Does God Make it Real? Children’s Belief in Religious Stories from the Judeo-Christian Tradition

1. Does God Make it Real? Children’s Belief in Religious Stories from the Judeo-Christian Tradition Jacqueline D. Woolley and Victoria Cox Vaden The University of Texas

2. HOW DO WE REPRESENT REALITY STATUS? Not real Real certainty certainty • Boundary is movable. • What factors affect movement of the boundary? • Context (Woolley & Van Reet, 2006) • Availability (Johnson & Harris, 1994; Bourchier & Davis, 2002) • Emotion (Samuels & Taylor, 1994) • Motivation to believe / cost of believing (Carrick & Quas, 2006; Woolley & Phelps, 2001)

3. Focus of the present study • Reference to God as a potential factor that can affect shifting of the boundary between fantasy and reality

4. RELIGIOUS STORIES • Often contain a mixture of realistic and fantastical elements • Ordinary people granted special powers • Events that defy scientific principles • Are conveyed as historical by authority figures • Parents • Sunday school teachers

5. BACKGROUND • Goldman (1964) - 80% of children up to age 12 held literal views of Bible stories • Bucher (1991) - children up to age 11 held literal views of Bible stories • ABC news poll (Morris, 1994) - 6 in 10 adults hold literal views of Bible stories

6. What do children think about storybook reality? • Woolley & Cox (2007)

7. What factors influence children’s reality status beliefs? • God’s involvement in an event • Familiarity • Family religiosity

8. Method • 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds, primary Christian • Two levels of religiosity of stories (between subjects): • References to God intact • References to God removed • Two levels of familiarity (within subjects): • Familiar Bible stories • Unfamiliar Bible stories

9. MOSES AND MATTHEW AND THE THERED SEA GREEN SEA • Moses led God’s people, the Israelites, out of Egypt to get away from the mean Egyptians.. • But the king of Egypt was mad. He sent his army to chase after them.. • The Israelites called to God for help, and God told Moses, “Do not be afraid. Stretch out your hands over the sea to part the water..” • God told Moses to stretch out his hands again so the sea would go back.. • Matthew was helping the people of Ison, the Isonites, out of the town to get away from the mean king.. • But the king of Ison was mad. He sent his army to chase after them.. • The Isonites called to Matthew for help, and Matthew stretched his hands over the sea to part the water.. • Matthew stretched out his hands again so the sea would go back together..

10. ELIJAH AND THE ETHAN AND THEFLOUR AND OIL FLOUR AND OIL • Elijah was hiding from King Ahab .. • God told Elijah, “Pack up your things.. • And so Elijah did exactly what God told him to do... • Elijah said to the woman, “Don’t worry! God has promised that your flour and oil will not be used up.” • The woman did this and each day more flour and oil appeared (in the jar). • Ethan was hiding from the mayor of Morganton.. • Ethan’s father told him, “Pack up your things.. • And so Ethan did exactly what his father told him to do.. • Ethan said to the woman, “Don’t worry! Your flour and oil will not be used up.” • The woman did this, and each day more flour and oil appeared (in the jar).

11. Test questions • Event factuality: Did the event happen in real life? • Event possibility: Could the event happen in real life? • Character factuality: Is the character a real person or is he just in the story? • Explanations • General principles task • Parent religiosity questionnaire

12. EFFECTS OF CONDITION ON CLAIMS ABOUT EXISTENCE OF CHARACTERS

13. EFFECTS OF CONDITION ON CLAIMS ABOUT FACTUALITY OF EVENTS

14. EFFECT OF CONDITION ON CLAIMS ABOUT POSSIBILITY OF EVENTS

15. Effects of familiarity on character judgments (Religious condition only)

16. Effects of familiarity on event judgments (Religious condition only)

17. Effects of family religiosity • Children with higher family religiosity (FR) scores more often judged characters as real (Religious condition) • Children with higher FR scores more often judged events as real (Religious condition) • No differences re: event possibility • No effects of FR in Non-religious condition • Religious education an important component of FR

18. Conclusions • Between 4 and 6, children increasingly use God’s involvement as a cue to adjust the boundary between fantasy and reality. • How does this work? • Reference to God sets up a context • God as part of causal chain

19. Conclusions (cont.) • Familiar stories are more likely to be judged as real • How does this work? • Increased familiarity  reality status • Multiple contexts/formats reality status • Church  reality status

20. Future research questions • Do beliefs in God’s omnipotence lead to belief in the reality of stories OR Does belief in the reality of stories promote beliefs in omnipotence? • What other mechanisms can lead to shifting of reality/fantasy boundary? • Would this work with more modern story events? • What constraints are there on this? • Other religions

21. Acknowledgements • This research was supported in part byNational Institutes of Health (NICHD) Grant R01 HD 030300to Jacqueline Woolley, and by a grant from the Deborah Beth Lobliner Graduate Fellowship to Victoria Cox. • Thanks to undergraduate research assistants: Michael Aguhar, Amanda Amescua, Lacy Cervenka, Rebecca Feng, Janette Flores, DornaHoseiny, Matt Maa, Claudia Mejia, Oshma Raj, Rachel Riskind, Christine Setty, Elizabeth Shults, Betsy Sohmer, Courtney Stollon, Hayley Stulmaker, and Van Winn.