> > > How old do you think is old enough?
> >
> > I don't like to put a specific year on things like this because everyone is different.
>
> You've hit the nail right on the head with that statement. Every person is different; each child matures at a different pace. Some children are very bright, learn quickly, and would be capable of understanding basic salvation doctrine at an early age. Others take longer. And of course many become mature enough to understand, but choose not to accept it until later in life, or perhaps never.

Well it wasn't really a question of intelligence... A child may be really bright and able to learn things but still not know that not everything everyone teaches them is going to be true. That's why I mentioned the santa thing. A child can know all the stories about santa, and all about his magic reindeer and everything, and they'll believe it because that's what their parents always tell them, despite the fact that what santa is supposed to do is physically impossible. It just seems to me like 7 is too young for a child to be properly cynical, and that any commitment they make to believing something then isn't really anything more than blind following. I mean, I don't really know if blind belief is just as good as thoughtful belief in the religious sense, but it just rubbed me the wrong way and I wanted to know if there was any validity to my complaint.