Is It Time To Ban Religion And Religious Education?

[vernonk]

Is it time to ban religion and religious education?

[Kromovaracun]

Nah. Get rid of all of them. Catholic, Muslim, whatever.

[Kromovaracun]

Schools. I mean schools...

[EDDIE51]

I feel I have to point out that the UK is still a Christian country and the church , by the Bishops in the house of Lords, still forms a part of the government!
Banning religion in the UK would mean changing the basic constitution!

[naomi24]

Impossible to ban religion, but religion should have no place in any school room. Muslim faith schools should be very strictly monitored.

[murraymints]

I attended a Catholic school, in those days if you were not a baptised Catholic you had no hope of crossing the threshold..the school is still there but no longer demands that as prerequisite.. neither is the daily mass or holiday of obligation observed...it perfoms well and is therefore in demand irrespective of Faith

[Old_Geezer]

Faith schools ought not have a place though. Long gone are the days when State education didn't exist or was inadequate and religious groups filled the gap. If a school can't stick to a secular education of reality and leave faith to the churchs etc. then something's wrong with the system.

[kvalidir]

Just to clarify Eddie I am talking about ALL faith schools- not Muslim ones alone, I don't like words put into my mouth that was NOT my meaning, and I agree with Naomi on this, religion should have no place in education- people should be free to practice their religion with their families etc but school is not the place for it. That's not to say we should remove religious education, as in finding out about all major religions, but schools should never be run by a religion or be representative of a religion themselves.

[EDDIE51]

Naomi I have reported on here that any independent school that does not get any form of state funding but relies on fees and donations alone can ONLY be inspected by Ofsted if it actually invites the inspectors in. As far as I know the only schools that do this are Muslim. All Christian faith schools are fully inspected.

[murraymints]

ditto Kva ! :0)

[Islay]

No

[-Talbot-]

You can't ban religion but you can ban faith schools and it should be done immediately.
No permissions should be given for any new religious buildings either particularly mosques.

[youngmafbog]

I'm with Talbot on this.

However I would go further in suggesting where hate preaching (from any religion) is found to be taking place the building should be closed down for good and the perpetrators locked up for life.

Whilst I'd like to see the end f faith schools I would like to see Religious education in schools. Not has we had them in the old days but lectures on religions, why people feel the need, why they do seem to be underlying in wars etc.

[naomi24]

Eddie at 07:45, the rules need to be amended - urgently.

[cassa333]

Religion will always be with us (even though I think it is a pile of carp). Therefore proper religious education is better than none.

By banning RE you leave it to parents and the 'church' of whichever religion they happen to be. That is where radicalisation happens. Not usually at school.

Although what I do think would maybe help is that faith schools should be monitored (by recognised outside bodies) much more vigorously than non faith schools. Monitored for radicalism, separatism and equality. That sort of thing.

[Old_Geezer]

"proper religious education"
There is the crux, the difference between teaching of the different religions and their beliefs, and the teaching of a particular religion to be followed.

[ToraToraTora]

as much as I would like to vernon, the devotees various branches of mumbo jumbo are too ingrained, short of confiscating all children born for the next 25 years and shielding them from any religion I cant see how we'd do it. Hopefully when human kind matures we'll be able to shake of the yoke of mumbo jumbo but that'll take hundreds of years.

[woofgang]

I am not sure how banning faith schools would help? As I have said before, there is nothing to stop anybody organising group activities for children and part of that being chats with a local clergyman (or woman) of any religion. Equally its quite legal to homeschool children and for homeschoolers to organise themselves into big groups, even renting or using large buildings for the purpose.....

[Old_Geezer]

Surely there are rules around home-schooling ?
No one is suggesting one can not teach one's offspring the myth(s) one believes in. It just ought to be a separate activity from the normal schooling, not implied it is on the same level as teaching facts and skills.

[woofgang]

Not in the UK. If your child is attending a school, you are asked to inform the school, in writing, that you will be removing your child. You don’t have to follow the National Curriculum, or any other curriculum. If the local council are concerned that your children are not receiving any education whatsoever, then they can arrange to visit informally and if they feel its needed then they can issue a school attendance requirement; but to do that they would have to feel that you are making no attempt at all to educate your child which would be quite hard to prove unless there were other serious child welfare issues.

[Old_Geezer]

That's a totally unacceptable system. (Maybe those looking for cheap holidays at the expense of their child's education should claim to be home-schooling them for a fortnight.)