Philosophy: Yellow & Pink

Yellow & Pink
by William Steig

As part of the World Religions block, we read this wonderful philosophical picture book and explored the following question: Is religion a fundamental human need -- alongside food, shelter, clothing -- or is it a learned behavior?

You could read and discuss this book at any point in the block; we did it when we were studying Abrahamic Religions. Marietta McCarty has god as one of the topics in Little Big Minds: Sharing Philosophy with Kids.

Another way into this question is the Fundamental Needs of Humans lesson in Montessori. It follows the Third Great Lesson about Early Humans.

Here are my questions and some of their responses.

me: Is religion a fundamental human need -- is it something as essential as food, shelter, clothing, and so on -- or do you think it is a learned behavior?

I think it's learned.

You start to have these questions because you overheard conversations like this. Someone is talking about it.

me: One way to see if it's a fundamental need is to think about if someone grew up away from people -- like if they were raised by wolves -- would they also have these questions? Would they wonder, where did I come from? What does it all mean?

No, you'd just be in survival mode.

Yes, you'd wonder, why don't I look like anyone else in my family? These people don't look like me.

me: What if we take religion away... do people not do as well? People who attend religious services do tend to live longer than those who don't. And for people who have been interviewed whose marriages lasted 60+ years, faith is one of the things that those marriages have in common.

People whose marriages last have things in common. And this is just one of the things; it's a coincidence that it's religion, it could be a sport or a hobby.

Most people are religious. So if you interview a group of people, most of them will be religious. It's automatic.

60 years ago it was common to have religion. That generation, it was common.

Older people have more free time. When you get past survival and have time to think, then you're more likely to wonder about things.

It gets passed down. Like a family heirloom, it just gets passed down. You don't really think much of it

Having answers to your questions gives you peace of mind. Maybe it's peace that's a fundamental human need.

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