Study; how religion affects the minds of children

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yeah, yeah, not ALL children maybe..but...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/18/r ... m-fiction/

Interesting. Kids exposed to religious stories have more difficulty telling what is and isn't real. That explains a lot regarding our resident creationist.

Jesus looks bad ass here.How come I never got a cool coloring book like this in vacation bible school?

/\ You probably would have been "birched" just for suggesting something like that in an Arkansas bible school back then.....

I'm not that old,the 1970's not 1870,anyway the switch of choice here is from a peach tree.
Not many birch trees,a few on the river,but everyone had a peach tree.Nothing stings like a keen peach switch on a bare leg.Settles the little heathens right down.

/\ It's a figure of speech. Birched sounds more convincing than peached.
Example: "You wait till your dad gets home young man (or young lady). When he finds out what you did he's going to give you the peaching of a lifetime!"
See what I mean?

I've heard the term.Say,is this the forum for autistics?You mentioned birch trees and I told you what I know of them.Shouldn't you be preening or looking for mites?
The term "birching" is not used here due to the lack of birch trees,this is not New England.

Oh, I get it now: I said "back then" and you elected to take it to be a quippish reference to your age. Therefore my use of the term "birched" (no mention of the actual tree) had to be dissected with a lesson on Ozark region dendrology.
I'm done with this exchange so whatever......

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/birched
Go take a dust bath.

I wonder if this study's findings would also apply to Buddhism?

Fantastical stories etc. abound in Buddhism for children to learn.

Because I came to it late, I always considered Buddhism approached as an adult.
But perhaps a child might lose some critical thinking ability?

I know that, in Christianity, for example, "faith" for a child begins with the answer to a
question, such as: "Who is Jesus?" or " Why is that man on the cross?" And the child
will always have "faith" that their Mother/Father taught them truly, and not question
the biblical stories.

Do Buddhist children learn uncritical acceptance when learning Buddhism.

Tally Man?

Its not religion per se buta rigid and totalitarian application of religion.Kids who are taught that unfaith is blasphemy will grow up believing that critical thinking is a sin.I'll raise my own kids to feel obligated to raise anything which makes no sense or seems ridiculous to them. Stifling critical reasoning is a form of child abuse as far as im concerned. On the flipside actually forcing an atheistic world view onto a child is just as wrong. Ideally a child should be exposed to every perspective possible with little bias or prejudice.

It is quite possible in Asian countries where Buddhism is the endemic religion.

As someone who came to Buddhism in my late teens (I was a science student at the time) I never put any faith in fantastic stories... they were just stories.

So untold numbers of Buddhas through uncountable eons, reincarnation, and all of the classic Buddhist stories, seeming unbelievable under scientific examination, are myths not-to-be-believed? (Or) Is something along these lines necessary for any religion (and people) to survive? Don't forget we're talking about teaching children, not ourselves.

It is an interesting question. In my opinion adults should make it clear to children what are stories / make believe and what is known to be real. The thing is though, a lot of adults cling on to religious stories and mythology as though it IS real. We have only to look at creationists teaching kids all that nonsense... can't be good from their point of view of really understanding the world. Though maybe people just don't care what is and isn't real so long as their bellies are full and they've got shelter and an iPhone.

In defense of Christianity i'd like to say that mythology is only one half of the picture. Morality forms the other half. Jusst as kids are taught to uncritically accept poetry and metaphor as reality kids are also taught to follow moral precepts that actually fly in the face of values such as compassion and the sanctity of life. Genital mutilation is one pertinent example.

Jesus is recognised as an ascended master/great teacher and all round venerable figure partly because he was a revolutionary. He comes along and overturns thousands of years of Jewish legal tradition and essentially says that all the ritual and ceremony is pointless just love your neighbour and love God, have compassion, be merciful, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Modern christianity has turned Christ into a sort of cuddly toy with superpowers. Were he a plush toy I imagine that pushing his belly button might produce a biblical platitude in a Barney-esque jabber. The reality is that the biblical figure purposefully set out to reform a legal political social and even economic system that had persisted for thousands of years. He succeeded and Christianity itself divorced from the papacy and the bull is a powerful testament to that.

Even more incredible is the fact that he did this with the might of the Jewish religious hierarchy AND the Roman government dogging him. I may be wrong but no man in history has accomplished what the biblical Jesus accomplished.

Sadly Christians today are hardly revolutionary and those that are tend to lose the point entirely (God hates fags anyone?) following Christ's example today would equate to trying to form a breakaway economic or social system founded on the values of equality and cooperation.

Probably rode a dinosaur?

Christ probably also drove home from work in a car powered by his own fat little feet. And when he got home he probably also occasionally pounded on the door, and shouted "WILMA! I'm home honey!".