Jesus Christ Bhav you are full of fail, learn to read!
I was saying exactly the opposite of what you are accusing me of.
Here's another whopping great big hint for you - I have a degree in biology.
Is evolution a religion?
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I was saying exactly the opposite of what you are accusing me of.
Here's another whopping great big hint for you - I have a degree in biology.
Dawkins isn't the most objective person to be honest.
However, as I stated any school found to be teaching creationism, or as in the case of several Islamic Schools, fundamentalism and religious hatred should be closed...independent or not. This is a minority of schools however, and it doesn't necessitate the closing of all faith schools just the better oversight of the independent ones most likely to be teaching such nonsence.
That neither Catholic or Jewish schools teach creationism in any form as neither religion supports Biblical Literalism which is a requirement of Creationism means that people are unfairly targetting all faith schools when the vast majority are above average performing and produce well rounded and educated children...
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Well your still mistaken - I learned plenty about Evolution from the Genetics module focusing on the DNA and hereditary side of it. Then there were also two Evolution specific modules on top that could be studied but I didnt take, one module within Human Biology, and another within Earth Science.
A student wishing to learn everything that the University offered on Evolution would pick a Human Biology Major with the compulsory modules including Genetics, the Evolution elective, and the elective module in Earth Science, which covered everything from both geology and chemistry on Evolution. It was from my friend that was doing this specific course that I got a couple of papers regarding organic compounds turning into organic compounds to read, but I really just skimped over them as I found chemistry to hard.
It was a very open minded course structure that allowed students to tailor their studies and module choices to what they wanted to learn.
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Yes it can....you need to look up what a comprehensive school is....
It is Catholic because it is voluntarily aided by the Catholic Diocese and it's RE program and ethos of the school are based on what it considers Catholic Christian values....Something I have no issue with whatsover as the stated values are Love, Truth, Justice, Self Responsibilty, Self Discipline.....all things I as a Parent want instilled in my Child.
It teaches a full range of comprehensive subjects with the emphasis on Science and Mathematics, again nothing I disagree with.
It's RE program teaches a full range of understanding of other religions, beliefs and philosophical positions, including atheism (on which I spoke to the school myself) with the additional emphasis on Catholicism (mass, with the exclusion of the eucharist as my son is not a Catholic) as is obvious in a Catholic School.
It is a good school, it teaches a wide and objective curriculum and if for one minute I though they were teaching something contrary to my values or teaching Creationism or intolerance then he woukd be temoved and the school reported to the LEA and OFSTED.
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Do councils have the power to close fundamentalist schools? I agree that state faith schools are pretty much a non issue. Do you also think there should be some provisions made to stop mandatory religious services that a lot of independent schools impose? I don't see any harm in making it opt out personally.
Soldato
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He is indeed a biased man, but that doesn't mean that the school made up the stuff that they told him. What I referred to were actual things that the students said, not Dawkins.
I never suggested that all faith schools teach creationism. I do find faith schools to be negative though.
But my school also did this, it taught all the religions and atheism in RE.
In year 9 prior to GCSE, the first thing we learnt were that:
- A theist is a person who believes in God
- An agnostic is a person who believes that the existence / non existence of God cannot be proved
- An atheist is a person who doesnt believe in any gods.
One of our first assignments given in that class were to draw what we thought a Theist, Agnostic, and Atheist looked like.
This didnt stop, and nor did the teacher do anything to prevent the majority of the class (including me!) drawing their atheist as either a punk or a demonic character.
RE teaches nothing more about atheism beyond that.
It has only recently been proposed this year for it to be made possible to close them down via written letters, but as of this moment in time, and over the last several years, schools like this one are fully legal and government endorsed:
There are also Muslim schools in Bradford and likely other cities allowed to import and teach curriculum from Saudi Arabia, teaching that 'Jews are pigs, and Christians are cows':
There is yet nothing illegal about these kinds of schools, they are allowed to exist and import and teach curriculum from the USA / Saudi Arabia instead of the UK curriculum, and they are fully endorsed and supported by our government.
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Soldato
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Yeah it winds me up that the idea of not believing in a god is never really expressed at school.
Edit: above is the video I was referring to with regards to faith schools.
Edit: above is the video I was referring to with regards to faith schools.
That is good for your friend, he was lucky that the school offered such a program, as many do not, or try to ignore the issue....
In the catchment, my sons school offers the best program for Dyslexic children...it is funded jointly by the LEA and Catholic Diocese. This is not up for debate Bhavv, as you cannot possibly judge it from a position of ignorance of either the schools, the programs or the level of funding attributed to each school in the catchment.
For someone who expounds the scientific method and logic, you seem to ignore what that teaches you consistently......namely, being reasoned and objective....
They should have it....as well as provisions for oversight and imposing censure.
As far as opt outs are concered, all state supported schools, including free schools must allow this, so should independent schools...although as an independent school is optional to begin with that is up for debate.
Yes, if you're not a total spanner.
To my belief such programs and support for dyslexic students should be compulsory for all schools, and they are available in most schools if the parents of a dyslexic child take an active role in making sure that their child is receiving the support they need from the school.
If the goverment wasnt wasting so many resources on faith based schools, maybe this would be a possibility by now.
Also I am not ignoring your points, you are still ignoring, or are incapable of understanding mine.
The fact that the school that your son goes to offers support for dyslexic students, or any other better teaching standards has nothing to do with it being a catholic / faith school. The only thing that can be attributed to any faith based school is that it has a religious based bias, however significant or insignificant.
The scientific method, reason and objectiveness do not apply to something that first and foremost bypasses all of these requirements such as religion.
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Man of Honour
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Do you mean this to read as quite such an absolute position? To baldly state that no RE class will teach any more about atheism than a superficial caricature seems to be presuming a level of knowledge that you can't possibly have. It's quite a long time since I studied RE or RMPE (as it was becoming when I stopped studying it) but I'm fairly sure we covered atheism in a bit more depth than that.
They should be able to, that's answering a slightly different question to whether they can though because it's apparent that some people do not believe that they can.
I'm sure people have tried to correct you on this basic misunderstanding before - atheism isn't a lack of belief in God or gods, but an active disbelief. Do you still not understand the distinction?