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More children are “growing up godless” than at any other time in our nation’s history. They are the offspring of an expanding secular population that includes a relatively new and burgeoning category of Americans called the “Nones,” so nicknamed because they identified themselves as believing in “nothing in particular” in a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center.
So how does the raising of upstanding, moral children work without prayers at mealtimes and morality lessons at Sunday school? Quite well, it seems.
“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.”
The results of such secular child-rearing are encouraging. Studies have found that secular teenagers are far less likely to care what the “cool kids” think, or express a need to fit in with them, than their religious peers. When these teens mature into “godless” adults, they exhibit less racism than their religious counterparts, according to a 2010 Duke University study. Many psychological studies show that secular grownups tend to be less vengeful, less nationalistic, less militaristic, less authoritarian and more tolerant, on average, than religious adults.
>>Atheists are more likely to kill themselves
and how many generations would it be before human extinction? God made all things…even Vitalogy!Atheists are more likely to kill themselves.
Most likely in an attempt to extricate themselves from a zealot.
But seriously, what does that have to do with it?
God made all things…
Broadway, why can’t you sometimes use “In my humble opinion”?
You would come off as less of an elitist douche.“Atheists are more likely to kill themselves.”
I would like to see some definitive research to back this claim.
Our kids are probably somewhere in this realm. They both believe there is a God. Our daughter is minoring in Religion in college.
Our kids may never become members of a church, at least for the moment. Like Gandhi, in many ways, they love Jesus, just not particularly found of the way Christian’s have handled the business of their faith. And I would tend to agree with them.
Cbris hits it spot-on. There are a lot of people that believe in God, and consider Jesus their Lord and Savior, but hate the fan club attached. The ugliness that is much of today’s fundamentalist Christianity sullies it. We love the message, but despise the messenger and how they contort that message.
I have been waiting to hear the authoritative statistic that shows that atheists are more suicidal than the general population.
Religiously unaffiliated subjects had significantly more lifetime suicide attempts and more first-degree relatives who committed suicide than subjects who endorsed a religious affiliation. Unaffiliated subjects were younger, less often married, less often had children, and had less contact with family members. Furthermore, subjects with no religious affiliation perceived fewer reasons for living, particularly fewer moral objections to suicide. In terms of clinical characteristics, religiously unaffiliated subjects had more lifetime impulsivity, aggression, and past substance use disorder. No differences in the level of subjective and objective depression, hopelessness, or stressful life events were found.[8][9]
http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism_and_suicide
This is something we don’t like to admit, but it is true. There is a problem within the atheist community of depression and suicide. I know we would all like to believe that atheists are happier people than religious believers and in many ways we are. But we also have to accept the reality that in some very important ways we are not.
http://www.skepticink.com/dangeroustalk/2012/10/11/atheism-has-a-suicide-problem/
I have struggled with my relationship with God but I came to the conclusion that the struggle was more with the organized practice of religion. Right now, I am very happy with my belief in God; I am not sure that I need to go to a building at a particular time to be with others of similar belief to participate in a ceremony to still believe.
My two sons live with their mother. I suspect that both of them fall clearly within this concept of being raised “Godless.” I am not disappointed in how they behave or the choices they make.
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