Piaget’s Child Artificialism and the Concept of God

A child is different from adult in physical, mental, intellectual and emotional sides. To be effective educational actions in child education, educators should try to know the child’s reality in various developmental areas. This applies to religious development. As all developmental theories are interrelated with one another, religious development also has deep relationships with the rest of child developments. The purpose of this study is to study the child’s concept of God based on the Piaget’s artificialism which is an important part in Christian education. To accomplish this, this study deals with the doctrine of God, the characteristics of the concrete－operational period, artificialism and the child’s concept of God which corresponds to the school age children. Piaget’s artificialism, animism and realism are related to the child’s concept of the world according to Piaget. Among many concepts of the world, especially artificialism is related with the concept of God. Piaget defines that “Child artificialism consists in regarding things as the product of human creation rather than in attributing creative activity to the things themselves”(Piaget, 1929, 253). Children think that everything in the world is made by man; sun, moon, tree, mountain, clouds and etc. The filial sentiment may be the source of artificialism. Piaget divides into four stages in the development of artificialism. The first period is called diffuse artificialism. This means that nature is conceived as being controlled by men or at least as centering around them. The idea of God is seen as a powerful man and the power of human beings, to whom the child attributes divine qualities. During the second period, mythological artificialism, children think that the origin of the world is half natural, half artificial. The children in the third period, technical artificialism explain the origin of the world as human technique and natural process together. During the second and third period of artificialism, thechildren attribute to the origin of the world as half artificial and half natural. As children discover the limits of human capacity, they transfer to God, of whom they learn in their religious instruction. The last period of artificialism is immanent artificialism. In this stage, nature is made by man disappears entirely. This is the stage where human and divine activity are seen as having no connection with the origin of nature and they are conceived in purely natural terms. However, if children have received religious instruction, they differentiate between physical and theological factors during this period. Therefore, artificialism comes to be transferred to God himself which the children have been learned in religious instruction. As a result of studying Piaget’s theory, five things need to be considered in teaching children about God. First, religious instruction to the children between the ages of 4 and 7 often appears as something foreign to the children’s natural thought according to Piaget. Secondly, abstract concepts are not appropriate instruction until the 13 years of age. Thirdly, the major task of Christian education of the children in concrete operational period is to help them establish the deity concepts. Fourthly, the effective period to teach the concepts of God is the period of technical artificialism (7 to 10 years). Fifthly, Christian educators need to teach with confidence when they teach the concept of God. Lastly, educational model which is combined with theory and practice.