Are religions unfair to women?

Or maybe just the opposite - a state where no-one, especially children was indoctrinated with others' beliefs, but helped to work things out for themselves in the light of history and art and science. And their education would be obtained in an honest way, and not based on the hypocrisy of pretend church-going - a good expample to them in honest loving.

I would not want to live in a state ruled by me - I would be totally hopeless at it!

I think some of you lot would happily bring a police state. Ruled only by you.

In other words, I don't know what the fuck you're on about there.

I'm not sure about that!

j08 trouble is one person's freedom can create another's prison!

Agreed

I do agree with ariadne - it seems to me the only way forward. People would still have freedom to bring their children up in whatever faith they choose - and rightly so. But the farce of popping to church to get your child a place in a school would go; and the potential for indoctrination would cease.

When we lived in the north west we had to send our children to a C of E school - it was the only school in the vicinity and most of the schools that were some distance away were also faith schools. It wasn't a major issue for us, but where's the freedom of choice in that?

No. Leave things as they are. Remember the word "freedom"? It goes hand in hand with choice.

As I have said many, many times - disestablish the C of E, separate religion and state, so that there would be no mandate to teach any religion in any school, and let believers teach and learn in their own time and their own way.

I think Gorki that most schools now follow the 'Thought For The Day' route and just have a morning assembly with a 'kind thoughts and be nice to each other' bit.

Religious Education is the only compulsory subject in English schools according to the 1944 Education Act. The emphasis should be predominantly Christian to reflect the historical culture of the land and there should be a religious assembly every day 51% of which should be Christian. For a variety of reasons only about a quarter of schools fully comply with this legislation.

As others have said, I think faith schools are divisive. If parents wish their children to be religiously educated, they can do this themselves by taking them to classes at their church, synagogue, temple, mosque, etc.,

And that link's still not working.

I think I have totally lost the gist of this thread now.

Except I've no objection to religion being taught "about" as a phenomenon of human society.

I agree with you, vegas.

I was replying to jings. (just to prevent confusion)

I certainly hope so. That's not the same as teaching a certain "faith" or belief system, which is what faith schools want to do.

I would approve of a totally secular state system. In my area, faith schools are divisive and seem more like race schools than faith schools. In the wider community, people of all races and faiths live and work together, so why not when they are at school? Leave the job of teaching religion to parents and religious institutions.

Surely most state schools teach the basics of all the major world religions as part of the national curriculum.

jingsoldbean, there are churches to teach religious belief systems. We don't need it to be taught in schools as well. Religion as a social phenomenon is quite sufficient for state schools.

I don't know if it's so much about explanation Elegran as just meeting other cultures in a 'normal' way. Where I live it's very multi-religious; Muslim, various Christian sects, Sikh, Hindu, Judaism, etc. and multicultural; Asian, Eastern European, black, white, etc.
When I've had friends visit I've been shocked surprised that they notice the diversity as we are so used to it. It's also been an eye opener to thrm that the Musilm chappy who owns the off-incense, speaks perfect English with a local accent, has a great sense of humour and is just like us. This is what the children in non faith schools are learning on a daily basis.
And as far as practising their religion I don't know that going to a non-faith school has any effect either way. I'm sure the Sikh boy in my GS's class goes to the temple still for example.

Would there be any mileage in having schools which are 95% secular but have a slot ( a morning a week?) for each religion to hold classes for its own adherents? With each taking turns to tell those of other faiths what their variety is all about and why they follow it? Those with no religion could perhaps study a little basic moral philosophy and join the faith students in explaing that to others in their turn.

There would probably need to be some refereeing at times, but it would give everyone some practice in explaining themselves without denigrating everyone else.

I'm not sure how you would manage the transfer of converts from one group to another - interesting.

Imagine!