Comparing religious and secular children

The 2 exchanges are unrelated though... This study is discussing how children are effected in this world by religious influence (although it seems well put together, I seem to have many questions as to how and what was being tested and IF it was actually testing anything of value).

The other subject is what is better for the child in eternity. Something the non-theist will never agree with the theist on is that there is an eternity goal/possible punishment. To analyze the one mentioned second, we must make a distinct given. That in the Abrahamic faiths (a slightly less emphasis on Judaism) there are 2 options for your eternal soul (and/or body). 1 is a great reward in which noone will experience hardship or sorrow, and all their needs and wants will be fulfilled. The other is a place of perpetual agony and despair, of which noone will enjoy and there is no escape. To be sent to the later would be a horrible thing. The statement being referenced is that if the child were to die it is better than growing up in a godless home (metaphorically speaking and not literally that there is no God there since there is God in all things). That said, if the child reached the favorable eternity, and avoided the undesirable one, then God was merciful, even though this life was cut short (because this life is not the eternal reward... as Buddha said Life is suffering... to which I summarize as meaning this life is a test and is not the desirable eternity). By cutting his life short he blessed the child with an easier test. And didn't make him unable to reach that paradise. On the other hand the parents are given another reminder that this life isn't bliss and they should seek the eternal, whether they ever realize it or not...
 
I noticed this study was posted on some other forums... To me 1200 children in five countries is not a wide enough sampling to tell us much... also it's likely that children behave variably in diverse cultures... The time of year also can make a difference... say the study was conducted during Eid or Christmas... How would that affect the study?
 
I remember one study that claimed that the general altruism among secular and religious were more or less the same but the latter were more generous during holidays like Arthra mentioned. I don't know if I can find that study again and don't take my word for it but I don't find it unlikely.
 
Yeah ... 'religion' comes down to Christian or Moslem because there's not enough numbers of other faiths ... reads like someone arriving at the result they wanted ...
 
About the only relevance in this article worth noting is that there is indeed a perceived notion that Christian children have stronger morals than nonreligious children. Just like it is considered to be a better education if a child attends a Christian private school than a public school. Many people in the US take these statements as a given.
 
So on the average...if these can be shown to be true in and duplicated in another study... What would be better for peace in the world?
,.......
Family religious identification decreases children altruistic behaviors

Religiousness predicts parent-reported childsens sensitivity to injustices and empathy

Children from religious households are harsher in their punitive tendencies
......

Seems all these have been shown on adult posts on the interenets
 
I think the take away point is that this is but one study of about 1200 children. The study seems to have been done in a professional manner and their results follow accurately the outcome of the study. But it is still just one study. A great deal more research needs to be done before we can confidently claim that children of religious upbringings are more likely to be less altruistic than children of non-religious upbringings.
 
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