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The Forum > Article Comments > Book banning and modern education > Comments

Book banning and modern education : Comments

By Peter Barnes, published 7/8/2015

Scripture books promoting 'dangerous' messages about sex and male power are being used in NSW public schools, leading to calls for a crack down.

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There is a difference, not apparently appreciated by the author, between books being banned/burnt and books being judged to be not suitable for certain purposes. The books in question were not banned as evidenced by the fact that at all times everyone was free to walk into a shop and buy them. They were judged to be unsuitable for unsupervised, proselytising scripture teachers to place before children, given the certainty that many children would be told by their untrained, volunteer scripture teachers that their every contentious word was true.

And who knows what comparable implausible claims are equally guaranteed to be true by scripture teachers of non-Christian faiths.

Scripture is the only subject allowed in public schools in which the teacher is free to insist that children believe things that are both highly improbable and incapable of being verified. It is bad enough that scripture teachers are free to lie, as they do every time they tell children that they know for sure that Jesus died to save them from something, the lie being in their claim that they know this to be true when they don't. Nobody does. It is scandalous that the Education Department has no power to rein in scripture teachers who assure children, for example, that Jesus loves every child and listens to their prayers, something they might passionately believe but cannot possibly know to be true.

Books that assure children of the certain truth of highly improbable and clearly unverifiable claims in history, geography, mathematics etc. are, for very good reasons, not approved for use in public schools.Neither should they be allowed in Scripture, irrespective of which religion is attempting to press them upon the utterly helpless students which their equally helpless principals must, by law, herd into accessible groups so that scripture teachers can practise their missionary skills upon them.
Posted by GlenC, Saturday, 8 August 2015 12:10:47 AM
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Glennc

Your post says it so well.
Posted by CHERFUL, Saturday, 8 August 2015 12:32:42 AM
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One might have thought that the issue was the one of deception by the DEC - claiming to lift a ban when it had not. Or even judging something to be unsuitable when it had not been read. And with no reasons given.
Posted by PEB, Saturday, 8 August 2015 5:19:44 PM
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Dear Cherful,

Religion is always about bringing oneself closer to God - not others.

Religious organisations such as churches exist for the purpose of guiding and supporting those devotees who want to come closer to God in doing so. No amount of telling others who have no interest in God how to behave can bring them closer to God - they may behave as you order them, but that would only be an external gesture, while resentment rages inside.

Yes, unfortunately some churches have forgotten this, some even forgot religion altogether (yet people, including on this forum, still misguidedly refer to them as "religions" long after).

One of the main reasons churches have forgotten religion is through their unholy alliance with states, being close to the seats of power. Historically, states have corrupted their churches and bribed its ministers so they, through their teachings, serve the state's interests instead of God. This must stop and so I support the separation of state and church - in order to save the churches!
Posted by Yuyutsu, Saturday, 8 August 2015 8:14:18 PM
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GlenC, academic topics are taught with the same aura of certainty, but when is the last time any teacher said "it is hypothesised that.."?

They say "this happened", "he did that", "this means...".

There is never any doubt or admission of the conjectural nature of most "knowledge".

Every hypothesis, theory, conjecture based on rudimentary fragments from a lost age is presented as *fact*.

And the arts are totally subjective.
How does one objectively "verify" Beethoven wrote good music?

If you want to ban everything that can't be 100% verified or anything that might possibly offend someone's sensibilities, kids may as well not go to school at all, because the book shelves will be empty.
Posted by Shockadelic, Saturday, 8 August 2015 8:39:29 PM
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Keep your insane, superfairy, voices in your head beliefs out of my life .

You godbotherers need to understand the difference between

I cant do that because of my religious beliefs and
YOU cant do that because of my religious beliefs.

KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!
Posted by mikk, Sunday, 9 August 2015 9:14:04 AM
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