Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrou

[Eastoff]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24995520

We can only access the Abstract, but I found it very interesting.

In two studies, 5- and 6-year-old children were questioned about the status of the protagonist embedded in three different types of stories. In realistic stories that only included ordinary events, all children, irrespective of family background and schooling, claimed that the protagonist was a real person. In religious stories that included ordinarily impossible events brought about by divine intervention, claims about the status of the protagonist varied sharply with exposure to religion. Children who went to church or were enrolled in a parochial school, or both, judged the protagonist in religious stories to be a real person, whereas secular children with no such exposure to religion judged the protagonist in religious stories to be fictional. Children's upbringing was also related to their judgment about the protagonist in fantastical stories that included ordinarily impossible events whether brought about by magic (Study 1) or without reference to magic (Study 2). Secular children were more likely than religious children to judge the protagonist in such fantastical stories to be fictional. The results suggest that exposure to religious ideas has a powerful impact on children's differentiation between reality and fiction, not just for religious stories but also for fantastical stories.
© 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

 

[crandc]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Interesting. I've seen few studies comparing religious/secular child raising, and a complicating factor is the large number of "in between"; children who get some religious instruction but whose families live their lives secular (like a lot of secular Jews).

You find interesting stuff.

 

[santeesioux]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

This is true, i was raised in a secular household and even as a very small child when my uncle and aunt would talk about angels it would freak me out and set off my bullshit detector.

 

[barfo]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Wow, kids that are trained to believe nonsense... believe nonsense. Who would have thunk it.

Or maybe we should be charitable and say they have vivid imaginations?

barfo

 

[jlprk]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

At last, a theory for why Denny believes the Warren Report.

 

[crandc]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

No, a vivid imagination is not the same as believing nonsense. A person can have a vivid imagination and write novels, knowing that they are "fake", that the people and scenes are imaginary. That's not the same as believing that some imaginary old white dude with a beard wants you to keep women from getting birth control.

 

[MarAzul]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

No, a vivid imagination is not the same as believing nonsense. A person can have a vivid imagination and write novels, knowing that they are "fake", that the people and scenes are imaginary. That's not the same as believing that some imaginary old white dude with a beard wants you to keep women from getting birth control.

Geez, you make the dumbest posts on the board. Same old lies all the time. I imagine even you could count the old white dudes that want to keep women from get birth control. There are a few that do not want to pay for them, as is their right, but couldn't give a shit less if you do.

 

[Eastoff]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Geez, you make the dumbest posts on the board. Same old lies all the time. I imagine even you could count the old white dudes that want to keep women from get birth control. There are a few that do not want to pay for them, as is their right, but couldn't give a shit less if you do.

I count at least 5

 

[MarAzul]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

I count at least 5

If I am not mistaken, you are. But all 5 can read. Check your count.

 

[Eastoff]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

If I am not mistaken, you are. But all 5 can read. Check your count.

Oops =\

 

[crandc]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

MarAzul might sound more intelligent if he read the posts he's responding to.

The "old white man who does not want women to have birth control" was clearly a reference to how some people see god.

But by all means use your imagination and mix up fact and fiction...

 

[MarAzul]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

MarAzul might sound more intelligent if he read the posts he's responding to.

The "old white man who does not want women to have birth control" was clearly a reference to how some people see god.

But by all means use your imagination and mix up fact and fiction...

Really? Well I am not sure how you will get to the mark.
Jesus cares? Naw! I can't think of a place or time he said a word on the subject..
More lies perhaps?

 

[jlprk]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Marzul, you play Christianity for all its angles. In your first week on this board you were vicariously enjoying a future of killing all Muslims on Earth. Weeks later you were hiding behind the skirts of compassionate Christianity. On abortion, you are Religious Right.

So I pointed this out months ago, and you ambiguously said you weren't that kind. Guessing, I got the impression that you are eclectic, not religious. Just a garden-variety former killer, or informer on unions, or whatever your past is.

What the hell are you?

 

[MARIS61]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

The study is worthless, as are the conclusions they draw from it.

They did not survey secular children who have been exposed to religion, possibly attending church(es) regularly as I was brought up, nor did they survey religious children who have not been exposed to church or secular school.

 

[MARIS61]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Clarence Thomas is white?

 

[jlprk]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

No one in his right mind would fall for those stories. Snow White voluntarily moved out of her home sleeping with 7 dwarfs? You must take me for a fool.

 

[MarAzul]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Marzul, you play Christianity for all its angles. In your first week on this board you were vicariously enjoying a future of killing all Muslims on Earth. Weeks later you were hiding behind the skirts of compassionate Christianity. On abortion, you are Religious Right.

So I pointed this out months ago, and you ambiguously said you weren't that kind. Guessing, I got the impression that you are eclectic, not religious. Just a garden-variety former killer, or informer on unions, or whatever your past is.

What the hell are you?

lol

 

[jlprk]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

I knew you'd weasel out with ambiguity like last time I asked, but you exceeded expectations...3 letters!

That was good!

 

[jlprk]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

The government says that if a drawing of Joe Camel is on billboards, it will cause children to smoke.

What if it's the government who are the children?

 

[barfo]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

The government says that if a drawing of Joe Camel is on billboards, it will cause children to smoke.

I thought the problem was that Joe's nose was a penis and his cheeks balls?

baarfo

 

[MadeFromDust]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

MarAzul might sound more intelligent if he read the posts he's responding to.

The "old white man who does not want women to have birth control" was clearly a reference to how some people see god.

But by all means use your imagination and mix up fact and fiction...

If some people see God that way then they're morons. Sounds like another typical anti-religious strawman to me.

 

[julius]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

No, a vivid imagination is not the same as believing nonsense. A person can have a vivid imagination and write novels, knowing that they are "fake", that the people and scenes are imaginary. That's not the same as believing that some imaginary old white dude with a beard wants you to keep women from getting birth control.

Santa wants to keep women from getting birth control?

 

[crandc]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Susan B. Anthony said she distrusted people who claimed to know what god wants, as it always seems to coincide with their own wishes. I agree. (The fact that her name was hijacked by an antiwoman group notwithstanding.)

You oppose family planning? God say fertilize every egg and preserve fertilized egg at all costs. You support family planning? God says the woman's life takes precedence.
God likes the Spurs more than the Heat. Hell, so do I.
You want slavery and apartheid? God created the races separate and apart. You hate slavery and apartheid? God created all souls equal.

Martin Luther King and Fred Phelps were both Baptist ministers. Pope Pius and Daniel Berrigan were both Catholic priests. All claimed their wildly divergent views came from the same god. Your God is a reflection of yourself (as the saying goes, God did not create people, people created God, in their image.)

 

[Eastoff]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Back to the point!

 

[Eastoff]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Children raised in religious homes have more trouble separating stories of magical people as fact from fiction compared to homes without religious backgrounds. Magical characters are given equal belief to that of religious stories. Is this not troubling? Does this not say something about religious stories?

 

[Minstrel]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Children raised in religious homes have more trouble separating stories of magical people as fact from fiction compared to homes without religious backgrounds. Magical characters are given equal belief to that of religious stories. Is this not troubling? Does this not say something about religious stories?

IMO, it says that mythology being taught to children as truth inculcates in them a belief in "magical thinking" (that things can happen outside of what mundane reality allows for). That magical thinking obviously doesn't just end at the boundaries of religion.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

Children raised in religious homes have more trouble separating stories of magical people as fact from fiction compared to homes without religious backgrounds. Magical characters are given equal belief to that of religious stories. Is this not troubling? Does this not say something about religious stories?

I find it interesting, but not troubling. Sounds like religious kids have more faith. I don't think that is a bad thing.

It sad to me that people of no religious faith look down on people with religious faith. With so many bad things out there to be involved in, is it a bad thing that people choose to live their life having a religious belief?

 

[crowTrobot]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

I find it interesting, but not troubling. Sounds like religious kids have more faith. I don't think that is a bad thing.

The lack of ability to rationally parse the nature of objective reality does have negative consequences for individuals, and occasionally catastrophic consequences for humanity.

It sad to me that people of no religious faith look down on people with religious faith.

I don't know that they "look down" on them so much as they think they are fooling themselves, using the concept of "faith" as an excuse for wishful thinking.

With so many bad things out there to be involved in, is it a bad thing that people choose to live their life having a religious belief?

How is it a choice?

 

[Eastoff]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

With so many bad things out there to be involved in, is it a bad thing that people choose to live their life having a religious belief?

"You're best way into heaven is to blow up your enemies." Catholics in Ireland, Buddhists in Burma, Islamic in the middle east.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Re: Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Back

"You're best way into heaven is to blow up your enemies." Catholics in Ireland, Buddhists in Burma, Islamic in the middle east.

If you think that is what religion is all about, you have a misconception of religion.

People who use violence in the name of god or allah of whoever are not true religious people.