Fairy Tales, Bible Stories, and AWANA

[Raevoryx]

I was scrolling through a Social Networking site (I'm still following multiple Christian Organizations since they usually don't post all that much and I tend to be curious), and found an article linked by AWANA about the study done on children showing that children who are exposed to Bible Stories have a harder time distinguishing reality from fiction.

I had read something on Patheos a few weeks ago and immediately thought, "THEY FOUND THE THING!!!"

I'm curious to what everyone else thinks. I was a part of the AWANA Leadership for a while before I deconverted and had a slight spark of hope for the organization (or at least that one lady writing the article) till I realized that this discovery might lead to more graphic versions of the Bible Stories in their classes.

I remember 'helping' in classes directed for Pre-Schoolers, Kindergarden, and Elementary age Children. Now I see it as an indoctrination machine, but there was less focus on fear-mongering. Looks like that may change?

http://awana.org/blog/parents/detail/do-...airy-tales

Thoughts?

[Dystopia]

I was scrolling through a Social Networking site (I'm still following multiple Christian Organizations since they usually don't post all that much and I tend to be curious), and found an article linked by AWANA about the study done on children showing that children who are exposed to Bible Stories have a harder time distinguishing reality from fiction.

Congratulations on de-converting, may reason and rationality accompany you trough your life journey!

The reason why religious people have the habit of indoctrinating their children and won't allow them to be exposed to different ideas, faiths or anything that contradicts their narrow minded worldview is because they are aware of their doctrines' fragilities. When an atheist criticizes a Christian, the Christian becomes utterly offended and says 'You're going against my religious freedom! It's my personal faith!'; when the Christian criticizes the atheist, the atheist makes a counter-critic. There's a huge difference between both. Parents are realizing a faithless era is coming and are doing anything they can to prevent it from happening - But they will fail.

Children have a hard time distinguishing reality from fiction because they are taught that fiction is real, I don't need to elaborate much on this. If I taught my children that Batman is completely real and to never question it, they'd have problems associating Superman with fiction and would assume he was real too.

[Surgenator]

Reading the article, the lady missed the whole point. What makes a fairy tail is the outlandish claims not how cutesy it looks.

[Minimalist]

Do Christian Kids Believe in Fairy Tales?

Um, grown-up jesus freaks believe in fairy tales. The kids have an excuse. They are kids. The adults are just morons.

[Raevoryx]

Reading the article, the lady missed the whole point. What makes a fairy tail is the outlandish claims not how cutesy it looks.

Exactly, my spark of hope for the person died as soon as I saw that she didn't get it.

[RobbyPants]

I was scrolling through a Social Networking site (I'm still following multiple Christian Organizations since they usually don't post all that much and I tend to be curious), and found an article linked by AWANA about the study done on children showing that children who are exposed to Bible Stories have a harder time distinguishing reality from fiction.

I had read something on Patheos a few weeks ago and immediately thought, "THEY FOUND THE THING!!!"

I'm curious to what everyone else thinks.

Anecdotally speaking, my five-year-old knows that some things are real and some aren't, but she still has to double-check with me. In addition to asking if ghosts or vampires are real, she's asked me if bears or wolves are real. They all get lumped in with "scary things", which I guess makes sense from her point of view.

I also get a kick out of when she tells me a ghost story. She'll stop part way through to reassure me that none of this is real before continuing.

Reading the article, the lady missed the whole point. What makes a fairy tail is the outlandish claims not how cutesy it looks.

Exactly, my spark of hope for the person died as soon as I saw that she didn't get it.

Of course. That narrative is one made to make her feel better and to avoid genuine introspection. This is sort of like what happens when you find a negative correlation between education and religious belief. Now, I know correlation doesn't prove causation, but this won't stop them form spinning it to say that education contains liberal/atheistic indoctrination. They don't want to consider the more intuitive possibility...

[FatAndFaithless]

I was scrolling through a Social Networking site (I'm still following multiple Christian Organizations since they usually don't post all that much and I tend to be curious), and found an article linked by AWANA about the study done on children showing that children who are exposed to Bible Stories have a harder time distinguishing reality from fiction.

I had read something on Patheos a few weeks ago and immediately thought, "THEY FOUND THE THING!!!"

I'm curious to what everyone else thinks. I was a part of the AWANA Leadership for a while before I deconverted and had a slight spark of hope for the organization (or at least that one lady writing the article) till I realized that this discovery might lead to more graphic versions of the Bible Stories in their classes.

I remember 'helping' in classes directed for Pre-Schoolers, Kindergarden, and Elementary age Children. Now I see it as an indoctrination machine, but there was less focus on fear-mongering. Looks like that may change?

http://awana.org/blog/parents/detail/do-...airy-tales

Thoughts?

I think it's simply another example of the fact that if you raise your kids with pockets of fantasy and cognitive dissonance, they will inevitably leak into other aspects of their mind. Because beliefs don't exist in a vacuum.

[JesusHChrist]

You're dealing with people who think a man can be swallowed whole by a "fish" and survive for days. Critical thinkers they are not.

Likewise we portray Daniel with cuddly lions and Jonah’s fish looks like something we’d swim with at Sea World. Don’t think that’s the way it was. The lions were mean and hungry and Jonah’s fish swallowed a man! Whole!

With God (i.e., creative writing), All Things are possible!