Religious children have harder time between fact and fiction

Diomedes writes:They don't have the actual numbers and counts from the study

2.1.1. Participants
A total of sixty-six 5- and 6-year-old children participated (M = 5;8, SD = 6 months,
range: 4;11—6;7, 36 female). Participants were recruited from kindergarten classrooms in
public schools (n = 32) and parochial schools (n = 34) in Cambridge, MA, and the surrounding
area. Most participants were White (61%), although other ethnicities were represented
(21% Asian American, 18% African American). Irrespective of whether they
attended a public school or a parochial school, children were asked about church attendance.
Specifically, after presentation of the final story, children were asked, Does your family go
to services? Children who said yes were categorized as churchgoers. Children who said
no were categorized as non-churchgoers. This description of children’s religious home life
was confirmed through consultation with the kindergarten teachers. The majority of children
who said that they did attend services attended Christian services. We excluded the additional
few children who said that they attended Jewish Temple (n = 6), because several of
the stories used in the study are based on the New Testament (see Appendix A) and therefore
would be likely to be less familiar to children who grew up in a Jewish family. For the
32 children who attended public school, 16 children (M = 5;7 years, SD = 5 months, 7
females) were identified as churchgoers. The remaining 16 children (M = 5;8 years, SD = 6
months, 8 females) were identified as non-churchgoers. For the 34 children who attended
parochial school, 16 children (M = 5;9, SD = 5 months, 10 females) were identified as
churchgoers. The remaining 18 children (M = 5;9, SD = 7 months, 10 females) were identified
as non-churchgoers.
In summary, three groups of children had exposure to religion: churchgoers who
attended public school; non-churchgoers who attended parochial school; and churchgoers
who attended parochial school. A fourth group of childrennon-churchgoers attending
public schoolhad no exposure to religion in either church or school.

CS writes: The thing about the Catholics, though, is that they seem to be open to including new and updated information as we get it (like say theistic evolution), rather than digging their heals in on everything and indoctrinating children with all these anti-science mentalities (read: Creationism).

CS writes:How does all that result in Catholic children being less able to distinguish fact from fiction than Evangelical ones?

Or was that just some good old fashioned knee-jerk hatin' on the Catholics?

CS writes:Better at not indoctrinating children so that they cannot distinguish between fact and fiction

It'd be interesting to see the same study contrasting Catholic and Evangelical children. I bet that the Catholic children would do better than the Evangelical ones.

Phat writes:No. It has already become symbolic and spiritualized. The intention verifies the actuality. Evidence will never trump symbolism.

CS writes:Catholic doctrine is that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Jesus and they are not merely symbolic.

CS writes:They distinguish between the substance, i.e. its essence, and the species, i.e. its outward appearance.The accident of the bread remains the same (it still looks like bread), but its essence has change (it has become something else).

ZR writes:Maybe you literalists just need to get a little more art into your lives.

ZR writes:I think CS is trying to tell you that it isn't "absolute"; it's philosophical.

CS writes:Catholic doctrine is that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Jesus and they are not merely symbolic.

ZR writes:You claim to "know" what CS is thinking where I only think I understand what he's saying. I think he's trying to explain how the Church rationalizes the belief.

Why don't you cherry-pick dictionary definitions to make your point?

CS writes: I'm not talking about my personal beliefs, I'm explaining what the Church's doctrine says.

Tangle writes:You don't actually believe this stuff do you?

CS writes:Exactly.

Jon writes:Are you lambasting them because they rise to meet the changing needs of their followers or because you believe they're only doing it for their own sake?