Religion good for childhood development?

Question

According to this article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070424/sc_livescience/studyreligionisgoodforkids
Religion helps provide positive reinforcement and structure needed in the lives of kids. Studies find that kids who grow up in a religious home are often better behaved.

Pretty interesting, huh?

Neo, reread the article. It's not just about Christianity, but Judaism, Islam, and other religions. It speaks about structure that having religion brings.

Answer 1

Perhaps the latest pools will show exactly that, although to my perception, in this day's anything can be better than nothing, This is the result of the decadent Societies which we can see all around us.
Child's have a natural sense to perceived God, and all depend of the sample they received from others is what they will perceived to be the best for then to follow, and until they can make their own mind, experience. perhaps in the moral way, as someone say, atheist have lesser rate of criminal records, although their moralities values and respect for the real Humanity, can become their graves.
good and practical religions, values can be encourage, to kids, to practice but religion, can only bee seeing by then as it truly is, in the Churches. right or wrong, this is up to the parents? always questionable, but interesting nevertheless????

Answer 2

The same could be provided by any institution geared toward the goal of raising children to be good citizens.
There being no such organizations in small town America, for the most part, my own family has used Sunday school as a training ground in socialization and morality for several generations. When we get to our teens, we decide for ourselves whether to continue with the religious thing. To date, 100% of us have opted out of it.

Answer 3

If the kids are growing up in a religious home, the parents are just concerned about doing what they have been taught by others to be 'right' which would impact other areas.

Answer 4

But, if you read about the study, what it's actually showing is that good parents with a good support system produce better behaved children. I could have told you that.

Edit: LOL Neo's right! Who knows what the kids are up to when the parents aren't looking!

Answer 5

Declared atheists are religious so they fall into the same statistics. It's the vapid group, the one with no firm belief system at all that has most of the problems.

Any group that has an explict value system and enumerates this with communication qualifies.

And Statstically Atheists are comit just as many crimes and have just as much divorce as anyone else.

Or are ATHEISTS NOW CLAIMING TO BE "SAINTS"

Sounds religious to me!

Answer 6

I would expect the next step to be Mormonism. Where we all believe we will one day be gods of our own planets? If an atheist believes he can solve all of life's mysteries, then a Mormon must believe they can become something that creates, controls and wields those mysteries. OR the realization that becoming a Jedi isn't really just a movie concept :)

Answer 7

Religion has nothing to do with it. It's the values and morals we instill at home. I am agnostic and yet my children are smart and well behaved. we participate in the same sort of activities as anyone who attends church regularly i.e. community activities, voluteer work etc and are every bit as moral and compassionate as any christian would claim. Religion is what you credit things to when you're to lazy to question.

Answer 8

Which studies are those, the ones funded by the church? You have your facts mixed up. How is growing up learning to hate everyone except those who share belief in YOUR version of a 2000 year old fairy tale "positive"? Remember the twin towers, the nazi death camps, the unibomber, Virgina Tech, etc, etc, etc, etc...ALL due to religion!

Answer 9

You see? I told you!! the religious types grasp on to anything they can get their greasy little mits on to prove they're right!

For your information, the study was bunk! They didn't actually observe the children's behavior..... they asked the parents about their children's behavior! What christian/religious parent is going to admit that their child is a brat & that their teachings were crap?

Answer 10

And yet Atheists have lower incarceration and divorce rates.

I think there are many litmus tests for morality. "Keeping quiet and minding" isn't all of human morality.