 Did you just hear this doll say Islam is the light? Well, you're not the only one. In fact, so many parents were upset hearing this doll say it that this American-made doll was taking off the shelves completely due to all of the complaints. Yet, did this doll really say Islam is the light? Or something else happened, and this is yet another story of lack of critical thinking. If you want to know the answer, stay tuned for this practical critical thinkers episode. The truth is, the doll does not say Islam is the light, nor Satan is king. Another thing many parents heard it say. Instead, this is a case of what's known as phonetic approximations. Human beings are pattern-seeking creatures. In a big way, seeing and interpreting patterns help us understand the world better. For example, when learning a new language, you would kind of understand what the other people are saying to you, even though you don't entirely catch the whole sentence. Or when you were trying to understand what your drunk cousin was saying to you in a loud party. You didn't exactly catch what he said, but a few moments later your brain connected the sounds you've heard and it made out what he was trying to say to you. That's an example of phonetic approximation, which can be really useful, until it's not. As in the foreign language example, when you know what to look for, you start making better sense of the whole thing. Same thing with your drunk cousin. You know English, so you know what to look for. Then you hear his half gibberish, half English talk, and by connecting what you know and what you hear, you're able to understand what he says, at least most of the times. Trouble is, when you start looking for patterns where there's none. Our brain is hardwired to search for patterns, and sometimes it finds them even at places where a pattern doesn't exist. The doll from the story named Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Cuddle and Coo was designed to make various sorts of pre-recorded Cooing sounds that were played for a speaker in the doll in repetition. While Islam is the light was by no means recorded in the Cooing, the trouble started when one of the mothers accidentally heard something similar in one of the Cooing sounds. That's when a pattern was established. As soon as she told that to other parents, now as they knew what to look for, they started hearing it too. And that spread exponentially. I mean, look at this video. A local family is upset over what they heard from a baby doll. Angie Goss and her mother heard, quote, Ben Laden is the light. That's not right. Any toy shouldn't say stuff that lives that plane. The issue, though, is that with a lack of critical thinking, these parents didn't consider that maybe they just made out the sound pattern which does not really exist by itself. Instead, they were dead certain that they were right and that it's exactly what the doll says, with hidden intentions to program children into turning to Islam or worshiping Satan. Yet when the Gastonia Gazette found four people that were unfamiliar with the little mommy, cuddle, and Coo, Islam and Satan worshiping controversy, they gave them to listen to the sounds the doll produces and none of them identified anything sounding like English in the babbling. Save for Islam or Satan. I actually even played somewhat of a trick with you, the viewer. At the beginning of the video, I put on a text on top of the video which says, Islam is the light, so that your brain would be suggested to search out that pattern which it most likely did. If there was no suggestion at all, you probably wouldn't have heard it too. Interesting personal story. I've first heard that this doll says Islam is the light when listening to a lecture on critical thinking. Yet to introduce the story to my girlfriend, I've shown her the video of the mother saying she heard Bin Laden is the light. Ever since then, every time I play the doll's worshiping coos, my girlfriend heard Bin Laden is the light and each time I heard Islam is the light. This further proves how good we are at attaching ourselves to patterns which we invest in. There were other similar stories too. The 2006 Talking Book Potty Time with Elmo had some folks hearing its uh oh, who has to go, phrase as uh oh, who wants to die, a somewhat negative toilet training message. In 1982, similar problems plagued Baby Darling, a doll manufactured in Hong Kong. American consumers mistook its Spanish cuero amami meaning I want or I love mommy as kill mommy, a somewhat negative message for a baby darling doll to say. The reason it's so important to know these stories, besides the fact that they are awesome and I just couldn't stop laughing every time I heard the doll say Islam is the light, is to remind ourselves that things are not always as we perceive them, no matter how much we believe that I know exactly what I've heard. Our brains are designed to interpret but that doesn't mean we interpret things correctly every time. That's why it's so important to always question, maybe before making a claim that a doll is satanic and getting it pulled off the shelves, ask yourself am I entirely sure I got this right and that it's not just a bad interpretation. By the way, can you believe this tiny guy beat the world record for a hot dog eating six times in a row? Better yet, he didn't do it just because of some freak inherent anatomical superiority, instead he did it by using effective critical thinking and problem solving skills. Click on this box here to hear this incredible story on how critical thinking was applied in a practical way. I also hope that this story on satanic and religious worshiping dolls inspired you to be more open minded on what you choose to believe in and not to rush to conclusions just based on how things appear. This was Rokas and let's keep creating a culture of critical thinking together.