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A COMPARISON OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION AND CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT
By Christie Goins

Practically any group of topics in existence can be evaluated comparatively. Although two subjects may be extremely diverse in title, idea or content, one only has to extract generalizations in order to find similarities.

The correlation between traditional religion and children's entertainment is one exceptional example of this theory. Traditional religion depending on geographical or environmental location, can be defined or collectively understood as any major religion with particular beliefs or customs regarding creation and usually provides an outline of practices to follow based on oral or written commentary that has been passed on through generation. Children's entertainment generally encompasses any form of media specifically tailored to meet the needs, provide joy, and occupy time of or captivate a child, such as books, television and music. Although these two topics vary immensely in purpose, style and content and do not seem to relate any parity, closer inspection reveals several distinctions of common ground.

One fundamental instrument used by both traditional religion and children's entertainment is the incorporation of music into its structure. In both instances, music is generally used as an emotional stimulant. Depending upon the theme or topic, the music is normally conducive to the atmosphere or conditions being related. In contrast, the intentions of the music being related provide extremely different purposes or directives.

Another media that is represented in both traditional religion and children's entertainment is written literature. In traditional religion you can find several different types of written material that support its foundational essentials. While the written material you find in children's entertainment rarely mirrors the information provided in traditional religion's written literature, they are each capable of providing substance.

Among the various, seemingly similar attributes between traditional religion and children's entertainment one might also consider idolatry. In any traditional religion there is usually some sort of the Supreme Being at its focal point. In comparison, children's entertainment generally centralizes on a specific hero or group of characters that are all-powerful. The characters found in both traditional religion and in children's entertainment illustrate beings that people idolize, worship, obsess over, etc., however, closer scrutiny shows no genuine correspondence between the imagination of children's entertainment and the reality of traditional religion.

Ordinary thought and obvious observations of traditional religion and children's entertainment do not even appear to be subjects that would be introduced in the same forum. As these examples have depicted, it is possible to find similarities in two completely distinct and dissimilar subjects. Although one might normally separate distinctions in both traditional religion and children's entertainment very easily, it is plausible to consider the likenesses. Through comparison and contrast we are able to find common ground between subjects and topics that can help us to further define and categorize information in order that we may better understand it.

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