British Expatriate Network

8) New Topic for views etc

When I was at school, we had Religious Education, (then it got retitled community studies lol) It did not just include Christian faith, but all faiths (well, most anyways). You learnt a whole lot, made you more understanding and, I guess, tolerant. Which I think is a good thing, after all, we all live on this small blue, green planet we call home and its important we get along.

When I first moved here, I was listening to a talk radio station. The topic was, should other faiths be taught in schools. I thought, naaaa won't be much talk on this point, I was floored by the amount of calls it did generate. Most of them saying NO this cannot happen, it will confuse the children, it will drive them to other faiths etc, etc.

To me, if you are secure in your faith and its structure etc, why should you be afraid of other faiths? Are people that insecure? Maybe they must be.

Faith, beliefs are all very important and should not be knocked. But so is understanding and the understandings of other faiths. This builds trust and tolerance. Not hate and prejudices.


So the floor is now open lol

I agree whole-heartedly with your post. If our kids aren't taught about different religions, we will teach them. But they will already be knowledgeable in our faith before they get to split subjects at school.

How will you react if your kids choose another faith after they have learned about it at school, E17? Just wondering with you posting about teaching them your faith first

I was taught something quaintly called "divinity" at school, which was only C of E Christianity. I did extremely well at it. In fact it was one of only two O'Levels I passed (with 88%!!).

Today I am an agnostic/atheist, so I would say having one doctrine shoved down my throat probably wasn't very effective (we had school prayers every morning too) and that familiarity finally bred contempt. The fact that the teacher (the Right Revolting Reverend Baynham) who taught Divinity was also a inept, alcoholic sadist - may have also coloured my view however.

I think if it's going to be taught in school at all, it should be multi-faith and that there should be strong barriers put up so that schools do not actually teach any one religion, that church and state should be kept separate and that you keep all those dinosaurs-roamed-the-earth-six-thousand-years-ago brigade well away from any of the courses.

I'm very much in favour of education about all the main faiths/religions. I just ask that it includes the idea that you don't have to pick one. Most RE schemes I have come across have always assumed that you believe there is a god in some form, and they are just telling you about the other wys in which people view god(s).

If religion is taught in school it should include all religions creeds and beliefs and prayers should be voluntary .

nothing wrong in teaching religion as part of a all round education , more as a lesson in superstition and mind control than a example of moral rightousness .

My eldest is about to do his Common Entrance and I am really impressed with the Religious Studies syllabus. It develops skills and attitudes to a depth that you don't really get in the other subjects.

The sections on Old and New Testament texts has half the marks given to the pupil's own opionions on the topics and their relevence today. There are also sections on major world religions and on current moral and ethical topics. There is absolutely no indoctrination.

I think that religious education forms an important part of broad and balanced curriculum.

I think there is a distinction between teaching religion and teaching about religion. The former I have no time for and has no place in public education. If you want to indoctrinate your offspring, do it on you own time.

The latter however is important. These beliefs are prominant in the world and shape [too] much of what happens. Especially the negative stuff - lets face it the so called war on terror is a reaction to a rather brutal 'faith based initiative' on the part of some fundamentalist islamists and the rhetoric of some in response wouldn't be out of place in the crusades.

Less dramatically, faith and ignorance play a big part in daily life and children need to develop and understanding of the environment they live in and a tolerance and respect for the beliefs of others. knowledge would hopefully reduce the fear of other beliefs and thus the hostility towards them.

However this will require the dominant christian community to let go. When I was at school 'R.E.' was nothing more than learning the bible by rote. I had no concept of Judaism or Islam and no idea of the existance of other ideas of faith. I found the whole thing tedious and simply set out to deconstruct what I was being told - mostly by attacking it, very vocally, in class. [ this wasn't mere teenage rebellion either, I was kicked out of my first RE class at the age of seven for asking why the bibles we had referred to all the angels as 'he' and did this mean women couldn't be angels and if so did this mean all the nuns would go to hell....]

As I've mention before, those who are so determined to have religion in school should consider that it might be counterproductive to their intentions. It is no accident that religion is taught in schools in most of Europe, where the church is in decline and where it is not taught, in America, religion is still relatively strong.

Exactly my point. Although as you said, I can hardly see it happening in the US. Not across the entire country anyway. I can just see Billy Joe getting home from school in a small farming town in the Midwest, a school that is 99.99% white (and there's only 500 kids, work that out) and he tells his "paw" what he learnt at school today. "We learn who Muhammed was, and Buddha, and.."

Dad's already in his F-150 halfway down the dirt road to the school.

But of course that is prejudicial and should not be part of a child's education either.

I think most are agreed that teaching about religion in all its forms is acceptable, but why teach about the absence of belief? There is of course many an opportunity to point out that there are people who do not hold any religious beliefs, but how can you teach about atheism - it's all over in one sentence isn't it?

Hardly. You could look at non religious 'faiths' such a s humanism for example. You can also use atheism as a critical tool to question why people feel the need to believe is extraterrestial deities - despite the total lack of objective or rational evidence.

Of course, this is why so many so called people of faith fear atheism in the first place and feel the need to attack it.

I think there are a great number of fundamentalists that would love the idea of Christianity and the bible being taught in school, up to the point where you tell them that 'Of course, we'd have to teach kids about Islam and the koran too...or about Hinduism and reincarnation...'

I believe too, kids should be taught about all religions, not by preaching to them, but as a means to tolerance and worldly wisdom. I think the problems in the world would be more widely understood if kids actually knew why people were divided.

Surely atheism lacks evidence as well - you can't prove that God doesn't exist, so is a faith or belief in itself :wink:

A common mistake by atheists. Look up faith in a dictionary. I looked it up in the Bible:

The only need to prove faith is within oneself.

The only need to prove faith is within oneself.[/quote]

Not what I was talking about. What I was referring to is the general notion of religions and faith is deities - that some ET out there is responible for all this (conveniently absolving us mere mortals from taking responsibilty for anything).

You make the common mistake of some Christians in equating atheism with a lack of faith. Go look up 'Humanism' in a dictionary - A system of thought that centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.

Faith in people rather that space aliens?