I once had the pleasure of meeting George Takei. We dined together and chatted for nearly an hour. He's a cool guy. Yes, it was at a Star Trek convention.
George recently posted this on his Facebook page:
New Research Suggests [that] Raising Children Without Religion May Be A Better Alternative
Presented with realistic, religious, and fantastical stories, children were then asked whether they thought the story was real or fictional. Researchers found that “[c]hildren with a religious upbringing tended to view the protagonists in religious stories as real, whereas children from non-religious households saw them as fictional.” And why is this problematic? Because it muddies the waters of a child’s differentiation between reality and fiction, says the study, and even the spiritual from the fantastical.
“For secular people, morality is predicated on one simple principle: empathetic reciprocity, widely known as the Golden Rule. Treating other people as you would like to be treated,” writes Zuckerman. “It is an ancient, universal ethical imperative. And it requires no supernatural beliefs.”
http://www.bustle.com/articles/62411-raising-children-without-religion-may-be-a-better-alternative-suggests-new-research
Although this is an interesting fantasy, I have a few questions about it:
(1) What is "wrong" with viewing protagonists in religious stories as real? They are real. A whole generation of Israeli archaeologists has made careers of proving it to be so.
(2) Are we really to believe that today's video game addicted children can tell the difference between fantasy and reality as accurately as implied by this report? Every one of them I see who has a video device in his or her hand is immersed in fantasy and detached from reality.
(3) If "empathetic reciprocity" requires no supernatural beliefs and non-believers are on the rise, why do so many people still celebrate Christmas and Easter, pagan festivals which glorify the non-existent supernatural beings known as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Why are the "Harry Potter" books, which glorify the supernatural, so popular?
(4) Zuckerman describes himself as "a third-generation non-believing Jew":
http://forward.com/articles/138392/why-i-decided-to-study-non-belief/
If the world were to stop believing in G-d, then what would be the point of Israel being a "Jewish state"? To be Jewish means to follow the law (i.e., G-d's law). No G-d = no law = no Jewish state.
(5) Does "non-believing" mean "I believe there is no G-d" or does it mean "there is a G-d, but I don't believe in Him"?
And if there is no G-d for which Israel can be "the chosen people", then isn't their exceptionalism a fraud?
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