Telling fact from fiction

[The Grand Nudger]

It's a fairly reasonable expectation of behavior based upon your many interactions here, you know?  You don't seem to be capable of determining fact from fiction, how would you teach it to a child?  You have clear ideological motivation -not- to teach a child fact from fiction...even if you were capable.  

People aren't impenetrable mysteries, and you don't exactly have the benefit of anonymity or unfamiliarity on this count, RR.  

Do you doubt that I -would- teach my child how to spot fiction in the biblical narrative..were they to ask? No, ofc not, it's a mundane expectation and doesn't require any sort of asshattery on your part, nor is it a hasty and uninformed summary of who you know me to be.

[The Grand Nudger]

For the OP Q.  If I had to point to one thing that you could explain to a child, which doesn't require a load of underlaying knowledge..that would help them distinguish between fictional and factual narratives, it would be third person omnipresent narration.  I like less obvious things like this, because they actually help to distinguish between factual and fictional narratives even in the event that the fictional narrative regards some broadly factual point or setting.

[madog]

Considering my overall impression of theists I think the only way to help children to distinguish fact from fiction is to re-educate grownup theists ....

[paulpablo]

It could be a good warning sign that something is false if the account includes something you don't know is possible.
But there's obvious exceptions to this and even more so for a child with not so much life experience.

When I was really young it was basically a case of listening to a load of different stories in the playground then going home and asking my parents if they could be true or not.

I don't remember anything specific but unless you know what a hologram is, a description of a hologram might seem crazy, or unless you know about dinosaurs and huge ancient insects, being told they existed might seem crazy.

[Cyberman]

It's a fairly reasonable expectation of behavior based upon your many interactions here, you know?  You don't seem to be capable of determining fact from fiction, how would you teach it to a child?  You have clear ideological motivation -not- to teach a child fact from fiction...even if you were capable.  

Combined with which, I saw plenty of questions and precious few baseless assumptions in Benny's post - questions which the road runner deflected out of hand.

[robvalue]

Just to reiterate: the point of this isn't to determine fact, it's to determine probable fiction. What are giveaways that it probably didn't happen as written? I'm not asking for ways to determine whether it actually did happen or not. We're looking for sore thumbs here. Researching the historical accuracy of events is an entirely different subject.

For the OP Q.  If I had to point to one thing that you could explain to a child, which doesn't require a load of underlaying knowledge..that would help them distinguish between fictional and factual narratives, it would be third person omnipresent narration.  I like less obvious things like this, because they actually help to distinguish between factual and fictional narratives even in the event that the fictional narrative regards some broadly factual point or setting.

Ahah! Excellent, yes. This is something I've thought about before but which I completely forgot when making this thread. For example, the narrator in the bible jumps around and "knows" conversations it couldn't possibly have access to. Invoking yet more magic and divine inspiration as an attempt to make an obviously fictional account sound plausible, to a child, is an overwhelming abandonment of any critical thinking. And an abandonment of any other principles that may have been taught. I'm suspecting that absolutely none have been taught before reaching this point, if they ever are.

[RoadRunner79]

It's a fairly reasonable expectation of behavior based upon your many interactions here, you know?  You don't seem to be capable of determining fact from fiction, how would you teach it to a child?  You have clear ideological motivation -not- to teach a child fact from fiction...even if you were capable.  

Combined with which, I saw plenty of questions and precious few baseless assumptions in Benny's post - questions which the road runner deflected out of hand.

Not just deflected.... I flat out ignored them.    I chose not to answer them, because I was trying to keep the topic about general principles critical thinking as in the OP.  I didn't want to make this about defending specifics in Christianity (and some of those specifics have already been covered recently).  If you have something specific you would like answered, then feel free to make a new thread and let me know.  I'm happy to discuss them. 

In the post that you cited, it was claimed, that I am incapable of determining fact from fiction.... I tried to discuss this here, but got little response other than assumption about what I would or would not do, and basic begging the question. Let's talk about these principles, and then test them, to see how other things fare under these general principles.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's not just a claim when you, yourself, have repeatedly provided it's demonstration. OFC someone was going to crop up and smack down your passive aggressive whinepost about atheists and their assumptions....

[RoadRunner79]

It's not just a claim when you, yourself, have repeatedly provided it's demonstration.

So let's discuss the general principles as mentioned in the OP.   And then we will see.   What is your view as a general principle?

[The Grand Nudger]

I've already given an example. The narrative style is the first and broadest indication of what sort of narrative you're looking at. It requires no knowledge of any specific claim -within- the narrative.