bil

Did you see the Dawkins article on Faith schools? Horrifying. Faith schools receive state money, our ******* taxes, but they can then discriminate on the basis that your child can't get in unless you are of that faith. Try that in any other line of work, and put up a notice that says 'No Jews, Catholics or Muslims' and see how far you get.



Plus, they are supposed to teach science, but invariably evolution goes by the waayside. In the Muslim school, the science teacher basically told her pupils that 'Evolution says that we are descended from chimps, but the Koran says otherwise. Plus, her science pupils believed that fresh water doesn't mix with salt water in the sea so that it is kept pure for us. (Apparantly that's what the Koran says.)



Now, you would think that this would all be caught by the Ofstead inspectors who take a dim view of crap teaching. No danger of that. State schools have to be inspected, but faith schools apparantly do their own inspecting and oddly, they all come up with a glowing report.



Personally I would close every damn faith school and bar all religions from being counted a charity. If your church needs money, then let it get it from its worshippers. Oh yes. I'd bar any religious building from having a lightning conductor.

jimenato

Sounds interesting - what article was that?

I've always thought that faith schools were divisive.

bil

and how. They were showing the absolute segregation in the N Irish schools, and how the riots these days are being run by 9 year olds weaned on the separatist concept.

It was called Faith Schools Menace (sic).

There's another on next week. Dawson points out that in the secular world, bad people do bad things, and good people do good things, but it takes religion to make good people do bad things.

Lionda

Just to add to this, I am sure I read that a child cannot be collected from school by anyone other than a parent or someone who has been recognised by the school (by prior arrangement) as able to collect the child. Therefore ... how would a school know who is collecting a child when most of the muslim children are collected by a person in burkha It could be anyone collecting that child

jimenato

Ah! OK, got it. A channel 4 programme, probably will be on 4 on demand and it's been reported/commented in all the quality papers. That's me for the rest of the day then...

bil

I think that the saddest thing about religion is that it makes people stupid.

Once you have bought into a belief system, it renders you incapable of applying critical reasoning.

Dawkins came up with an excellent way for thinking about things, and three things to avoid like the plague. Tradition, authority and revelation

1. Because that's the way we have always done it. (Tradition)
2. Because your parents, priest, teacher says so. (Authority)
3. because it feels right to think that way. (Revelation)

In short, ask questions and apply critical reasoning, and if anyone doesn't like you asking questions, don't trust them.

lynnxa

the Spanish state schools are effectively faith schools

if you opt for your kids to be taught religión they will only be taught catholicism....................

jimenato

Aha! Critical thinking, logical fallacies, skepticism - my favourite subject area. Unevidenced belief is a fascinating area. Why do people believe in things for which there is no evidence or even evidence to the contrary?

Funnily enough I can understand religious belief rather better than other kinds - religious belief is indoctrinated into kids by parents, church, school from an early age. But why on earth anyone would believe in mediums, psychics, paranormal activity, tarot, palmistry or the weirder bits of alternative medicine (Reiki anybody?) is a complete mystery.

HBG

I went to a faith school once as a kid, in the UK. The faith was Protestantism, instead of Catholicism. I wanted to protest, at times, but I was already involved in too many fights for other reasons and couldn't face any more of them.

If Dawkins had been around then, in my environment at that time and at my age, he would have had to keep his mouth shut, such views would not have got past the playground.

As time progressed, I witnessed the Oz trial, saw people step out of the cupboard without being arrested on the spot, and now enjoy the benefit of reading posts such as these. Along the way I abandoned creationism for evolution.

There's still a long way to go, they're still stoning women for adultery, and honour killings happen in the UK on a regular basis.

All in the name of some God or other.

agoreira

Not sure if you can view this in Spain.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/f...ce/4od#3112619

bil

My mother once told me that when I came home from my first day at primary school, I announced that I wasn't ever going to grow up to be a priest or a robber.

To this day I have no idea what the hell brought that on. It wasn't, to the best of my knowledge a particularly religious school.

agoreira

Just watched it, loved the bit where the Reverend from the Orange Order said he didn't find religion divisive!

bil

Religion makes you go blind and gives you hairy palms.

I loved the way the Irish one goobed on about it was his 'Human right' to indoctrinate his children.

What about a child's human rights not to be brainwashed?

jojojojojo

Richard Dawkins wrote that book, "The God Delusion" - a very interesting read

Jo xxx

HBG

The trouble is that most of us feel the need to belong to something in life, a need that diminishes with increasing income and age. And education.

To be really successful in certain walks of life, there is an absolute need to belong to the 'club', whatever that club may be. The most recognizable is probably being a WASP (white, aglo saxon protestant) in the US, beautifully written about by Tom Wolfe in his Bonfire Of The Vanities.

I've read extracts from Dawkins book, but I don't think I could get through the whole thing, it would be too painful.