Thomas Response

 In "Equity," Thomas talks about his relationship with the church as a child and how he imagines Heaven as a fairytale place with mansions and gold streets. He describes his skepticism involving the eternity of the church as "unconvinced, I was twelve, and I had discovered skepticism" (196). Thomas' description of Religion as a child is very similar to what most children experience when being introduced to Religion at a young age. It is difficult for children to understand the power and depth of Religion's impact on political, cultural, and ideological structures. In the Catholic church, as a child, I also thought a lot about what Heaven was or how I knew if it was real. Religion at a young age can be attractive to a developing brain and can shape a child into having particular views they may not have if they were not raised practicing. After living away from my parents, my Religion has pretty much evaporated. I found that they were the only thing connecting me to my Religion, and I did not necessarily hold the same beliefs and values as the church when I was not with them. When skeptically talking about Jesus, Thomas professes, "Jesus was born of a virgin, attended a trade school to learn carpentry, quit his job to start a small faith-based non-profit with some friends, did a couple of well-received TED talks, and then was persecuted, crucified, and rose again" (196). Religion can be pretty timorous as a young child and hard to make sense of, especially when you are told this is the undoubtable truth, and questioning such truth must be a sin. I, for one, could not wrap my head around how the dinosaurs weren't included in God making the earth in six days, but humans were made on the sixth, and I knew undoubtedly true that the dinosaurs existed before us. I had seen their fossils at museums, so why were these two undeniable truths not cohesive?