Researchers: Children exposed to religion have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction

[DirkGently]

6. Religion can teach cognitive dissonance.

It requires some cognitive dissonance to maintain a belief in stories that in any context but religion would be instantly dismissed as mythology or fantasy.

Most of the time, people find a way to "believe" without really absorbing the implications of the existence of magical beings, immortality, miracles, etc. No one would believe someone walking around claiming to be a deity, but many will say they think that happened once or twice, somewhere, long ago.

I was struck to hear a journalist on the radio one day, casually ridiculing "those people who believe in UFOs," in contrast to normal, sane religious people. Because believing we've been visited by powerful beings from space trying to influence our lives is totally nuts, unless you learned it in a church, in which case it doesn't count.

But at some level, if you practice a religion that requires belief in magic, or magical beings, can you ever really disclaim the existence of ... magic?

What really happens, I think is that people "sort of" believe in the magical parts of their religion, and take the historical / ethical / cultural bits that resonate with them for what they're worth. The religious stuff is in kind of a critical-thinking neutral zone, where things aren't examined too closely.

Fundamentalists have none of that, though, and want to require everyone to believe literally in all of the myth and magic first. If you can train yourself to think like that, it's got to be harder to filter out other unrealities.