Rev wrote:
"Recently, being very interested in what makes us who we are I've done some reading on what happens to children born with physical handicaps, especially those born without the ability to see and hear. Not far from where I served as a minister--1966-1994--there is a special home--which the Family Life Foundation of our church helped get started in the 1970's. I met with some of the children and their mediators. Very interesting."

I am not quite sure why you introduced this theme--- but it is actually an area in which I have a great interest.

Having qualified as a high school Humanities teacher I became very interested in a child's acquisition of language and ended up taking further study to become a Special Ed teacher. I taught children and young adults with profound and severe intellectual, physical and sensory impairment for twenty years. It was a job which not only offered great satisfaction but also taught me I have much to be thankful for, as well as confirming my lack of faith in existence of any sort of supernatural get out of gaol clause. It enables me to say with a fair degree of certainty that children are not born believers but have belief thrust upon them! Imaging Geek is correct in his statements, belief is not innate or instinctive, it is taught.

However I do also think that some people do need to believe in a god-ish concept of some sort. I do not feel this is foolish, in fact I have often thought it must offer huge comfort to many.