How can children be moral without religion?
Both books have chapters devoted to this very topic. Behaving morally makes sense, and most people behave well for sensible reasons—even if they think they are relying on commandments. Psychologist Dr. Jean Mercer contributed an essay in PBB describing the six stages of moral development. Children are more likely to move to the higher levels of development and to retain a more nuanced and reliable moral sense if they learn the reasonable principles of ethical behavior than if they rely on parental or scriptural authority. Dealing with death must be a challenge. It always is, isn’t it? Even those who believe in an afterlife tend to cry at funerals and try hard to delay their own passing. There’s no greater challenge for a human being than knowing life will end. But an increasing number of people have come to believe that real maturity requires us to come to terms peacefully with mortality rather than pretending we don’t die after all. That life ends has rightly been recognized as the si
