Mum, Who made the stars?

[Kali]

This was the unexpected theological question posed to me tonight by my 5 year old.
I told him that our hindu friends (insert names) believe that many gods and goddesses made the stars and that Pa believes that there is only one god and that he made the stars and that everyone believes different things but no one knows for sure.
He also asked what a god was but then answered it himself by remembering neptune.
How would you have answered these two questions?
Anymore I should prepare myself for?

[mummabare]

DJ sometimes asks questions like these lol...keeps you on your toes huh ;)

We have talked about the stars being a point of origin for us, that is we believe we come from the stars (as is tradition in our area when we see a falling star we aknowledge another soul coming to be birthed). We have had to do the whole "some people believe..." conversation a few times...where I explain different belief systems of other people...where it gets truely tricky is when other people are flippant about the beliefs of others. When I don't know something I quite frankly say so and we "look it up on google" together :)

Im not sure what issues you've come up across, but we have talked about death a few times, talked about loosing babies and about how doctors sometimes can't fix things. Other biggies are trying to explain what love means and oh, we did have a discussion once about what will happen when the sun stops burning.
Can't really prepare you tho lol...they come left right and centre here! And I don't really beleive there is any right or wrong in honest discussions :)

[Rinelle]

We have a really great science documentary on the birth of the universe that Ezri loves watching.

We're more science based than religious, but we have covered some basic religion stuff, and Ezri firmly believes people go to heaven when they die. She also loves the Noah's Ark story.

[soulmama]

I have said similar to what you did S. :)

As well I have encouraged C & H to look things up and find out for themselves the different beliefs including the scientific if need be.

:heart

[cuddlefish]

I'd just say they are suns and planets really, really far away.

My grandmother taught me that King Neptune had a giant salt machine that made the sea salty and wavy. I still turned out ok :D

[*bunty*]

We are definitely an atheist family so our answers to these questions may vary from those theists among us. We use a lot of Googling too. I also do the some people believe God created everything line so they understand other people's opinions and why they feel a certain way about their personal god.

I just love these questions from inquisitive children. It just shows how their minds are full of wonder and awe :).

[Donna]

We own a 6" telescope, so my kids look at the stars etc alot. And we have books about the place they look at and read... so, so far no questions like that. But I'll be giving it alot of thought now after this thread.

[jodiemiller]

We are an atheist family too, but my five year old has recently decided to pray before bed *scratches head*. He is asking a lot of mortality and spirituality related questions. I try to be gentle when I explain what some people believe and honest when asked what I believe (but remind him he doesn't have to believe what I believe) - but overall I take it as a sign that he's developing concepts outside of himself and that perhaps we need to incorporate a little bit more ritual into our lives to satisfy his desire for connection with something.

[SungaiKecil]

Having been asked about this, we found a great doco on stars for Will to watch with his dad... and he likes the Hawking one ... about the beginnings of the universe. We're science based here, no religious mentions...

[emd]

We're a mish-mash of family beliefs and run our family unit very much as a village with extended family - Catholic, evangelical Christian, polytheistic, and atheist (we had a Muslim too but they got divorced). When these topics come up, the girls tend to ask the same question to every adult in the extended family - so they hear everyone's answer. Most of the adults add that the girls can choose what they believe, but particularly my middle child would infer for themselves that just because one of the adults believes it doesn't mean they have to do the same. I think the girls are mostly choosing to believe the evangelical Christian version of things at the moment - perhaps it will change as they get older, perhaps not. It's not the same as what I believe, but they're happy and it's their choice to make.