Soldato
I think japan is our proof that a school system can actually work, they produce much smarter more creative kids on average compared to the western countries.
How does religion work in schools today?
- Thread starter Johnnytoxic
- Start date
I think japan is our proof that a school system can actually work, they produce much smarter more creative kids on average compared to the western countries.
I attended state schools and at primary school we had morning assembly. This consisted of a hymn to start and a hymn and little prayer to end. It was taken by a random teacher each day. Only lasted about 30 mins and was mainly for any news / important information anyone should know. Occasionally we would read extracts from the bible, looking back on it now it was probably when there was nothing exciting to announce and/or teachers needed a bit longer to recover from hangovers. Despite this seeming quite religious (Hymns prayers) it was never drummed into us.
Secondary school we had 1 R.E lesson a week (50 minutes) when we got to Year 10 and took our options this was compulsory. Was a waste of time as mostly everyone ****ed around and got sent out. I would have much preferred learning about ancient civilisations. I got a grade C in my GCSE so it wasn't all bad.
I am an atheist so maybe I just always switched off, but I never thought it was being drummed / forced onto me at school.
I think schools should teach R.E or at least have some time during the week for something along those lines. Broadens people's minds. Maybe have options? First few years you learn about religion in general and all the different types, then perhaps once you hit Year 10 and chose your options, instead of RE being compulsory and more of the same, you can chose what religion you want to study? If you are a firm non-believer perhaps learn about evolution?
Secondary school we had 1 R.E lesson a week (50 minutes) when we got to Year 10 and took our options this was compulsory. Was a waste of time as mostly everyone ****ed around and got sent out. I would have much preferred learning about ancient civilisations. I got a grade C in my GCSE so it wasn't all bad.
I am an atheist so maybe I just always switched off, but I never thought it was being drummed / forced onto me at school.
I think schools should teach R.E or at least have some time during the week for something along those lines. Broadens people's minds. Maybe have options? First few years you learn about religion in general and all the different types, then perhaps once you hit Year 10 and chose your options, instead of RE being compulsory and more of the same, you can chose what religion you want to study? If you are a firm non-believer perhaps learn about evolution?
No I don't, that's their ******** game and I aint playing it.
How can you be democratic when part of your government is a dictatorship organisation based on the morals and ethics of a 2000 year old Arabic book?
The very fact we have religious schools is absurd.
Children should be going to school to learn facts, not be brainwashed into believing the views of a few blokes who wrote a few books 2000 years ago in an Arabic country. Nor should they be taught only how to pass tests, as the current educational system seems to think.
If I was to start a school in part funded by my scheme which aims to brainwash people into attending my lecture on a Sunday and giving me some money for the privilege of doing so, all through using fear, intimidation and negative reinforcement. I'd be labelled a criminal and a con man.
Sorry my bad I thought you were from the UK (a predominately Christian country).
Religious schools still teach evolution, I dunno what mental idea of them you have, maybe imagining a cross between a monastery and hog-warts, but the only real difference between religious/non religious schools is how forgiving the teachers are (how easy it is to get expelled) and having to say prayers in the morning (I say having, participation is optional).
They don't brainwash anybody, if anything going to a religious school made me more more open minded compared to many of my friends who didn't as although I didn't believe the stuff we were told in RE I did learn many things about religions you don't normally get taught.
And RE was excellent in Wales as we had the option of doing that for GCSE instead of compulsory Welsh LMAO.
Last edited:
Soldato
I just don't think children should be exposed to that kind of concept (the belief & ceremony side - not the education) before they develop the critical faculties required to make an informed choice either way.
Children are biologically conditioned to being susceptible to authority figures all around them at a young age - we have a social responsibility not to abuse that position to push children one way or another.
Children are biologically conditioned to being susceptible to authority figures all around them at a young age - we have a social responsibility not to abuse that position to push children one way or another.
Soldato
This is another problem that I had. I was being taught in one class that there was Adam & Eve, and the world was created in 7 days etc etc, and then in another class being told that the universe had existed for billions of years, and that dinosaurs once roamed the planet. It didn't add up. Again, though, it's important for me to say that I was taught that Christianity was fact, and there was no discussion around why it was contradictory of science, and why different religions say different things etc.
Yup, they need to be able to tell fact from fiction before religious education ensues.
Caporegime
Since you haven't been specific, I'm assuming you're talking about Church of England Bishops having the right to speak in the House of Lords. Part of being a modern, mature democracy involves have a system of checks and balances in place to scrutinize laws passed by elected officials. Now rightly or wrongly, according to our constitution the Lords Spiritual are part of those checks and balances though not a particularly significant part I would argue (there are only 26 of them and I don't think they take part in proceedings that often). It's an interesting debate about whether the Lords Spiritual should continue to sit in the House of Lords or whether we should just have the Lords Temporal, however I don't think many people would agree that the UK is not a democracy because of them. I see no evidence that the US system of electing other politicians to provide the checks and balances works any better than what we have.
Also, the Bible is not 2000 years old and no part of it was written in Arabic, which didn't exist as a language at the time of Jesus. The oldest *new testament* biblical manuscripts discovered are written in Ancient Greek.
Edit*
Last edited:
I, nor anyone I knew in school had any difficulty in knowing the difference between our RE lessons and our Science lessons.
I find it scary that teenagers today cannot separate the two, or even get confused over the difference between Genesis in an RE class and Palaeontology in a Science class.
Associate
- Joined
- 22 Sep 2008
- Posts
- 822
They certainly seem to produce more academically successful pupils who tend to excel in mathematics and languages. But creativity is supposedly an issue in Asian education.
Rote-learning has proven successful in giving children a solid foundation, but it's possible that this is to the detriment of creativity.
I have no issue with religious education, even if there's an indoctrination process. An adult who belives in Christian Magic would have believed in a different type of magic if they had not been exposed to the teachings of the Christian religion. Since the outcome is probably similar, the type of childhood indoctrination is inconsequential, with the exception of extremist teachings, which are not a problem in the developed world.
Soldato
My RE teacher would wander in the to the room (usually 5 mins or so late), sit down, pour himself a large coffee from his thermos and tell us to read from pages X to Y in our bibles. This wasn't a faith school, just a standard state school in the 80s.
I used to sit 3/4 of the way back and diagnoally across the room from the teacher's desk but I could still smell how strongly Irish his coffee was. Amazing, now I look back on it.
I used to sit 3/4 of the way back and diagnoally across the room from the teacher's desk but I could still smell how strongly Irish his coffee was. Amazing, now I look back on it.
Please, I'm willing to wager 95% if these christians haven't even read the bible.
How is it democratic to have people who exist in a society which is not democratic, who were not democratically elected and who base their judgements not on logic, reason and research but on outdated gibberish.
The UK isn't a democracy for a great many reasons, this just adds to the pile, the only choice we get as the people is who do we wish to screw us into the ground.
New testament is around 2000 years old and that's the foundation of Christianity. Greek or not, it was written in an arab country by arab men 2000 years ago about some fictitious bloke - hardly the pinnacle of peace, love and understanding that it claims to be.
The majority of the population are Christian, therefore it is democratic to have representatives of Christianity (who are democratically elected as such) in the house of lords, simples.
Caporegime
/sigh - why is it that those who are the most intolerant of religion are also the most ignorant about it
Associate
Primary school was C of E. Large emphasis on religion, hymn/other song sung every day and RE was mainly Christian but with other religions too and an assembly each week with the minister from the local church.
Secondary school is technically associated with Southwark Cathedral but isn't a church school. RE focuses on all major religions (although when you get to GCSE they only taught Christianity and Buddhism but that was because it was about it being easier to get the marks with those two because of how you can apply the teachings). There is a carol services for the year sevens each year, but I think that's more a tradition/a nice thing to do. There's also occasionally a prayer on special occasions but that's more the head wanting to than anything kind of Christian 'agenda' or anything.
Secondary school is technically associated with Southwark Cathedral but isn't a church school. RE focuses on all major religions (although when you get to GCSE they only taught Christianity and Buddhism but that was because it was about it being easier to get the marks with those two because of how you can apply the teachings). There is a carol services for the year sevens each year, but I think that's more a tradition/a nice thing to do. There's also occasionally a prayer on special occasions but that's more the head wanting to than anything kind of Christian 'agenda' or anything.
Associate
/sigh - why is it that those who are the most intolerant of religion are also the most ignorant about it
I was exposed to the bible since primary school, and well into secondary. I never took to it at all
The old testament was written during the bronze age was it not? But didn't the guys who write it (various authors over the course of 1500 years or so) draw "inspiration" if you like, from Babylonian and mesopatamian myths?
None of the authors lived at the time of Jesus either? It just seems completely irrelevant today...
I can quote passages from the bible to my wife's side of the family (Christians through and through) and they have no idea what I'm talking about.
It seems they like to ignore the old testament altogether, because that's where all the bad stuff happens
Ignorance is blissI'm not ignorant, I've read the bible. Also studied multiple other religions and I was a practicing Buddhist up until a few years ago./sigh - why is it that those who are the most intolerant of religion are also the most ignorant about it
I just think in general religion is a bad thing that brings absolutely zero benefit to society. It holds us back, causes wars and hatred and quite aside from anything else is a gigantic waste of precious time.
"Oh look, we sat in the extravagant church, give the priest some money and listened to the sermon, what good people we are" and according to that faith the homosexual bloke halfway round the world helping impoverished people get out of the living hell they are in is a sinner and he's going to burn in hell.
Religion fools people into thinking they're doing good without actually having to do it, it disconnects them with reality - harsh as it is and contributes nothing meaningful to the world.
If you are that against religion, why invest quite a bit of time reading / studying religion? Then going on to practice it?
It's just a question. Just seems like a waste of time.