The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Ethics classes won’t stop the extremists > Comments

Ethics classes won’t stop the extremists : Comments

By Cathy Byrne, published 24/9/2010

Fuller exposure to religious education would benefit all Australian students

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. All
The author’s claim that “Our religious prejudice (particularly against Muslims) has increased” surely has something to do with the fact that Muslims are the prejudiced ones, who actively seek separation from non-Muslims and damnation for them.

Cathy Byrne epitomises white, liberal self-hatred in the criticism of her own culture’s ‘prejudice’ against Muslims, who adhere to a religion still in the Dark Ages, bereft of democracy, against human rights, and with a hatred of Western Culture, which they have vowed to overthrow.

Byrne also refers to a “recent study’ that revealed (no footnotes) “…that public school graduates are less socially liberal and more intolerant and fearful of immigrants than their religious school peers.”

Byrne, of course, blames it on untrained religious instruction, but it is much more likely to be a simple reaction to years of brainwashing from left wing teachers who thump something far more dangerous that religion – left wing politics and attitudes which denigrate our own culture in favour of the ‘exotic’. Keep telling kids or anyone else that they ‘must’ be tolerant of other cultures etc. while those cultures demonstrate intolerance of the host culture, and you will get the reaction described by Byrne. And they don’t ‘fear’ other cultures; they simply don’t like them.

Then Byrne tells us that practitioners of minority religions themselves are prejudiced: the Buddhists don’t want non-Buddhists in their classes, ditto the Jews. So, that’s three non-Christian, bigoted religions including Islam.

If Byrne was a worldly woman, she would, perhaps, start to think that it is only religious Australians who are bigoted, and not the atheist, agnostic and just plain don’t-care Australians. She might even wonder if religion in schools or anywhere else is worth the candle.

But, in the utopias of the UK, Europe, Canada and parts of Asia and Africa (which parts?) there is a “multi-tradition” approach. In these places, childrenare taught to “to respect and engage with differences”.

......
Posted by Leigh, Friday, 24 September 2010 1:46:35 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
.....

What? A Christian kid or non-believing kid is supposed to respect Islam when he or she knows that Muslims don’t respect their (non-Muslim) beliefs, and that they stone people, kill people, hate infidels and all the other nasties they know about? Muslim girls are not able to wear the same clothes and the other girls because Dad says so?

These kids are not ‘taught’; they are forced to accept something they don’t want to believe, and probably don’t believe what the enforcers think they do.

And, there is no argument for ‘ethics classes’ instead of religious classes. Despite the views of people like Cathy Byrne, who want to control people and what they think and do, there is no need for either. People teaching ethics are just as mad and bad as people teaching religion.

The move to the left and the ‘feminisation’ of Western society, plus inappropriate immigration to the West and multiculturalism has seen an increase in finger waggers and holier than thou do-gooders who have appointed themselves as our moral guardians.

Bugger off and leave us alone.
Posted by Leigh, Friday, 24 September 2010 1:47:40 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
@MindlessCruelty: I'm not advocating a national campaign, with our atheist PM at the head; I'm saying that anyone who wants to burn a book they own should be allowed to do so without running the risk of threats, injury or murder. Or do you disagree?

Bear in mind, by the way, that it wasn't an atheist at the centre of the recent kerfuffle in the US, but a fundamentalist Christian who wanted to burn the Koran. His OWN Koran, which he had bought. Why not let him burn it? And at the same time any Muslim who wants to can burn as many Bibles as he or she can afford. As an equal-opportunity book-burner I am happy to burn the Bhavad-gita, the Buddhist scriptures, the Old Testament, the Torah, Das Kapital, Mein Kampf and the IPCC Climate Report too, if someone will buy them for me.

"Burning books because you don’t like what is within them, is just as infantile."

Yes. So is protesting because someone else has burnt a book. So is mutilating the genitalia of baby boys and young women. So is flying planes into the buildings of nations who have done you no harm. So is using your moral authority to get access to children for sex. So are a great many practices associated with religion. The difference is that they hurt many people: burning books hurts nobody. And if it can remove the protective mystique around religion, then it may even curtail some of these vile and destructive activities. Save your outrage for them.
Posted by Jon J, Friday, 24 September 2010 2:30:02 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
SRE does not teach children about religion. It proselytizes to them. It seeks to gain new adherents while they are too young to rationally think for themselves.

When I was at school we "learned" about other religions and cultures in a course called (politically incorrect) Man and society. Nothing to do with following any religion and taught by a teacher not a priest. That is proper learning. As compared to the indoctrination of SRE.
Posted by mikk, Friday, 24 September 2010 2:34:39 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Mikk, at least the children in school are safe from Rabbis. If you don't have the right genetic makeup, they simply won't talk to you!

Isn't that discrimination (albeit a fortunate version)?
Posted by David G, Friday, 24 September 2010 2:46:00 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The teaching of religions has absolutely no place in the curriculum of a modern education system, in a liberal democratic state.

I really can't see how religions can be discussed logically and how any discussions can improve a child's critical thinking capacities since religions are intrinsically illogical. And what is the effect of religions, but to segregate people into tribal groups. I'd be really interested to learn how religious parents regard their children being exposed to other religions.

If the students of religious schools are more tolerant than those of secular schools the following report seems rather contradictory, yes of course, there's the problem of determining cause from correlation, still, it's very interesting.

http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2009/06/atheist-nations-are-more-peaceful.html

mikk,

Agreed,the only way to teach religion is from an anthropological/sociological perspective,this will educate children in the psychological and evolutionary reasons for belief.

David G,

yes, I prefer non-proselytising religions as their believers leave the infidels alone, by far the most dangerous loonies are those that insist that others share their delusions.
Posted by mac, Friday, 24 September 2010 4:27:11 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy