It depends on the country and the mindset of the population. If the state spends money on education the state should decide on the curriculum and whether or not religion is taught. The state is also responsible to act on the wishes of the people so if the people by majority or some other means is against religious education in schools then the state should have it removed if it is offensive.
If the school is privately funded or funded by a Church then its the wishes of the Church that should prevail. The state has no right to say that a Church school should not provide religious education.
as in truth as we know it. ... ie that the world is round and has been around billions of years, and that our spiritual belief in the one god. then the child can make up there own mind which of these they take to, to dismiss one is teaching against what we believe
There is no magic formula. It all boils down to pleasing the majority eg if 80% of the pop is made up of Christians and Muslims then the school can opt to each both. It should be the choice of the individual school based on their population. If there are equal % of Muslims, Christians and Hindus, then the school can opt to teach no religion at all as it might be cumbersome to teach all three.
To be honest I really dont understand why all the fuss. A simple solution is allow students/parents to chose if they participate in religious education at all.
As for church schools, where Im from these produce the most successful students. So the state would be rather foolish to stop funding.
Should schools teach anything beyond the most basic disciplines? Ought schools teach critical thinking skills? Where does one draw the line? Since some wish to draw a hard-fast line betwixt religion and say, logic, for example, can we then have schools teach religion's replacement?
Originally posted by amolv06 I would be in favor of state-funded schools teaching religion as electives.
Does that include islamic schools, hinduistic schools, buddhistic schools, satanistic schools, hedhen schools, whatever schools? Or do you only mean christian schools?
Originally posted by FabianFnas No religious teaching then...?
They could teach about the various histories of the various main religious movements. That would be a relative truth.
But seriously, when I had to fill out my sons school registration forms last week, I knew they didn't mean "religous education". They meant 'christian indoctrination', which really cheeses me off.
Religion in Schools
31 Aug '10 14:02
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