| badgenome said: The study is hardly convincing because of the methodology used. Every single fictional story used was a slightly altered Bible story (e.g., "John" parting the sea instead of Moses), and of course Christian kids inclined to believe stories they already believe even if you change the names of the participants. It doesn't prove that religious kids are more inclined to believe fictional stories that fall outside of the mythos of their particular religion. |
I think the study altered the stories for blindness, which is one of the most important aspects in biostatistics. Moses is a widely known name while John is a generic name. If the children hear the name, Moses, they will instantly know that it's the Moses that parted the Red Sea. However, by substituting Moses with a more generic name, it gives a more fair test. It would be theoretically harder for non-religious children to categorize John parting the sea as religious or Biblical, but they still found out.
