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Schoolchildren must be taught more about the complexities of religion and its role in a modern world under the threat of terrorism, the school standards watchdog has urged.
Pupils should be taught religion is not always a force for good and helped to have a more sophisticated understanding of the subject, according to a report by Ofsted.
Ofsted claimed learning is in danger of “trivialising” issues of global human significance rather than developing a deeper understanding of religious perspectives on life.
The report, Making Sense of Religion, said: “RE cannot ignore controversy. We should dispense with the notion that we should encourage pupils to think uncritically of religion as a ‘good thing’.
“Religion is complex and its impact is ambiguous. Pupils are aware of this ambiguity and must be given the opportunity to explore the issues openly.”
Events such as the July 7 bombings in London and the September 11 attacks have raised the subject’s profile significantly and schools have new responsibilities to promote community cohesion, inspectors argue.
The report says: “The curriculum and teaching in RE do not place sufficient emphasis on exploring the changing political and social significance of religion in the modern world. As a result, the subject’s potential to contribute to community cohesion, education for diversity and citizenship, is not being fully realised.”
It calls for schoolchildren to be taught the “social reality” of religion instead of merely ethical and philosophical issues like whether God does exist.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6715716,00.html
2 issues here.
1. Why should schoolchildren be taught the fascist ways of a religious belief system, teaching them about fantasy is not productive. We dont even know who created the god bloke.
Shouldn’t school children learn about reality, fact and things we know are true?If we didn’t have mass diversity, we wouldn’t need so much community cohesion “education”. The tax payer pays for diversity in many ways. It is fascism from government bodies to suggest we must like neighbours who are not quite like us.
2. To say that children should be taught the complexities of religion due to the threat of terrorism (meaning Islamists), and that “religion is not always a force for good”, tells me that Ofsted are blaming Islam for 9/11.
No one has proof one way or the other who instigated the nightmare of 9/11, 7/7 etc. All the public know, is that very evil people who run our countries put the blame at the door of some muslims, complete hearsay.
religion of any kind at all should be banned in schools and the teaching of god is great in any language is simply to get control of peoples minds. the more religious they become the easier they are to indoctrinate. this shows well in both the catholic church and the muslim faith. there is nothing better that a mixed community living in peace side by side. the problems always occur when religion is brought into the equasion.
IF THERE WAS NO ELIGION THERE WOULD BE NO HATRED AMONGST NATIONS AND COLOURS.
RELIGION BREEDS HATE AND ROBOTIC MINDSReligion was invented because people have a fundamental fear of death and what happens after. Most people cannot accept the finality of death and need to believe that there is something afterwards, a paradise or whatever you want to call it. This belief in an afterlife brings them great comfort. And hey presto, religions evolve which fit this need perfectly.
Now for the bad news: all this comfort comes at a big, big price. War, murder, persecution, intolerance and bigotry, as each adherent to a particular religion believes their’s is the correct and only one. Too big a price for my liking!
I would disagree Talon
Religion was created as a form of central control over the masses- a way of ensuring conformity and obedience amongst groups of people. Clearly a by-product is the theory of an “afterlife” and the reassurance this gives people but the fundamental element of religion is the omnipotent being which dictates our every action.
It is no coincidence that the reformation changed the way we viewed religion in Europe and hence, over the centuries, it has for many become less and less important.
It is also no coincidence that there was no Islamic reformation and hence Islam still totally and completely rules how a Muslim will act, as the Catholic church did prior to the reformation
@slayer wrote:
Clearly a by-product is the theory of an “afterlife” and the reassurance this gives people but the fundamental element of religion is the omnipotent being which dictates our every action.
Correct, its a blag that people who dont know any better, just go along with it, juuuusst incase another human might be right.
Of course, if they are, we’ll all recieve it, even if we dont believe.
@emmalush wrote:
@slayer wrote:
Clearly a by-product is the theory of an “afterlife” and the reassurance this gives people but the fundamental element of religion is the omnipotent being which dictates our every action.
Correct, its a blag that people who dont know any better, just go along with it, juuuusst incase another human might be right.
Of course, if they are, we’ll all recieve it, even if we dont believe.
You hope Emma but supposing they are right n there is the other option of eternal damnation? Bit late to repent once you’ve kicked the bucket
Thats why no matter how much of a disbeliever someone is they will still have a religious service when they die
I can see the control aspect of religion but politicians, kings and queens, dictators and generals have been exercising control over people, all backed with the brute force of police and military, ever since coherent and structured societies began to evolve, so you wonder why it was necessary to create another form of control, unless as a form of mind control. Whether religion came about because of control or comfort, we can never really be sure of the original motives behind it, because there is nothing documented. If you simply go by the Bible, it preaches eternal life for believers, so this must be a source of great comfort to many, but you’d be hard put to find any explicit references to how people must be controlled. Maybe the references to control are all implied.
Just suppose there is a benevolent and loving God, as the Bible keeps harping on about? Where is He today? Has He given up on the human race that He supposedly created? Is He just sitting back and having a good, long laugh at all our expense? If He is, he is one twisted mother!!
@slayer wrote:
Thats why no matter how much of a disbeliever someone is they will still have a religious service when they die
I quite like the ones they have in those Iraq scenes, where thousands are trying to get close to the coffin so they can be on tv around the world :wink:
@talon wrote:
I can see the control aspect of religion but politicians, kings and queens, dictators and generals have been exercising control over people, all backed with the brute force of police and military, ever since coherent and structured societies began to evolve, so you wonder why it was necessary to create another form of control, unless as a form of mind control. Whether religion came about because of control or comfort, we can never really be sure of the original motives behind it, because there is nothing documented. If you simply go by the Bible, it preaches eternal life for believers, so this must be a source of great comfort to many, but you’d be hard put to find any explicit references to how people must be controlled. Maybe the references to control are all implied.
Just suppose there is a benevolent and loving God, as the Bible keeps harping on about? Where is He today? Has He given up on the human race that He supposedly created? Is He just sitting back and having a good, long laugh at all our expense? If He is, he is one twisted mother!!
I think history shows the intrinsic links between church and state over the centuries, ruling monarchs used the church as the stick with which to rule (hence our monarch is “defender of the faith”, or is it “faiths” now?)
Either way, the end result was the same- a mainly subservient, domesticated mass (not forgetting that for most of this millenium, the majority of the peasantry were uneducated and illiterate) which could be relied on to remain loyal and faithful?
For me, it was the individual faith in a God which kept this country from descending into the Stone Age during the Black death when half the population died.
IMO :D
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