I am very anti religious schools as a rule. I think it is fine to have religion specific schools parents can chose to send their kids to, but generally available schools, government schools, should, in my opinion, be secular.
Praying to the god of one religion should not be imposed upon all kids, regardless of their religion. It is invariably the Christian god who is communicated with at in government schools across the Western world. And the Christians say it should be so. But how would they feel if their kids were forced to kneel on a mat and prayer to Allah, or don suits and knock on doors trying to find converts to Jehovah – all during school hours?
The children of all religions have equal rights to worship their god, so who gets to decide which one the school supports? ‘
But what of the morals of the kids?’ I hear many people say.
I would hope that the morality our kids have is aside from their belief in god. A faith system inherited from your parents seems a tenuous hook upon which to hang your morality. What if you lose your god? Or meet and connect with people with a different one? Does morality fly out the window then?
I believe it is the thinking that god is what determines right from wrong that allows fanatics (of all religions) to kill in the name of their god. If your god says non believers deserve to die, then your morality will allow you to kill. And it’s not just the Muslims doing this – many a person has died at the hands of Christian fanatics etc.
As the grownups is it not our job to teach kids to respect each other, to respect themselves, to respect the world simply because other people/ourselves/the world deserves respect. And not cos some god in heaven is watching.
God should be an addition, an optional extra if you like, to the moral fibre of a person, not the reason for it.
