Chap wrote:An intelligent 4-year-old girl known to me had death explained to her (basically, just as one day we started being alive, one day we shall stop being alive). She thought for a bit, and said "OK, so we have to make sure we do good stuff with our life before we die." [She didn't say it in English, so those are not her actual words].
To be honest, Chap, I wouldn't have expected a different answer from her. Those children at the age of four or so are quite sensible and capable of learning from what the adults say. But I'd really be interested to know her answer if you asked her about the reason
why we should do good things. And, by the way,
what is good or not.
The answer she has given implies moral principles basing on the Christian doctrine and its scriptures on the one hand, and other moral insights that have become part of our culture since the time of the Enlightenment, attributed to many scholars and philosophers (remember i.e. Kant's "categorical imperative" = do not do to somebody what should not be done to yourself).
Imagine a young boy at the same age, maybe born approx. 1,500 years ago in today's Hungary, the son of a Hun. What do you think he'd answered - that we must do "good stuff" or better become a brave and successful warrior like his father? Is there a discreet universal principle that leads us to the insight that we must do or behave good? I'm not sure.
