Religious children have harder time between fact and fiction

I'm not sure it's necessary for 5-and-6-year-olds to distinguish between fact and fiction. If they can voluntarily give up their belief in Santa Claus a few years later, it doesn't seem to be much of a problem.

That's what parents are for.Children need to learn at their own pace to distinguish fact from fiction and parents need to protect them from the dangerous fictions.Everybody should also retain an appreciation for fiction. What appalls me most about doctrinaire religionists is not that they can't recognize a talking snake as fiction but that they equate fiction with "lies".If you appreciate fiction, there's a much finer line betwen "fact and fiction" and you have to work harder at understanding. That's something that children shouldn't be pushed into too quickly.

On a certain level, I believe in Santa Claus: Santa is us in the same sense that, "We have met the enemy and he is us." This is an important truth, whether it is literally true or not.I can see how people could believe in transubstantiation on a similar level.Maybe you literalists just need to get a little more art into your lives.

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

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?

You're trying to demonstrate; you have not yet achieved demonstration. I'm taking it from a real Catholic rather than from somebody who doesn't seem to understand what real Catholics are saying.

Are you channelling Faith? He told me I understand what he's saying. Message 34

It occurs to me that that sounds a lot like mineralization of fossils - minerals replace the original materials while preserving the structure.

Whether he believes it or not is irrelevant to the topic. Does he have a harder time distinguishing fact from fiction than if he had been raised with a strictly secular education? I don't see any evidence of that.And the topic is about children. Even if they do have a harder time as children they may still grow out of it as adults. I grew up in an environment that "should" have made me a creationist but it never did. It's not an assumption; it's a conclusion based on your posts in this thread.

Don't confuse "the Catholic Church" with the official position of the heirarchy. Your own reference says:

quote:

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Only 30 percent of those surveyed believe they are actually receiving the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine.
29 percent think they are receiving bread and wine which symbolize the spirit and teachings of Jesus and, in so doing, are expressing their attachment to His person and words.
10 percent understand their action to be receiving bread and wine in which Jesus is present.
and 23 percent hold that they are receiving what has become the Body and Blood of Christ because of their personal belief. link

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There is a diversity of opinion and understanding in the Church - i.e. among the members of the Church.