Just asking the questions.
Should religion be banned from the classroom?
Do we really want our children brainwashed?
Do we really want our children taught be biggoted adults?
Do we really want our children separated into conflicting groups at such an early age?

Professor Platt,

There is already a discussion similar to this. It's 'Religion in schools' and it's currently near the top of the second page of the full Religion Forum list of discussions. Just for your info...

Professor Platt,
My answers are no, no, no, and no.
We need to expose Political Correctness from beneath its Orwellian mask of "Education" and stop its priests from indoctrinating our young into taking fixed positions on the environment, war, social policies, and everything else that has displaced the rightful place of literature, art, and mathematics.
Should a ten-year-old learn to associate business, power, and big with "not nice" before he has the tools to grasp what any of these things are?

I think all religious and spiritual traditions should be discussed in schools, along with their shortcomings and dubious historical roots.
I'm sure that when the true history of Christianity, along with a few other notables, are discussed by an unbiased teacher, any intelligent and free thinking individual will make the right choice as to whether they want to be a slave to a god of war, denial, and needless suffering, or take responsibility for their own development in these areas.

Illegal Allen,

Define 'unbiased' when it comes to a teacher. The only truly unbiased person is one who has no knowledge of the subject and therefore is not qualified to teach it!

Wayne

"Should religion be banned from the classroom?"

Nope. The proper place is in the R.E. class, just as poetry is in the English Literature Class, quadratics in the Maths class, and boredom in the French class.

Why do we think it is right to brainwash our children whilst so young? Wait until they are adults, say 18 years old and then they can make up their own mind. Religion is an addiction our children could do well without.

Professor Platt: Why do we think it is right to brainwash our children whilst so young? Wait until they are adults, say 18 years old and then they can make up their own mind.

David: I've always wondered who can be trusted to decide when teaching strays into brainwashing. Would a truly "unbiased" spectator conclude that children need to be taught nothing - absolutely nothing - that might corrupt their supposedly uncorrupted beliefs?

If so, would a practical implementation of this belief necessitate children being exclusively taught how to read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, and divide, on the assumption that the very introduction to other topics would necessarily introduce an intellectual bias to which a child might not be so inclined?

If so, it might rationalize the Orwellian paradox where "Freedom is ignorance".

I think that all religions (and they should be broad and wide) should be taught in schools. But when I say broad and wide I mean every religion - all types. I was Roman Catholic and completely brainwashed, sometimes it still affects me now. In my later life, I found Paganism. Paganism should be taught among the religions. A lot of people don't know what it is, or they think they do but are mistaken. I teach my son about Paganism and he receives a healthy dose of other Christian-related religions at school. He has a good balance of knowledge of different people believing different things - and this has made him grow into a tollerant and ethical boy.

DeeCat,

While I don't believe in Paganism any more than I do other religions, I have found what I've seen of it to be more interesting than other faiths.
I think that teaching about many religions in an academic sense would add to education, so long as they we're put alongside other philosophies such as Humanism.

I think it is all about balance, and transparancy. I hate how people use religion as a tool to manipulate the masses as it were. I would really love to see the stories from the bible being used to help parents along with bringing up their children, I would like to see families revering nature, exploring the possibilities through history and archaeology, and to all project a kindness to every human, whether they are one religion or non, and to see the beauty in it all. But it will never happen, not while there is greed and pride in the world.