secular parenting
Phil Zuckerman's Op Ed Piece in the LA Times called How Secular Family Values Stack Up, posted on January 16th, 2015 was one of those pieces in the news that didn't surprise ME, and that most religious parents will completely ignore.
Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont California. I can only assume I would love one of his classes because his motto is one that is so similar to my own motto which is: Question Everything. Dr. Zuckerman's motto is Theory without data is myth: data without theory is madness. I checked out the good doctor's recent publications and I'm impressed. And I'll be going to Amazon in the near future for some good reads.
The piece called How Secular Family Values Stack Up is being talked up all over the internet. I haven't seen any Christian rebuttals and I plan on keeping it that way at this point. I'm going to leave it to you to read the article yourself (and I hope you do), but I have one paragraph that I, frankly, love and want to share:
The number of American children raised without religion has grown significantly since the 1950s, when fewer than 4% of Americans reported growing up in a nonreligious household, according to several recent national studies. That figure entered the double digits when a 2012 study showed that 11% of people born after 1970 said they had been raised in secular homes. This may help explain why 23% of adults in the U.S. claim to have no religion, and more than 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say the same.
YES, it is the demographics that are turning me on today and I have high hopes for the future of this country, for this world, if the trend continues. Some days more than others I really need to have hope that this evangelical clamor will subside.
I am not the least bit surprised at the other findings of this longitudinal study and other studies cited in the article: that secular households provide a sound and solid foundation for children, high levels of family solidarity and emotional closeness between parents and kids, strong ethical standards that they are capable of articulating, passion about ethics, goal-filled lives, direction and purpose in their lives, rational problem solving, personal autonomy, independence of thought, avoidance of capital punishment, a spirit of curiosity and questioning, and high levels of empathy.
I'm not surprised in the least! In fact, I think that my blog is saying the exact same thing. There's more; go read it!
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You might also enjoy these posts:
I Trusted My Gut
Do What Needs Doing
Are You Happy?
Your Life Has No Meaning
The Secular Parents
Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont California. I can only assume I would love one of his classes because his motto is one that is so similar to my own motto which is: Question Everything. Dr. Zuckerman's motto is Theory without data is myth: data without theory is madness. I checked out the good doctor's recent publications and I'm impressed. And I'll be going to Amazon in the near future for some good reads.
The piece called How Secular Family Values Stack Up is being talked up all over the internet. I haven't seen any Christian rebuttals and I plan on keeping it that way at this point. I'm going to leave it to you to read the article yourself (and I hope you do), but I have one paragraph that I, frankly, love and want to share:
The number of American children raised without religion has grown significantly since the 1950s, when fewer than 4% of Americans reported growing up in a nonreligious household, according to several recent national studies. That figure entered the double digits when a 2012 study showed that 11% of people born after 1970 said they had been raised in secular homes. This may help explain why 23% of adults in the U.S. claim to have no religion, and more than 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say the same.
 |
| Nope, no solidarity here... |
I am not the least bit surprised at the other findings of this longitudinal study and other studies cited in the article: that secular households provide a sound and solid foundation for children, high levels of family solidarity and emotional closeness between parents and kids, strong ethical standards that they are capable of articulating, passion about ethics, goal-filled lives, direction and purpose in their lives, rational problem solving, personal autonomy, independence of thought, avoidance of capital punishment, a spirit of curiosity and questioning, and high levels of empathy.
I'm not surprised in the least! In fact, I think that my blog is saying the exact same thing. There's more; go read it!
Have you read it?
What were your thoughts?
What criticism have you read about it?
What were your thoughts?
What criticism have you read about it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You might also enjoy these posts:
I Trusted My Gut
Do What Needs Doing
Are You Happy?
Your Life Has No Meaning
The Secular Parents
I loved the article. Especially the part about using empathetic reciprocity (The Golden Rule) as a solid foundation for demonstrating and teaching ethical values to our children. I've been reading Joy Berry's 'Help Me Be Good' children's series with our little ones, in which every topically themed book stresses that point- "you should always treat others the way you would like to be treated". I couldn't agree more.
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