The Mouth Of A Tree

Consider a child who tells another that a tree needs food like people do.

The other child may think about this later and say to himself that a tree doesn’t have any teeth and it can’t use a spoon or a knife, so this couldn’t be true.

One way to help people from the public understand Christian beliefs about the supernatural is to try to discuss those beliefs in practical terms and uncover how others may have misconceptualized what they have already heard. Some people come to think about religion and Christianity in ways that would make it difficult for them to ever accept it. At times, the problem isn’t so much what Christianity actually is. Instead, it is how people conceive it.

Consider a child who tells another that a tree needs food like people do. The other child may think about this later and say to himself that a tree doesn’t have any teeth and it can’t use a spoon or a knife, so this couldn’t be true. People can come to conceptualize religion this way. For example, if people think of the soul as being like a ghost that is said to haunt a house or think of God only as a being painted from the imagination in pictures, they will struggle to ever seriously consider becoming a Christian.

Christians want to take care in considering how to present Christian teachings. Christians want to think about how people might perceive what they have to say, what people might already think, and how Christian teachings can best be presented. It makes a difference in whose lives are changed.