Pelican: “I found this article to be quite hostile in its attack on atheists and secularism.”

I’m sure you’ll recover. By the way how did Red Russia turn out? Just curious.

The Victorian director is conflating "awareness of" with "indoctrination in", and using that as his lever to impose 'militant Christianity' on everybody else. So sad.

Nick: You said, “I must say that I think some of the aggression on this forum is certainly proving some of Rob's concerns. Militant may be a bit strong, but there is clearly a very hostile reaction.”

Yes, it’s funny how some atheist seems to manifest when Christians make a strong case. Trust me I live in the real world and they are a very loud leftwing minority (most Australians are not Christophobes).

“Some atheist parents fear that their own godless lives will be exposed if children are taught the truth.”

You have a point runner. If the schools taught that militant atheist regimes have killed more of their citizens than all religions combined last century they’d manifest for sure. They want this part of their “rational faith” tradition hidden.

And let’s face it, as the failed socialist experiment testifies, radical atheism in schools just leads to cultic state worship.

"Opting out" is central to the successful implementation of SRI in schools.

Schools are designed to instill in children a collective psychological perspective.
They wear uniforms, they are uniformly seated. They all arrive at the same time and study the same curriculum which is poured into them curbing their penchant for independent investigation. They are arranged into age peer groups...the whole construct is for them to get the gist that when they enter the institution they immediately lose their individuality and become clones of each other.

Under these circumstances, why would a child prefer to "opt out"- to be separated from the mass?
No....a child would not choose to be isolated or to be seen as "different"....particularly in an institutional setting where individuality is not encouraged.

The choice (if any) should be one of opting "in"...but, of course, this would not serve ACL's cause at all.

BPT,
I suggest you read your precious bible.
This time do not gloss over the countless attrocities.
There is no moral lesson in the bible that a normal intelligent person would not know through a caring upbringing.
Yes there are nice stories in the bible but there are also nice stories in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings but making moral judgements based in either of these books as well the bible makes for a very sick person.
I did a bit of Shakespeare in high school and did not need an understanding of the bible to understand the beauty.