Sympathetic secularists

Here's an interesting scientific paper. It's a study done by the University of Chicago on 1,170 children between the ages of 5 and 12 from six different countries. It contradicts popular assumptions regarding altruism and kindness shown by children brought up in either a religious environment or a secular one. Religious apologists of all stripes often claim that religion is needed for "moral development", suggesting that secular or atheistic people lack the scaffolding to impart moral and ethical teachings onto their children.

This study shows this idea to be fallacious, not only were the secular children kinder but they also had less punitive attitudes toward interpersonal offenses and were more likely to share. Religion on the other hand would appear to negatively correlate with these desirable characteristics, the children from religious families being less sensitive and significantly less likely to share. As most atheists and humanists already know, religion is totally unnecessary in order to live a moral life, and perhaps hinders moral development rather than helping it?