More children in the United States are “growing up godless” than any other time in its history, according to a Pews Research Center study in 2012.
For some, this has called their morality into question.
How can these children possibly learn morality if their parents are godless heathens? Can people be moral without being religious?
As it turns out, secular households are doing quite well when it comes to teaching strong ethical standards and empathy to their offspring.
Vern Bengston, professor of gerontology and sociology at the University of Southern California, conducted a 2013 study to understand how family life and intergenerational influences play out among the nonreligious.
To his surprise, he found high levels of family solidarity, emotional closeness between parents and children and strong ethical and moral standards.
Other studies have found secular teens are much less likely to care what the “cool kids” think, or express a need to fit in with them versus their religious peers. And according to a 2010 Duke University study, as secular teens become adults, they exhibit less racism as well.
Secular adults tend to be less vengeful, less nationalistic, less militaristic, less authoritarian and more tolerant on average than their religious counterparts.
Phil Zuckerman, professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College, found and wrote in a LA Times op-ed that for secular people, “morality is predicted on one simple principle: empathetic reciprocity, widely known as the Golden Rule.”
Religion is not required to be empathetic, nor must morality stem from a book or a bearded white dude from up above. It comes from within.
Honestly, I did not realize any of this was even up for debate because it was already inherently obvious. Of course one does not need religion to be a good person or to know empathy. Being religious does not necessarily equate to possessing a strong moral code.
As someone who identifies as nonreligious, I struggle to grasp so many aspects of religion. I can understand the purpose it serves: people put their faith into a belief, a god and a hope. They come together under this belief and find solidarity.
On rare occasions, I slightly envy the religious. I cannot believe in the afterlife because, quite simply, I was not raised to think that way.
All I know is that I’ll die someday, and that will probably be it for me. Also, biblical references just fly over my head.
But when religion is the source, or rather an excuse, for discrimination, violence, blind hatred and constant conflict, it becomes unfathomable to me.
I understand the good that can come out of religion, but I am too frequently overwhelmed by the bad.
I do what I believe is right because that is what it means to be a good person, not because it’s my “Christian duty.”
In no way am I saying you have to be against God to be a good person, but you certainly don’t need religion to be one either.
You just have to be good because that’s what it means to truly be a good human being.
nrowthor@umail.iu.edu
