Sunday, 21 November 2010

Religious Education

MAD MANDY MOANS
Religious Education
I know this is controversial but the debate about whether the state should fund “faith based” schools is perhaps the most relevant social issue of modern times.
How we educate and integrate children and help them develop into well balanced, compassionate and productive adults has a direct effect on the future of humankind. It’s a subject that deserves to be considered and needs to be resolved.
Throughout history religious intolerance has been responsible for bloody wars that decimated societies. Killing, maiming, torturing, burning and pillaging in the name of faith is a brutal constant. After thousands of years and billions of deaths and untold destruction it will not stop until we learn to live in peace and harmony.
It is ironic that the credit crunch has brought this debate to the fore because prominent religions and the accumulation of wealth have long gone hand in hand. In fact, one religious organisation in particular is rich beyond measure. One has to question why they need tax payers to fund their schools.
In modern multicultural society isn’t teaching “religious” education in mainstream schools morally and economically redundant? In my opinion religious education is the domain of parents and clerics; be they Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Rastafarian, Shinto …
Schools in Northern Ireland were traditionally Catholic or state run. In my day one had to be expelled to be passed from one to the other and I went to big school in the 70’s which isn’t that long ago. The enlightened creation of integrated schools was down to parents choosing to say that the traditional system was divisive and plainly wrong. I don’t believe the government would have helped fund them if it were not for public opinion. That’s you and your opinion by the way. Have your say now.
If your preferred faith school merits government funding then every faith school does. That’s the law of equality for all. Trouble is not every faith school is equally deserving of state funding according to those with opposing beliefs and round and round we go!
Islamic faith schools are becoming popular throughout the western world and cause increasing unease within “Christian” society. Why is that?
Do you think they are teaching hate and division? Go on … admit it ... you do. And you think they are indoctrinating children into one mind-set and that is to be against everything you have been taught to believe in. Does that ring a school bell in your ear? How come your faith is more deserving than the next one?
For too long R.E. has been part of the curriculum. In ages past science was the domain of witches and warlocks and the church burned or imprisoned anyone with a different and progressive opinion. Yet Islamic scholars had already invented medicine and were healing instead of pealing the skin of heretics. Let’s get real. We now know that the world isn’t flat and it wasn’t created in 7 days by some benign deity. The world has been evolving over billions of years and humankind only appeared 2 minutes ago in the scheme of things. Why are we continuing to insist on children being taught to adhere to a belief that has no basis in fact?
Please, please don’t get me wrong. If you have a belief in Sharma, karma, Buda or Christ you have my respect. What I cannot condone is the state funding religious education in schools and assisting in the segregation of children in the process.
Surely it is time to take religion out of the equation and invest in teaching children what is known to be true. That doesn’t mean their parents and religious leaders can’t continue to provide for their spiritual wellbeing. Faith is a communion with the deity you either find on your own or are taught to belief in whether there is proof of existence or not. Faith transcends. But which one is the right one?
The thing is … that is not for the state to decide. To fund catholic schools requires them to fund every other religious school that wishes to be funded. I say again … is it not time to take religion out of the equation and invest in teaching children facts and figures? Pooling resources in order to give them the best possible start and let them run with it. That is progress. Take the cloth out of the classroom and perhaps there will be an end to war in the name of religion.      

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