Children Exposed To Religion Have Difficulty Distinguishing Fact From Fiction, Study Finds

Young children who are exposed to religion have a hard time differentiating between fact and fiction, according to a new study published in the July issue of Cognitive Science.

Researchers presented 5- and 6-year-old children from both public and parochial schools with three different types of stories -- religious, fantastical and realistic –- in an effort to gauge how well they could identify narratives with impossible elements as fictional.

The study found that, of the 66 participants, children who went to church or were enrolled in a parochial school were significantly less able than secular children to identify supernatural elements, such as talking animals, as fictional.

By relating seemingly impossible religious events achieved through divine intervention (e.g., Jesus transforming water into wine) to fictional narratives, religious children would more heavily rely on religion to justify their false categorizations.

“In both studies, [children exposed to religion] were less likely to judge the characters in the fantastical stories as pretend, and in line with this equivocation, they made more appeals to reality and fewer appeals to impossibility than did secular children,” the study concluded.

Refuting previous hypotheses claiming that children are “born believers,” the authors suggest that “religious teaching, especially exposure to miracle stories, leads children to a more generic receptivity toward the impossible, that is, a more wide-ranging acceptance that the impossible can happen in defiance of ordinary causal relations.” According to 2013-2014 Gallup data, roughly 83 percent of Americans report a religious affiliation, and an even larger group -- 86 percent -- believe in God.

More than a quarter of Americans, 28 percent, also believe the Bible is the actual word of God and should be taken literally, while another 47 percent say the Bible is the inspired word of God.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/21/children-religion-fact-fiction_n_5607009.html

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Obvious, no? still, nice to have studies confirming it.

1. Rammifications?
2. Still see religion as a positive influence on a child's mind?

Teaching fiction as fact will do that...

Yeah this seems obvious enough. I don't think it's a good thing tbh, it might affect the kids' rational thinking

Normal result.

Religion should only come from child if they want at 15, never younger.

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.

people say the same about child gamers

The fact that they believe that mythos is bad enough.

Your statment implies to me that your against religion or think it is false.

I don't like it.

Children should not be exposed to religion until they are old enough to consent to it. And given a lot of lies are told in some religions (Talking snakes, big arcs ect) it's no wonder they can't distinguish fact from fiction.

No offense but why would he care if you don't like it? The majority of people think it's false and some have perfectally good, rational reason to be against religion.