Is Religious Exposure Making it Difficult For Your Child to Distinguish Fact From Fantasy?

It’s been discovered that young religious children have trouble separating fact from fiction.

According to a study in the latest issue of Cognitive Science, children acquainted with religion were unable to determine if stories really happened or if they were works of fiction.

The confusion was not just with religious stories like Noah’s Ark, but also stories such as Snow White and George Washington. It’s been determined the exposure to religion increases the chance they believe a fable actually occurred in real life.

Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta thoroughly reviewed the results of the study and feels “It’s just more evidence for those who believe religious indoctrination is a form of mental child abuse.”

Well-known atheist author and professor Richard Dawkins’ opinion is that being raised as a Catholic will do more long-term damage psychologically than being a victim of sex abuse.

Psychology Today takes a different stance, claiming this research supports the theory that imaginative religious stories improve cognitive development by providing creativity and giving different perspectives they wouldn’t have been aware of otherwise.

Pitting religion against science is said to be a disadvantage for children in the debate on creationism vs. evolution and in cases where someone is put in danger when relying solely on prayer, ignoring medicine.

Resources

• The Huffington Post
• Hemant Mehta
• Daily Mail
• Psychology Today
• Wall Street Journal