[467] metaphysical^a questions by a definition. Every child can put to shame those philosophers^b who deny philosophy^c. [little laughter] Now these questions, even if the children do not ask them actually, are IN the children--very differently but they all have their life problems. They have their problems that some things they would LIKE to have, they CANNOT get; that some things they don’t like to do, they MUST do; that other things give them joy, if they are doing them; that there is a hostility they feel very early in the love of their mother, or in the hostility in themselves against a younger brother or sister; there are difficulties of getting friends--there are all kinds of problems in every child. There are very early, often, erotic problems. Now all problems are there. You are able, if you have very little bit insight into the human soul^d (and we have today much

possibilities of these insights) to know where the questions lie if you observe a child. And then, even if the question is not formulated--and very rarely will it be formulated--it CAN be got out; you can find out; you can bring it into consciousness. And to these questions the religious symbols^e are the answers. And all these questions have something to do with the fundamental questions of finitude^f, to which God^g is the answer; or the fundamental question of guilt feelings, to which reconciliation^h, or forgiveness, is the answer. NOW THIS CAN BE DONE, and ONLY if these questions are alive and are brought into

consciousnessⁱ do the answers have a meaning^j. Otherwise the answers are simply stuff, dead material, to be taken in, and have no meaning whatsoever. But here again we are in the problem of introduction. Introduction means introduction into the real life of the religious community^k, in home, society & church^l.