Front end loading (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, November 30, 2008, 08:30 (5835 days ago) @ David Turell

David has referred us to a report in the Telegraph: Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at Oxford University, claims that children have a predisposition to believe in a supreme being. He thinks that if young children were "raised alone on a desert island, they would come to believe in God." (Comment by Mike Goldthorpe: "Sorry, why God in particular?") Children are "more likely to believe in creationism rather than evolution" and are "prone to believe in divine creation and intelligent design. In contrast, evolution is unnatural for human minds, relatively difficult to believe." - It's great to hear that children are debating evolution, creationism and intelligent design rather than committing virtual murder on their computers, but...erm...(1) Has no-one told Dr Barrett that lots of people believe in God and in evolution? (2) Who decides what is "natural" and "unnatural" for human minds? (3) If something is difficult to believe, is it wrong? (4) I have a theory that new-born babies believe the universe is made of milk (whereas of course it's actually made of chocolate). If my theory about the babies is right, does that mean the universe is made of milk? (5) What is Dr Barrett trying to prove?