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LINK Is Raising Your Kids Without Religion Better?

We all know the answer to this, the article confirms our parenting.

by Catie Keck

Gone are the days of the unyielding God-fearing mother as the archetype of good parenting, suggests a recent article from the Los Angeles Times. According to multiple reports, research has shown that a secular upbringing may be healthier for children. According to a 2010 Duke University study, kids raised this way display less susceptibility to racism and peer pressure, and are “less vengeful, less nationalistic, less militaristic, less authoritarian, and more tolerant, on average, than religious adults.” But the list of benefits doesn’t stop there.

Citing Pew Research, the Times’ Phil Zuckerman notes that there’s been a recent spike in American households who categorize themselves as "Nones" — their religious affiliation being “nothing in particular.” According to Zuckerman, modern nonreligious adults account for 23 percent of Americans. As early as the ’50s, that figure was only four percent. And with godlessness on the rise, researchers have begun analyzing the benefits of nonreligious child rearing more closely.

“Far from being dysfunctional, nihilistic and rudderless without the security and rectitude of religion,” writes Zuckerman, “secular households provide a sound and solid foundation for children, according to Vern Bengston, a USC professor of gerontology and sociology.” Bengston oversees the Longitudinal Study of Generations, the largest study of families and their religious affiliations in America. After noticing an uptick in nonreligious households, Bengston added secularism to the study in 2013. “Many nonreligious parents were more coherent and passionate about their ethical principles than some of the ‘religious' parents in our study,” said Bengston in an interview with Zuckerman. “The vast majority appeared to live goal-filled lives characterized by moral direction and sense of life having a purpose.”

"For secular people, morality is predicated on one simple principle: empathetic reciprocity, widely known as the Golden Rule. Treating other people as you would like to be treated. It is an ancient, universal ethical imperative. And it requires no supernatural beliefs.”
And check this out: Atheists “were almost absent from our prison population as of the late 1990s,” accounting for less than half of one percent of inmates, according to reports by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. “This echoes what the criminology field has documented for more than a century,” Zuckerman writes, “the unaffiliated and the nonreligious engage in far fewer crimes.”

Additionally, a troublesome report from the BBC last year found that religious children were less likely than their nonreligious peers to distinguish fantasy from reality, based on a study conducted by Boston University. Presented with realistic, religious, and fantastical stories, children were then asked whether they thought the story was real or fictional. Researchers found that “[c]hildren with a religious upbringing tended to view the protagonists in religious stories as real, whereas children from non-religious households saw them as fictional.” And why is this problematic? Because it muddies the waters of a child’s differentiation between reality and fiction, and even the spiritual from the fantastical.

“For secular people, morality is predicated on one simple principle: empathetic reciprocity, widely known as the Golden Rule. Treating other people as you would like to be treated,” writes Zuckerman. “It is an ancient, universal ethical imperative. And it requires no supernatural beliefs.”

Read Zuckerman’s full report over at the Los Angeles Times. And then with all this in mind, go forth and rear your godless hellfire demon children, y’all.

HippieChick58 9 June 2
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11 comments

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1

Not only are we losing separation of Church and State, but we are also losing our Freedom of Religion. I don't even really understand why, if you really believe in religion, what is the point of forcing it on people. What good is pretentious religion? It cannot possibly get you to heaven. If anything, you will go to hell for being a hypocrite.

The problem of raising children to be religious is that it just perpetuates the pretentious cycle. Children soak up what they are taught as children out of absolute trust in authority. They may never recover from this trust and continue to believe in religious mythology, superstitions, and delusions their entire lives. But, even if they do eventually recover they tend to raise their children in a religion by rationalizing that their children can change their minds later when they are adult. And so it goes, and so it goes...

1

I'm not for any one all mighty centroism group of any kind. One must defend that group that ends up by unethical means. Working on oneself is the Solution and teach my daughter the same.

8

Learn something everyday - almost no non-religious are in prison! That's an amazing stat.

This hinges on the idea that the religious can pray away any offense they want to. Their god always forgives them. This applies in politics as well as we see more GOP offenders. They push god belief.

@DenoPenno
Christian tenets 1 God answers prayer, but can say no 2 God forgives all sins
Option one pray for what you want and you have a 50% chance of getting it
Option Two Steal what you want and pray for forgiveness 100% chance of getting what you want and still going to heaven.

Christianity encourages disorder and crime.

6

No question. I always told my daughter that, while some people believe in religion...we did not....that when she was old enough, she could make her own decision. She did get sucked into a ''jebusy" thing for awhile but quickly backed out. (I bit my lips.)

We brought our kids up that way too. They were introduced to church when they were old enough to make up their own minds.

6

Yes, raising kids without religion is better. If you appear to have no religion yourself and you do not go to church, why would you be sending your kids? They will catch on to that fairly quickly and wonder why you send them there. Do not forbid them, but always have a logical answer for them. This will be in place to cover religions, Santa, The Easter Bunny, etc. Talk to your kids so they will talk to you.

In my present family situation my 2 daughters both claim to be believers but only one of them goes to church. They each claim to see my non-belief outlook but this is really not true. They know I once studied for the ministry so they do not get it. What is really at play with them is that they believe in a god in their own way. Doing that is exactly why there are so many religious denominations.

Working backwards, your kids immediately violate the dictates by having their own personal god(s) or their idea of what that god is. Similarly, my dad was slated for the preisthood - youngest male in very Catholic family goes to the church. Clearly that did not work out and dad was atheist and we were raised with mom's religion, Methodist. Thing is she did not go to church, 'cept maybe for Easter and would just drop us off for the Sunday service. I saw the bullshit and quit going when I was 12 or 13 but my twin joined the church and continues to be very Christian today(she's very republican too, Biden is the devil). I vote religion is bad for kids.

10

As I switch through the channels on Sunday I hear about "the truth from the word of god"- it is not much wonder that indoctrinated children grow up to be moronic clowns.

I am going to say one more thing. I haven't read very much about Confucious. He lived, a historically- recorded life about 300 BCE, which is also 300 years before the fictional Jesus was created. He did not claim to be a god or quasi god. He dealt with relationships and living a decent life. I believe young people should be introduced to writers, playwrites, songsters who present introspective ideas.

4

In the North of England Kecks is a slang word for underpants

5

"Catie Keck is clearly one of Satan's servants!" 😉

6
8

Excellent article! Definitely worth copying to share with others perhaps on my social media page. Maybe not today, but soon. These are things I've said for a long time, but not so eloquently presented.

I raised my kids without religion and they are both very happy fair minded adults. They were exposed to a lot of ostracism in their younger years, much of it by people who ended up with troubled kids as they grew into young adults. So, this research tracks with life experiences I've seen.

7

‘Tis better, but having no kids is best.

I skipped that chapter !!

For some, I agree it is the best thing. That is a decision that gets to be made by the prospective parent. My middle daughter knew at age 16 she did not want kids. She is now the world's greatest auntie, and has taken steps to make sure she never gets pregnant. I support her 100%. Her sisters have procreated, and I support them 100% as well. Life is not ever one size fits all.

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