Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonYou could talk about the non-reality of corporeal bodies and the kid will respond, “let’s play Battleship!”[/quote]
Corporeal - having material or physical form or substance.

Why would you talk about the "non-reality of material objects" to a child? Simply in order to confuse him? It's not surprising that a child (or any honest individual) would automatically tune such irrational nonsense out and switch to thinking about something of actual value.

Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonAnd then you’ll think for the whole night about what it means that a child does that, maybe even a little proud of your cerebral nature, but that kid’s going to go to bed thinking about being a spaceman and he’ll be a thousand times happier than you.

This is because the child is using his mind to focus on reality while you are apparently focusing your mind on irrational nonsense. And for whatever reason proud of it? :(

Another point is the unfortunate degradation of "the intellect", or what it means to "be intellectual" such as this:
[QUOTE=Jolly McJollyson]I love that you can say something incredibly intellectual ...

The intellect, properly defined, represents the power of a man's mind to perceive and understand reality. And yet, such phrases as "non-reality of corporeal bodies" are merely pointless contradictions that do not point to anything in reality. They do not add any value to our lives, they do not represent any actual knowledge or "increase in intellect". Unfortunately, because irrational nonsense like that continues to be passed off as "intellectualism", the intellect, as such, gets a bad name.

Finally, Jolly McJollyson, I am not sure exactly where you stand on all of this stuff. But, I do appreciate you posting this thought in the first place. And I think that you are seeing something valuable in the child's reaction.