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Forums - Politics Discussion - Religious Children Have Difficulty Distinguishing Fact From Fiction

Mr.Playstation on 30 August 2014
Seece said:
MTZehvor said:
I'm pretty sure you could say the exact same thing about kids from households that told their kids that the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus exists.

This study is irrelevant unless there's some long term effects on these kids, and I'm going to guess that, just like people who believed in Santa as a kid, that effect is nonexistent.

Not the same, all kids grow up realising that santa ect is not real, probably at an early age too. Everything religious children are taught, are expected to believe for the rest of their lives.

And quite frankly santa clause is easier to believe in than talking animals.


While children at that age think that whatever the bible says is real such as talking snakes and so on, they quickly grow up and learn that these are just symbols. In the Genesis the writers just wanted to show that God put all humans as better than all animals, the genesis does not show that god invented humans without any evoulution happeaning.



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MTZehvor on 30 August 2014
Seece said:
MTZehvor said:
I'm pretty sure you could say the exact same thing about kids from households that told their kids that the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus exists.

This study is irrelevant unless there's some long term effects on these kids, and I'm going to guess that, just like people who believed in Santa as a kid, that effect is nonexistent.

Not the same, all kids grow up realising that santa ect is not real, probably at an early age too. Everything religious children are taught, are expected to believe for the rest of their lives.

And quite frankly santa clause is easier to believe in than talking animals.

Now you're not even arguing about the study, you're simply arguing about the validity of religion.

Which isn't the point. The point of the study is that religion makes it more difficult for kids to distinguish between what is real and what isn't.

My point is that it may very well do so at ages 5-6, but like the kids who believe in Santa Claus (which many do until six years old), they eventually grow up and gain the ability to distinguish between fiction and fact. If you go out on a street downtown and ask adults from all walks of life (or I guess, in your case, a street in a different country) whether a story about a flying dragon shooting space monsters was real or not, not a single one would say it's true.

Religion doesn't "obscure" adults' ability to distinguish between what's hard to believe and what isn't; I think anyone who believes in the Bible or some other religious book would tell you that it requires a great deal of faith to believe in what's written there. They believe in them knowing full well how improbable it seems, which is the exact opposite of this study. The study is arguing that kids' ability to distinguish probability is being affected, and my point is that by adulthood that effect is gone.



FIT_Gamer on 30 August 2014
whatever said:
Teaching fiction as fact will do that...




jigokutamago on 30 August 2014
Seece said:
jigokutamago said:
Seece said:

Didn't say that. Are there not like 4,000 different religions? Of which they don't believe in the same things (obviously).

That said, the majority of people in my country (and the country VGChartz resides in) are atheist :)

Dude, it's right in the same article

"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."

Dude, learn where VGC is based.

LOL, I assumed so because it was not vgchartz.co.uk

 

But I still don't know if it is the majority since I see conflicting statistics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_the_United_Kingdom



StarOcean on 30 August 2014

I find this study very interesting. However, it is sad that it will more than likely be abused by religion bashers more than anything else.

I can already see that this thread has already begun to devolve :P



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Seece on 30 August 2014
jigokutamago said:
Seece said:
jigokutamago said:
Seece said:

Didn't say that. Are there not like 4,000 different religions? Of which they don't believe in the same things (obviously).

That said, the majority of people in my country (and the country VGChartz resides in) are atheist :)

Dude, it's right in the same article

"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."

Dude, learn where VGC is based.

LOL, I assumed so because it was not vgchartz.co.uk

 

But I still don't know if it is the majority since I see conflicting statistics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_the_United_Kingdom

Trust me, it is. Put 100 people in a room and 20, maybe 25 will be religious. Might even be being generous there.



 

Anfebious on 30 August 2014

It doesn't matter what this study says I will teach my kids about the love of Satan, my lord.



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VXIII on 30 August 2014

Children with imagination have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. Which is about every child. That's why they are children.



jigokutamago on 30 August 2014
Seece said:

Trust me, it is. Put 100 people in a room and 20, maybe 25 will be religious. Might even be being generous there.

Ok, I'll just have to trust you on this one, just make sure that everyone you put in the room acurately repesents the population(don't forget age group).



Talal on 30 August 2014
whatever said:
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.

The fact that they believe that mythos is bad enough.


Billions of adults believe these stories too. 

I do believe that religion should not be forced onto children like it is now. Because young kids will obviously believe what their parents or schools teach them as facts. 

I think that the findings of the study aren't very surprising, but like badgenome said the study's significance is diminished because of the methodology they used.