What I find is unbelievable is the way so many people now believe and accept so much irrational thought and instruction laid down in scriptures written by ignorant men hundreds of years ago to rationalise the era they lived in at the time, and now taken as “truth”. As a consequence their followers worship the scribes and the Deity they invented.

I agree with everything the author says in regards to children making their own minds up about religion in their own time.
I don't think its right to force religion on children.

However I must caution any nation to be mindful of what will happen in the vacuum when basic Christian values are taken away.

By default, you are now choosing "liberal and progressive" over conservative Christian values, and you are giving other religions an opening to get their foot further in the door.

Be mindful of that, because what you end up getting in the long run may be worse than what you originally had.

Dear Ngaire,

Just because someone does not happen to believe in a deity doesn't make them irreligious. You sound religious yourself, just not a Christian (neither am I).

What you are actually asking, is for the state to interfere with other religions while protecting your own on the pretext that "it is not a religion".

The demise of the Christian Churches has come about because of their association with the state and its powers. If you follow that path, then your traditions too would be regarded with contempt and ridicule and it would be your grand-children who would suffer from confusion and emptiness over their loss.

Religion has double crossed itself to many times to be of any use to anyone. To be born into a religion is as a matter of course is outdated. A crutch of the mind that can bend thoughts and persuade outcomes. The greatest fraud ever on human nature.

The world will never be free while such ignorant fallacies circulate the globe. Scripture that is wide open to interpretation, as the reader sees fit, or to fulfill rules or laws. Ancient scripture that is based in historic times, has little to no relevance of today

Most certainly, in a country like Australia with many different religious influences and forces, NO religious doctrine should be taught in publicly-funded schools, but just as certainly, a basic philosophy of right and wrong, human values, gender equality, peace over violence, and equality of all before the same law should be integrated into the curriculum, obviously becoming more sophisticated through the school years.

There is no place in the public school system for religious values having any precedence over those important and essential secular values.

Jut one niggle: the author, as an atheist, still seems to be advocating that Maori culture, based as it is so much on traditional Maori belief systems, should be promoted in public schools, in the name of 'culture'. Given the interweaving of culture and religion, could this advocacy conflict with her opposition to the teaching of religious, i.e. Christian beliefs, in schools ?

Something similar is occurring in some parts of Australia, along with the bizarre teaching of the equivalence of Aboriginal and western science, mathematics, astronomy, etc. - in fact, it seems to be routine in some parts to suggest that Indigenous science is vastly superior to western science. No, I'm not joking.

What effect might this have on impressionable children ? Certainly, knowledge of Indigenous maths (one, two, more than two) and astronomy ('we had a name for every star'), etc. should be taught with a sense of wonder at some of its ingenuity, but in its right context and without any suspension of disbelief - that the Indigenous focus on magic and secrecy should also be elaborated.

Just saying :)

Joe
www.firstsources.info

Paul said to pray without ceasing, so the removal of Christianity from public schools will mean the removal of Christian students from public schools which makes the schools no longer 'public' and will need of a new source of funding as a result. The education system itself will need to be re-organised more generally so that religious and non-religious people aren't paying for the others indoctrination which is fair enough.