adult humans.

Cole’s description of the process used by children to address issues is, of course, a description of how all human beings go about their daily lives. Human beings are problem solvers and in this specific talent, no other species alive even approaches the capability of the human animal in his or her ability to solve problems. (For more on the development of this ability within a religious context one can go to the book by J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, “Alone in the World?: Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology”, which is his Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, or, my work “Plausible Reasoning within a Religious Context”.)

The basic idea is that the ability to solve problems is the unique characteristic that human beings have and, given its contribution to the survival of the species, has been developed to a very advanced and sophisticated stage. Given the importance of this capability to the survival of the species it is not unexpected that younger humans possess this characteristic and practice it and perfect it throughout their childhood.

What is particularly enlightening about the work that Coles reports upon is how this human trait exhibits itself very early on in terms of how children generate questions about life, about value, about meaning, about relationships, and so on. His work just reinforces the idea that humans have possessed a curiosity about “spiritual” matters for as long as we, humans, can trace back this trait in what our ancestors have left us. That is, the early drawings left in the caves of France, as well as artifacts in other places, speak to the quest of human beings to understand more than just the physical world around them.

Human beings ask questions…and they seek and propose answers.

Where do these answers come from? Are they divinely inspired? Are they human concoctions? Are they just picked out of the air?

Many different people give us many different explanations as to where the answers come from. I have my preferences…but, that, to me, is not the crucial issue at this point.

What is important at this point is that people, being problem solvers, require that the solutions they get for specific questions work. That is, these solutions have practical value to humans…remember problem solving is a ‘survival’ characteristic. Thus, these solutions must contribute to life and to a ‘better’ life if they are to continue to serve as solutions to human beings.

Let me just throw in two words of caution at this time of a more skeptical nature. First, I would argue that all solutions are tentative…that is they are fallible…they may not work forever. In seeking answers all humans work in a world of incomplete information. That is, humans never have complete information in solving any problem or in making any decision. Yet, in life they have to make decisions…they must act…even with incomplete information. That is why humans continue to ask questions, seek more information, and continue to question the solutions they have been working with.

This last point leads to the second word of caution: specific solutions may work for a while, but as these solutions are tested through acting and living, and as new information becomes available, the specific solutions may be modified…or, they may be replaced. We can believe in a specific idea so strongly that we will die for that idea, but that does not mean that the specific solution will live on and continue to be used by others. Thus, solutions that provided certain people with a ‘better’ life at one time may not be solutions that provide them with a ‘better’ life at a later date when more or better information is available to them.

How does problem solving and living a ‘better’ life and spiritual issues fit together?

The answer to this question, I believe, is connected with what is meant by experiencing wholeness in life…by being “Alive”. I spent a little time on this in my post of January 5, 2009 entitled “Aliveness.” To me, the essence of ‘Aliveness’ is in living in unity with God, within self, with others, and with creation. To survive in life is important, but one must also experience a ‘better’ life in order to live as full a life as possible. And, I believe that living a ‘full’ life is a good thing and is something that human beings, as a species, crave. It is a basic drive.

In other words, creation is good…creation includes ourselves and others…and God is behind this creation in some way…so it would seem that it would be a good thing to work “with” this creation and “with” God than to work at odds with either creation or God. The solutions we use to solve problems or make decisions or take actions, therefore, need to conform as much as possible to the way things work…the way God is.

Our solutions result from incomplete information, however, so that the unities that we achieve are only partial and, in most cases, temporary. In our lives, we constantly must struggle to maintain or increase the unity we experience. In a sense it is the burden that we must continue to carry up the hill as Sisyphus is pictured doing in the Greek myth.

Human beings continue to struggle in life…they continue to solve problems in the best way they can…even those of a spiritual nature.

In the work of Robert Coles we see how this very human characteristic is manifested early on in life when we are children.

Human beings, I believe, are spiritual in nature. They continually ask questions of a spiritual nature and their lives and cultures are full of spiritual answers. As Paul Tillich informed us…humans build the spiritual into their lives and cultures…even as they vehemently deny it.

In this sense, we have been spiritual beings since our childhood. May we never lose that hunger