Julien Blanc-Gras, father and author of “Comme à la guerre” (éd. Stock), gives us his sharp chronicle. Today, he tells us how he tries to answer his son’s existential questions …
Dad, why do we exist?
So we are already there. Yesterday again, I changed his diapers and there, suddenly the Child wonders about the mystery of creation.
– Why do we exist? That’s complicated, my coco.
– But how was the universe created?
– So there we have the beginning of an answer. There was the big bang. A big explosion, a long time ago, that gave birth to outer space.
I thought I had satisfied my son’s curiosity, but you should never claim victory until you have sold the bear skin.
– And what was there before the big bang?
– Ha well, we don’t know.
– What, you don’t know, daddy?
– No, actually, nobody knows.
The child nodded in disappointment tinged with disdain. Until now, adults have always had the answer. He had just discovered the limits of humanity in general and those of his father in particular.
– But why is there something instead of nothing? And nothing, it is already something, in fact, since it is “nothing”.
– Listen son, all I know is that there is PSG-Bayern Munich tonight.
As the crude diversion did not work, I had to embark on a survey on the state of human knowledge and beliefs: science allows us to know a lot of things but not to answer all the questions. Science knows what it doesn’t know. On the other hand, many people trust a religion and believe that it was God who created the universe.
– But if God created the universe, who created God?
– Personally, I’m betting on a double from Mbappé this evening.
As a good agnostic follower of reason, I made the decision that seemed to me the safest: kick in touch and let those who know better than me answer. After a quick search on my tablet, I came across a series of kid-friendly science documentaries – this was on Disney +. It was about the infinitely large and the infinitely small, the appearance of life and its persistence (with a sequence on the fascinating tardigrades, these almost immortal organisms), in an educational narrative that knew how to arouse wonder. Thank you, Cosmos, you allowed me to neutralize my son in full confinement for four times 40 minutes, while allowing me to revisit my scientific fundamentals. We can say that screens and multinational entertainment companies are very practical for outsourcing the education of children.
In the 4th episode, it was about Einstein and the special theory of relativity, I was starting to be dumped but the child was hypnotized. The time he grinds all this, I am quiet for a few weeks. But I feel like he’ll soon be wondering how babies are made, and the watered-down little seed story won’t be enough. He’ll want details. And there, it may be more complicated to find educational support suitable for children.