How are children raised in religious homes different from those raised in secular homes?
A friend of mine once told me he
warned his son about declaring himself to be an atheist on the internet. My
friend was raised in a Christian home but gave it up along the way. Now he is
an atheist
but kept it quiet. Being an atheist has career and personal costs in
the U.S. But atheists and agnostics have become better known in recent years. Still,
my friend kept his silence whilst his son braved whatever discrimination might come his way. Atheistic and theistic worldviews can be quite different and in conflict.
A substantial percentage of U.S.
children are exposed to Christianity at home, in church, and in schools.
They learn Bible stories. And they read fictional stories –both secular and
religious. The Bible contains many stories that delight children when
illustrated in pictures and movies. But the stories contain fantastic events
not seen in daily life.
Kathleen Corriveau, Eva Chen and
Paul Harris recently published two studies in Cognitive Science which looked at how U.S. children (age 5-6) from
religious and nonreligious backgrounds rendered judgments about fact and
fiction in stories. Here’s some background.
Can children tell the difference between fact and fiction?
Previous research suggests that
children use information in stories to discover if the lead character is real
or make-believe. Young children recognize magical and implausible components in
a story. They know real people don’t have superpowers, animals do not talk, and
magic wands don’t change things. But how might children raised in religious
homes respond to Bible stories containing miracles?
Miracle stories may be defined as
those that violate known scientific laws. So if children can tell the
difference between real stories with natural events and those with supernatural
events we would expect young children to consider the miraculous Bible stories
to be fictional.
But research suggests that
children believe adults when adults tell them an ordinarily impossible event really
had occurred. Research by Woolley and Cox (2007) and Vaden and Woolley (2011)
offer support for the idea that children are more likely to view religious
stories as real even when they contain events that would not ordinarily occur.
Barrett (2012) opines that children have a “natural credulity” favoring belief
in beings with special powers.
Two Studies
In the first study, religious and
nonreligious stories were presented to children who had a religious background
and to children who did not have a religious background. All of the children considered the protagonists in the realistic
stories to be real. But when the children were asked to decide if the
protagonists in religious stories were real or pretend, there was a significant
difference. The religious children
judged the protagonists to be real but those from secular backgrounds
considered the protagonists to be pretend.
In the second study, religious
children and secular children were asked to make judgments about the
protagonists- were they real or pretend? Here’s what the scientists reported:
In Study 2, we asked how secular and religious
children would respond to fantastical
stories in which the impossible event (a) was
or was not taken from the Bible and (b) did
or did not include a reference to magic. Across all four story types, secular
children were
more likely than religious
children to categorize the protagonist as pretend.
There researchers had also
studied the justifications children
gave for their judgments about real or pretend characters. As expected, the
secular children made little reference to God’s power or another
religious-based justification for what happened.
The authors were careful to
establish that the children could identify familiar characters as real (e.g.,
George Washington) or pretend (e.g., Snow White).
Thoughts
There are no perfect studies. The
authors disclosed limitations and considered different explanations for their
findings. In psychological science, as in other scientific investigations,
replication is important. Additional studies by different scientists with
different samples and variations in materials can make a difference.
It appears possible that some 5
and 6 year old children had developed a worldview that is either accepting of
biblical narratives as true even when stories contain elements that do not
normally occur. In contrast, some secular children have a secular worldview—a
perspective that is skeptical of religious stories. And when it comes to
justifying decisions, the religious and secular children offered different
explanations—one religious the other secular.
In my previous post I referred to
a Harris
Poll and some of the supernatural beliefs of American adults. In addition
to the Christian beliefs I commented on last week, the pollsters also found:
42% believe in
ghosts
36% believe in
UFOs
29% believe in
astrology
26% believe in
witches
24% believe they
were once another person (reincarnation)
Although the above percentages
are low compared to the entire sample, they still represent substantial numbers
of people in the U.S. population. All of us who live in the U.S. likely know
someone holding these unscientific beliefs even if we do not hold those beliefs
ourselves. And these adults likely pass along their beliefs to their children who
are developing a worldview.
Most scientists search for
natural causes of events. Vaccinations, medications, and surgeries target
causes of disease. And significant progress has been made in recent decades.
Psychological scientists focus on identifying therapies that relieve the
troubling symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD and other debilitating mental
conditions. Scientific approaches do not invoke supernatural causes.
It is not surprising to find a
gap between scientific and religious worldviews when it comes to causation.
That same Harris
Poll I mentioned reported that 36% of Americans believe in creationism
despite some 150 years of evidence for evolution. Some Christians adopt
theistic evolution in which God has a role in the evolutionary process.
Obviously, many Christians do not accept evolutionary explanations. Perhaps it
hits too close to home? How does one integrate a story of God making two humans
and a story of a long evolutionary process?
The progress in medicine has been
demonstrable enough that even among Christians who believe in healing miracles,
few will ignore a physician’s recommendation. In my lifetime, prayers have
changed to integrate faith in divine healing and medicine. Although many
continue to pray that God will heal them or their loved ones, People often pray
exclusively or simultaneously for God to guide physicians.
The progress in psychology has
been slower. Christian mental health clinicians have been on the defensive for
years. It’s hard to know how many people reject psychological explanations
rather than religious explanations for mental illnesses. Many clinicians have
spent many hours in writing and speaking about how Christian beliefs and psychological
science can be integrated.
Change is slow. Over the
centuries, religious leaders have gradually accepted more scientific explanations
about natural events. And some events that happen in bodies like diseases. Even
so, disputes rage over climate, mental processes, and relationships.
Scientists tell different stories
about the world than do religious persons. Scientists disagree about which
version of a scientific story is true but they agree on methodology and the
importance of replication. According to Pew Research, about 33% of scientists believe in God (2009). And 41% reported they do not believe in God or a higher power-- only 4% of Americans shared that view.
Religious people disagree about different
interpretations of stories in sacred texts like the Bible. And they disagree
about the right way to interpret those texts. Some readily embrace metaphors
and find inspiration in stories that offer a moral message. Others relish in
the miracles of talking animals, plagues, walls of water, and many more.
Children view the world
differently too. Teachers and parents help children learn the difference between natural causes and supernatural causes. And adults likely help children learn what is real and what is pretend.
Do you think it makes a difference how you read and interpret stories for children?
And what about adults?
Does the interpretation of religious stories make a worldview of a difference in daily life?
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