Post by merkavah12 on Jul 30, 2014 13:08:14 GMT
www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28537149
"According to new research from Boston University, young children with a religious background are less able to distinguish between fantasy and reality compared with their secular counterparts."
"Some commentators believe these findings show that religious children use their specific background to explain the magical elements of fantasy stories.
"By relating seemingly impossible religious events achieved through divine intervention (eg, Jesus transforming water into wine) to fictional narratives, religious children would more heavily rely on religion to justify their false categorisations," writes Shadee Ashtari for the Huffington Post.
This blurring of reality and fantasy, even for children, is not always a good thing, says notable atheist blogger Hemant Mehta.
"Religion blurs the lines between fact and fiction. You only hope kids exposed to it figure it out soon enough," he writes for Patheos.
In a provocative fashion, Mehta says that the study could be viewed as "evidence for those who believe religious indoctrination is a form of mental child abuse."
Thoughts?
"According to new research from Boston University, young children with a religious background are less able to distinguish between fantasy and reality compared with their secular counterparts."
"Some commentators believe these findings show that religious children use their specific background to explain the magical elements of fantasy stories.
"By relating seemingly impossible religious events achieved through divine intervention (eg, Jesus transforming water into wine) to fictional narratives, religious children would more heavily rely on religion to justify their false categorisations," writes Shadee Ashtari for the Huffington Post.
This blurring of reality and fantasy, even for children, is not always a good thing, says notable atheist blogger Hemant Mehta.
"Religion blurs the lines between fact and fiction. You only hope kids exposed to it figure it out soon enough," he writes for Patheos.
In a provocative fashion, Mehta says that the study could be viewed as "evidence for those who believe religious indoctrination is a form of mental child abuse."
Thoughts?
