naturalplastic wrote:
This hare brained priest should be worried about the influence of X-box on children, and not about toys that get kids away from the computer like Legos. He's about two centuries behind the times.
Really the whole notion that interactive play, especially interactive play that involves playing out activities like violence, is detrimental to producing healthy people couldn't be further from the truth. Games and the many variations of them that people play is actually one of the biggest subjects between archeologists and anthropologists who work a lot together. War games in particular have been played literally since the time of archaic homo sapiens (and by that I mean humanity before homo sapiens sapiens, when subspecies like neanderthal, cro magnon, and java man roamed the earth). In fact war games were one of the earliest indications we have found of actual culture, predating music (music being the second oldest main piece of cultural tradition after games). And that's really saying something because in some of our earliest neanderthal digs around france we have found fully functional flutes! Another even more pointed fact when it comes to this particular subject is that in all reality Jesus and every other famous Jew in the bible played games for that matter. Levitical priests cast lots, casting lots being an activity similar to throwing dice where you used sticks, to determine priestly duties and also to gamble chores, money, and all kinds of other things. Jesus would have grown up playing kick-ball,
playing with dolls (yes dolls were quite common), throwing lots, and playing rudimentary board games that poor folk most often made from readily available materials as they couldn't afford games made by craftsman like the rich could (they sometimes even made board games from dung patties, hahahahaha).
So it's pretty much the height of silliness for any christian to look down on games and toys. Games and toys have actually been vital to the development of human culture as it is and toys happen to develop a child's tactile senses, hearing, and even general cognitive capacity. Not playing with your child can actually stunt the child's development, which is why parents have been playing with their children since the dawn of cultured humanity. It is an easy and interactive way to interest the child and participate in mental development, especially motor functions and several forms of cognitive discernment.
So: legos are the work of god and they shape minds. The absolute opposite of this crazy garbage believed by folks like the Duggars. It seems to me that that kind of upraising would make one dimwitted, unimaginative, foul tempered, and limited in potential. Toys aren't just a bad diversion that is granted to kids. Imaginative play can be critical to success in adulthood. Poor living conditions and this kind of dour upraising actually made the dark ages the stunted period that it was, Europe got into a rut that it couldn't get out of because most folk were Duggars (mind you not exactly by choice). There was barely any literature, few inventions, bleak living circumstances in general, and life was dominated by fear and superstition. All thanks to no toys.
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There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.
Nahj ul-Balāgha by Ali bin Abu-Talib