Quote:It is, you're right, but up to a point.
And where is that point? Where they start ot be different and you feel segregated? Where they choose to bring their children up differently to how you do?
Quote:Can you imagine giving people like abu full control over the way they want to practice their religion?
He does have full control. That is the nature of freedom. People have the right to choose to believe things that scare you. But it is only when they do actual harm that you can put them in jail for it. Abu is even allowed to bring up children.
Quote:What i going on about is that, i feel that children should be encouraged to think critically.
Education may be about learning facts, but it should also be about teaching students to be willing to, and to have the courage to, challenge those things [including currently accepted 'paradigms'], that [through the acquisition of new knowledge] they can see as illogical, irrational, or absurd.
I was taught that, beginning in high school. Especially in history, but also in English. In science we were still being given the tools to make that sort of contribution.
Quote:Throughout man's history, it has been rebels, and those who have challenged authority and the accepted science of the day, that have always led us to new truths.
Not exactly. If there were no establishment, there would be no rebels, only chaos. Nowhere is this more true than in science. It is only possible to rebel against the establishment after the currently accepted paradigm has been pushed to its limits by those who believe it. Those who extend the current paradigm contribute just as much as those who bring it down.
Quote:I think it's important to focus on what is not acceptable, and for me an example might be religious or any other teachings that tell the students that they are some kind of elite - For example, a Fundamentalist Christian school in which students were regularly instructed that faiths other than Christianity are to be despised as evil, or that adherents of other faiths, and indeed faithless atheists are doing the work of the Devil and must be shunned. This would be unacceptable in a school even if such doctrines were an integral part of the beliefs of the church that ran the school.
That is also part of freedom of religion - the freedom to believe, and to tell your children, that yours is the one true religion. Can you imagine telling a Christian that they must instruct their children that buddhists also go to heaven? Does that sound like freedom of religion, or some naive, government imposed 'utopia'?
Quote:Why? - because it's working against the fabric of society, causing division.
That's the great thing about freedom. We are not all the same. But it is not against the fabric of our society. It is the fabric of our society. It is truly astonishing how quickly some would do away with it.
Quote:We have to draw a line somewhere.
Perhaps we should choose a better spot. Drawing the line for the sake of drawing a line isn't much help.
Quote:It is unacceptable to cause division and prejudice in society
That's what our entire political system is based on. It seems to work pretty well. Should we ban Alan Jones whil we are at it?
Quote:just as it is unacceptable to teach kids that cannibalism is right
I think you'll find there is a significant difference between encouraging a child to eat dead people and telling them that a nother person is not going to heaven. If you don't believe in heaven, why are you so upset if someone else believes you are not going there? Are you jelous?
Quote:I've said this before, but there is a need for a totally impartial program that promotes harmony within society, because it's in the best interests of society to understand the different groups.
So we should teach our children to understand the different groups by denying them the right to be a different group? To me it seems like that would be teaching them the opposite of understanding.
Quote:If you ban religious schools, FD is right in saying that you are limiting religious freedom, and Abu is right in saying that the religious indoctrination would just take place in another forum, such as home or church/ mosque.
Until you find some other bullshit excuse for banning it there too. After all, the exact same bullshit arguments you are using to ban religious schools work just as well. Remember that Abu is just as keen as you to deny religious freedom because his version of freedom of religion involves stoning apostates to death. You should be careful who you get into bed with. It is only through freedom of religion, freedom of speech etc - freedom our ancestors died to protect and give to us - that you are even allowed to make these 'heretical' arguments. Can you not see the irony here? Do you really think atheists will come out on top if the government disposes with freedom of religion?
Quote:The best compromise is to allow religious schools, but insist on a curriculum that is not divisive. (Yes - it is possible)
Wrong. The best compromise is to respect people's freedom of religion.
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Ban religious schools? (Read 44336 times)
