In a comment on a video about the benefits of religion, Alan makes this sweeping generalisation about parents…
Good video. I seriously agree with Haidt on the matters he is discussing. I don't hold out much hope for what he is proposing, however, for two reasons. (1) change takes work, and most adults who are raising children are work-averse and (2) you can't put the geni back in the bottle.
Case in point--both people discussing positive changes in the video indicate that they are atheists. Haidt then says that every study shows that those with a religious grounding are, on average, happier and do better in life. Yet, neither person is willing to change their atheist beliefs for their own benefit or the benefit of their children. Instead, they say that "atheists must work harder to give children what they need." In other words, you, as an atheist parent, must work harder than the non-atheist parent. That's two strikes when one already recognizes that adults are work-averse.
I don't think it would be possible to change from atheist views to give children a different upbringing. You can't suddenly gain the energy of a believer from pretending to believe. I do take my kids to church even though I'm not entirely convinced. I think Mormonism has damaged my core beliefs because they spent so much focus in convincing us of the "truth" that there is now an element of it must be true or untrue ingrained into me. I tell myself it needn't be like that. But even in doing so, my children aren't experiencing the same as they would if I truly had faith.
Raising children does not make you work adverse. It makes working harder. I found working in engineering easier than the challenges I face trying to raise healthy humans when I don't know what a healthy human looks like. Never mind everything else that comes with it.
Also, A child can be raised in the perfect environment and still end up with trauma and problems.
