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DELETED_74993

Sorry i'm going to have to say it... What is this petition going to achieve?

5000 signatories is not going to get it noticed anywhere but the school, in which case it would only be useful if the 5000 signatures were from parents and relatives of those at that school...

Aside from that I don't really care either way (even though I agree with Castiels sentiments). A bunch of 16 year olds are not going to put aside all that they have been taught in other subjects because of this one lecture, tbh remembering my time as a 16 year old I feel sorry for the preacher... The only people that would be swayed by it are those that were religious anyway..

The parents knew nothing of this until after the event, when one, who happens to be a trained Geologist, and thus qualified to evaluate what had been said, wrote to the school to complain.
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Ths bit especially makes me laugh, makes it sound like a 12 year old wrote the petition... (And yes, I would probably be classed as a "trained geologist"... All that really means is you had one lecture at the beginning of your first year at uni (if he went to uni) rubbishing the creationist myth).

Oh and as for the Free schools issue, well isn't this kind of the point, you can teach kids something like this if the parents consent?
 
AGD said:
There's no point in this petition - you need to campaign against faith schools. They are the real issue. It goes beyond creationism to matters of equality, freedom of expression and thought, and proper teaching of all religions and non-religious views.
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There is nothing inherently wrong with faith schools, and if the petition was for abolishing faith schools then I would not be signing it, in fact I would sign something that supported them instead.

Most faith schools do teach all religions and freedom of expression and equality, so banning them is not necessary. What we should be doing is ensuring ALL schools teach a balanced curriculum and this petition is about making sure that Children are told the difference between a theological position and a Scientific one.
 
AGD said:
There's no point in this petition - you need to campaign against faith schools. They are the real issue. It goes beyond creationism to matters of equality, freedom of expression and thought, and proper teaching of all religions and non-religious views.
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There is nothing wrong with faith schools in general. I spent my entire education at Catholic schools and was taught about evolution in Science lessons, and creationism, amongst other religious theories in RE.
 
Spunkey said:
There is nothing wrong with faith schools in general. I spent my entire education at Catholic schools and was taught about evolution in Science lessons, and creationism, amongst other religious theories in RE.
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The plural of anecdote is not data. :p

But seriously, think about it - why do religions set up schools? - to convert kids. Therefore, they have an agenda to bias the kids' views toward one faith. Why should we, as a secular society, pay for them to do this? It's dangerous and unfair on the children.
 
Castiel said:
There is nothing inherently wrong with faith schools
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Except that they essentially indoctrinate children from an age where they are really too young to discern between fantasy, fact and the fact that there most probably isn't a God, despite what the teacher or fancy-man-in-a-gown says.

I wouldn't want to ban faith schools entirely; that would go against my liberal principles. However, they most certainly shouldn't receive any state funding whatsoever.

The more secular our state, the better.
 
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Hatter The Mad said:
Except that it essentially indoctrinates children from an age where they are really to young to discern fantasy, fact and that fact that there most probably isn't a God, despite what the teacher or fancy-man-in-a-gown says.

I wouldn't want to ban faith schools entirely; that would go against my liberal principles. However, they most certainly shouldn't receive any state funding whatsoever.

The more secular our state, the better.
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Not so liberal though really!

Of course they should receive state funding, the Parents who send their children to faith schools pay their taxes like anyone else.

Far too many people have a really skewed idea of what goes on in Faith Schools compared to non-Faith schools. You do realise that ALL schools teach RE and with rare exceptions Children are no more indoctrinated in school as they are anywhere else.

Just because you have a specific belief/non-belief doesn't mean that you should enforce others to either share that belief or stop those that have a different belief from living their lives by it, and that includes the choice of sending your children to any school they wish, including a faith one.

The more tolerant our State, the better.
 
While I don't think creationism should be taught in science classrooms (except perhaps as a light anecdotal "there's some people who believe in something other than evolution" style) because plain and simple it's not science so has no standing there. It's a valid theological position which people are, of course, welcome to believe but you don't go teaching the purpose of pronouns in craft & design so equally why would you teach an unrelated topic in science?

However I don't think I'll be signing the petition as it's a matter that should be determined by the school/parents/government/education boards and perhaps more pragmatically I don't believe I've ever seen one of these online petitions achieve anything.
 
Hatter The Mad said:
Yes, I can read. Like I said: "Ah, it is being moved to DirectGov

"As stated in Parliament by the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, on 2 December 2010, online petitions to the Coalition Government will be moving to DirectGov in 2011."
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Does that refer to this particular petition though, where does it state that this petition is being moved to Direct.Gov?
 
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