There was a similar backlash about Harry Potter. Not only teaching kids about the occult, but romanticising it in the process.

Kids are actually pretty good at telling fiction from fact. They make up their own stories, and they know that they're not the truth. If they really couldn't tell fact from fiction, they'd be in pieces every time Tom maims Jerry, or the other way around. Instead, they lap up cartoon violence because... well... it's funny. And nobody's actually coming to harm.

Kids don't believe for a minute that Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, or any of those are actual real people. They easily understand the concept of fairy tales. They believe in Jesus and Santa Claus only because adults present them as being real, rather than just stories.

Similarly, violent comic books, films and video games don't turn them into sociopaths. Though if they have sociopathic tendencies, then they might be drawn to particularly violent content.

Most fundamentalist parents are very opposed to stories like Harry Potter.

I'm going to take a while to get back to that point. My son had a difficult time with reading at first, which frustrated him, because he knew he was missing out on some really great stuff. He was still smart for his age, he loved to take things apart and put them back together from about the age of four or so. The reading thing just wasn't clicking for him.
This was about 20+ years ago, and I don't know about now, but they were not teaching phonics then. Just endlss lists of memorized words.
I found something very similar to the Hooked on Phonics progam for him, but not nearly that costly. Within a couple weeks he went from Sonic the Hedgehog comic books to yep....those 800 page Harry Potter books.

Bless JK Rowling and all of those fanciful characters and rollicking romps. She made not just my son, but an entire generation of children eager to read some intimidatingly thick books.

Imagination is among our greatest human gifts; it'd be ridiculous to try and stifle or starve it.

I'm writing a fantasy novel right now. Many of our best fantasists have been atheists, rationalists. (L.Sprague de Camp; Poul Anderson; Fritz Leiber, etc.)

I don't think reading fantasy necessarily leads to a belief that gods are real, as long as adults point out the difference,
. Kids learn to accept that Santa and the Easter bunny are make believe, while at the same time most of their parents will insist that god and the devil are real,
. Children talke these cues from their mentors , protectors and trust that we aren't lying to them,
No wonder it's so hard to let go of what is basically an imaginary friend that we carry into adulthood,
I believe that fantasy and science fiction are very beneficial to growing brains as long as adults are responsible and keep the lines between reality and fantasy well defined

The crazy idea starts first. Believers in gods and religion start the children out early. They need this to "stay in the faith." Then Harry Potter, Halloween, spirits, the devil, and all the rest creep in there. Why do they believe it? The bible is full of it.

Isn't it more a question of how the parents deal with it? Children accept fantasy for what it is and seem to know that it isn't real. If their parents choose to make comparisons with religion then that is their concern but if they have read fantasy, I think the children are more likely to disbelieve, then.

I have to disagree.First you are exposing them to a multiverse of beliefs, from Potteresque witches to The Force to Vulcans to Wizards and hobbits. A t some point every kid realizes 1/ they can't all be true and 2/ they make as much sense as any "organized" religion's fantasies. And every fantasy world has good and bad people,but a recognition that being "good"is better. Finally, and this may be the most subversive part of it all - I can't think of a story-line where the protagonists are also "the powers that be" and the rules makers. Hogwarts comes close, but the real authorities are outside the school. Even C.S. Lewis' work, which is Xianity with a fur coat has the bad folk being the royals. so instead of teaching kids toaccept religion, they are teaching kids that rule makers are not trustworthy, there's goodness in you and taking care of each other is more important than being obedient to authorities.

The agenda of the media is always to assume there is a god and when people die they go to heaven.......except if you're a really bad person....then you go to hell.

There is enough good science out there to suggest that we should all be much more selective about what we expose our brains to. The mind is a more or less a neutral circuit that accepts and processes information in all forms. Lots of recent research from behavioral, economic and neuro scientists have made compelling cases that we are easily influenced throughout life. Not just the kids. Yes, it’s not just harmless entertainment, advertising, news, pictures, stories. It all matters.

I agree ET the extraterrestrial is selling sentimental magic to kids and most of this kind of crap is anti-science

Kids outgrow magical thinking if you let them.

Being an authoritarian parent rather than an authoratative one prepares a childs mind for religion. Every time you tell them to "Do as I say!" and refuse to give a reason, that prepares a child's mind for religion. Fantasy and mythology don't, as others have said the fantastical, if anything, teaches them not to believe everything they read or hear. Now if we could only teach people that about the internet.

Understanding fiction vs fact is key. Most fantasy has elements characters animals etc that are obviously fictional.

No .

That's kind of a stretch, but the future Alchemists and engineers find inspiration in the HP series. A truth potion in a fantasy story.....or a serum when the gov't uses it.....?

I think it is the other way around, you train kids to believe in God, Angels and life after death, they are going to far more open to believing in fantasy as reality, especially when witches, demons, ghost, unicorns and leviathan are all in the freaking bible anyway.

No need to avoid delightful entertaining fantasy fiction. But parents should teach the kids how to think rationally and understand these things are make believe.

Wow, I had to read this twice to make sure I understood. I didn't go look at your profile, but I do have to wonder if you have ever had anything resembling a childhood?

I see no reason to deny children access to facts or fantasy, fiction or non-fiction. It is important to teach children to think and discern for themselves, and the only way to do that is to have balance in their lives.

I think younger parents are more laid back plus there is the rise in nonbelievers as well who see these holidays as just fun events for kids and don't attach all the supernatural crap past generations did.

We got infected with Walt Disney who we now know never had a female as the mother. She was always wicked We had Alfred Hitchcock on TV and so on What I am saying the television or media entity will always be in our lives from now on. do not worry , look at the kids after the parkland shooting, They are wonderfully bright and together

This is a ridiculous idea. Introducing your kids to Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, will certainly be better for them then if you did not.

I would have to agree with you. Children in the sense of Harry Potter would not be conditioned because Harry Potter a Witchcraft have nothing to do with God. Witchcraft is about spells and the occult not identifying with a deiety lime Wicca or other branches of Paganism does. Mind you Paganism doesn't idol worship they worship nature.

You've posted about how bad Harry Potter is in 2 separate posts.