In A Rumor of Angels, sociologist Peter Berger says that certain human experiences open a window to transcendence. They are "rumors of angels" showing that the material world is not all there is. One example of this is what mothers the world over say when comforting children. No matter the difficulty --skinned knee, nightmare, dropped ice cream cone, or something truly tragic-- the universal response is, "Everything will be all right." Berger says that this assurance reveals the human need for order, and that it tells the child that there is an order to the universe ("everything") to which we can entrust ourselves ("all right"). I thought of this while reading the cover of WaPo's "Health" section this morning about unbelieving parents who decide their kids need religion. The parents call what they want for their kids many things: "spirituality," "routine," "community," but it seems clear to me that what they want for their kids is the thing that atheism or agnosticism really can't provide: the reassurance that there is order --that "everything will be all right."
I don't want to be too hard on seekers (everyone starts somewhere), but I can't help but notice that these parents' attitude smacks of the "drive-thru" mentality that so many parents bring to schools, too --as if you just drop your kids at an activity and they get filled up with the virtues and character they need, without the parents needing to do anything themselves.
