ANS -- Replies to: A surprising explanation for the global decline of religion

I have received a couple of responses so far to the article called A surprising explanation for the global decline of religion

Here they are, in case you want to see how people reacted. 

first reply:

Hi Kim,

Tell Joyce I agree with her. This is bull. . . 

If anything, the decline of formal, traditional faith, along with the decline of ethical behavior, correlates directly to the parental involvement of a child's development. 

The last 2 generations have not been as involved in their children's schooling or raising - leaving more of it to the daycare and school systems.  While I'm delighted that christian doctrine is not pushed down our throats in school, I think we missed a boat: when we made rules about teaching religion, we didn't replace that ethical structure with plain ethics classes - and teaching ethics to very young children. 

And, while I don't condone corporal punishment, we did not offer significant consequences for behaving in an unethical way. 

So, if there's no emotional reward and no encouragement towards faith in school, and parents are too busy trying to earn enough to survive, and we combine that with no negative stimulus for doing wrong - it would be surprising that the world didn't move towards lack of faith, lack of consideration and a self serving disinterest in anything that didn't generate rewards. 

When we were young, most of us spent a lot of time near at least one parent who cared.  The kids whose parents had to both work were often in and out of neighbors' homes, getting the benefit of their friends' parental influence.  It's not that the pace is faster, not that technology is more sophisticated. It's that people took time to be with their children, and to express and reinforce their values.  

As it was, most of those values were attached to religion.

On top of all that, we are constantly bombarded by worldwide examples of disaster, violence, selfishness and general evil.  It's very hard to maintain faith under all that pressure. It's especially hard if we didn't begin with seeing that faith as a comfort in times of stress.

You are welcome to share this - just don't give my name, please.

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second reply: I am with Joyce. I believe religious institutions have only themselves to blame. People just don't like the dogma and being judged and all the rules. I believe more people have their own individual relationships with belief. Just thinking