Chubby Nickel Audio Vlog

Like parents mis-use the Santa Claus myth to get their children to behave, once a person loses the childish notion the only true God is the one you happen to believe in, then an awakening occurs which often causes a sort of revolt towards rules, ethics and parents.

When a child learns that Santa is a myth and is not real despite what their parents told them, the child feels like they have been betrayed by the very people that are supposed to be protecting and teaching them. If the Santa myth had often been used to coerce the child into behaving properly, then the child is more likely to be harder to coerce into behaving properly when they learn the truth about the myth.

This is a parallel to when a child no longer believes in the religion of their parents. If the religion of the parents was used to convince their children to behave without explaining more than, “because God said so” or “because God said it is bad,” causes a similar Santa style revolt on ethics and values. Its not because there are no morals without God, its because the child was not taught a higher, universal reason for behaving a certain way in society.

This hypothesis (I will not call it a theory because it has not been developed or studied yet), can explain why there is a period of social dissent as a child matures into an adult. Maybe I am wrong about it, but its OK to be wrong, its the most efficient way for humans learn.

To test, we would need a group of about 200 split almost evenly between religious families and non-religious families. Half of each group would then teach their child morals according to the Bible, and the other half would teach the children morals according to how it affects to society. Then track each child and see how they feel about their parents beliefs throughout their development into adulthood.

I am not saying that the world be better without religion, I am saying that children need to be taught to understand morals mean more than being punished or rewarded.