Religion's affect outside of religion

[robvalue]

Oh yes, I agree. I can't believe that religion doesn't have negative effects on someone's belief system, at least to some degree. As Matt D often says, "Beliefs don't exist in a vacuum". For one thing, being prepared to accept magical, ludicrous ideas on basically no evidence paves the way for more irrational beliefs.

This effect on children has been studied, furthering the idea that indoctrination is comparable to psychological harm. Parents should be teaching their kids how to tell the difference between reality and fantasy, not encouraging them to blur the line.

In two studies, 66 kindergarten-age children were presented with three types of stories - realistic, religious and fantastical. The researchers then queried the children on whether they thought the main character in the story was real or fictional.

...

"Secular children were more likely than religious children to judge the protagonist in such fantastical stories to be fictional," wrote the researchers.

"The results suggest that exposure to religious ideas has a powerful impact on children's differentiation between reality and fiction, not just for religious stories but also for fantastical stories."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-28537149