Witnessing credible public commitment, not cognitive content, distinguishes gods from fictional characters

Evidence

But as children who were taught the Santa Claus myth grow older, they gradually become skeptical, even though Santa’s profile (the details of the idea) remains largely intact. Context changes, however, and as children age, they stop witnessing credible displays of others’ faith in Santa. As a result, Santa Claus is a god to children, but an entertaining folktale for adults. Similarly, children who are entertained by Mickey Mouse, the Tooth Fairy, and SpongeBob do not witness passionate public commitment to these fictional characters—in other words, these are not worshipped beings, despite the fact that their cognitive content could make them, in principle, potential divine candidates. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 376

Categorization

• QUESTION: This bears precisely on why Rodrigues’ trampling matters: if public commitment is what sustains a being’s godhood, the fumi-e should operationally demote Christ from god to folktale for Japanese observers — testable mechanism for the novel.
• XREF: connects to: Sincere belief in fantastic claims blurs the boundary between fact and fiction — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 214