Are Atheist Parents Doing A Better Job?

Excerpt: "So how does the raising of upstanding, moral children work without prayers at mealtimes and morality lessons at Sunday school? Quite well, it seems. Far from being dysfunctional, nihilistic and rudderless without the security and rectitude of religion, secular households provide a sound and solid foundation for children, according to Vern Bengston, a USC professor of gerontology and sociology." Bengston has supervised a 40-year study of religion and family life across generations—the largest ever coordinated—called the Longitudinal Study of Generations. He recently added atheist or agnostic families to the mix alongside the rise in their self-reported numbers. And rather than discovering families unbound by the glue of God, performing nightly Satanic rituals in lieu of a nutritious dinner, he found… functional families with actual ethics and values and shit. "Many nonreligious parents were more coherent and passionate about their ethical principles than some of the 'religious' parents in our study," Bengston told me. "The vast majority appeared to live goal-filled lives characterized by moral direction and sense of life having a purpose." MORE HERE: http://jezebel.com/godless-parents-are-doing-a-better-job-1682844001 ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ I didn’t raise/rear my kids to be non-believers… not in actuality with intent. Whenever the topic of god or religion was expressed, I would tell them my agnostic view (I was still not sure about the label Atheist)… ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ AGNOSTIC: a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God. ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ In essence, I would say, that we human beings do not know why we are here or what the physical nature of all things is about and probably we will never know. However, I would emphasize the importance of having empathy for others because we are all in the same boat and that evolution was real. I also expressed that religion was OK for some and if they wanted to take that route that would be equally OK. Wow, I’ve come a long way from those ideas, I now believe religion can hurt more than it can comfort. But, that’s me. Anyway, I’m glad that none of my kids took to religion because now I can have freethinking discussions with them instead of feeling the need to walk on eggshells whenever conversation turned to gods, guns, gays and religions. thinkingblue