Very few people "think of proselytizers as those slightly unhinged and unwashed characters who stand on street corners handing out tracts, or as those who knock on our doors with name badges on, or as fanatics like Jim Jones."

Most people realise that 'proselytize', to use Michael Jensen's own words, "describes an aspect of education [that] "persuades children, and especially teenagers, to change their" Religion! or sometimes, in the case of Christianity, to change their denomination.

No one commenting here is advocating any form of sick religion, just critical thinking and learning to think for yourself!

If all we ever learned was our parents often flawed beliefs, we'd still be living on a flat as a pancake world at the absolute centre of the universe, which by the way, would revolve around us, and all females would be goods and chattels or sex slaves.

No to indoctrination by parents or anyone else.

If children are to be taught just one thing, then the mighty irrefutable truth is a good place to start, and that may be limited to facts like energy can neither be created nor destroyed, just altered. Or that the universe and everything in it including us is just altered energy. Or that nothing only ever begets nothing! Certainly not an entire universe!

Believe what you will, just understand no one can own the facts, just belief, which may be just as flawed as a belief in a flat earth just six thousand years old?

If we are to inculcate young minds then it just can't be with Unproven Ideology. However ferently held!?

Simply put, the God of pure unconditional love, just doesn't visit evil on the world but evil incarnate just might? So which one would you serve?
Rhrosty.

This article is a thinly disguised attempt to show that a course about feminism and a scripture class are equivalent and therefore if one is acceptable, the other must be. But the differences are stark.

In a scripture class, the objective of the teacher (typically a Christian) is to make children believe things that are incapable of being shown to be true; for example, that had Christ not died on the cross, humans would have been unable to go to heaven when they die.

There is no equivalent objective in a feminist class. Rather, the objective is to raise children's awareness of empirically supportable opinions about lifestyles whose validity is either doubted or even denied by those authoritative figures the children are otherwise most likely to encounter.

This author's attempt to present proselytising Christian scripture teachers and awareness-raising teachers of lifestyles as equally deserving of respect is transparent and self defeating.

Feminism should never be taught in any publicly funded institution. Because, not only is it flawed, it commits the very thing it set out to supposedly eradicate: sexism.

Feminism begins with a flawed premise: all the problems with the world, or between the sexes/genders, is the fault of the male; the female is innocent and pure, and when acts immorally has only been corrupted by male influence.

Such a template has no empirical basis and additionally subverts causes and effects into fallacies.

Children need to be taught the concepts of "reasoned argument". Courses such as those proposed should present both sides of the argument. Religious education also should include arguments for and against atheism so that those who hold some beliefs as "truth" would be able to be challenged in a civilized manner.
David

"Feminism .. commits the very thing it set out to supposedly eradicate: sexism.

"Feminism begins with a flawed premise: all the problems with the world, or between the sexes/genders, is the fault of the male; the female is innocent and pure, and when acts immorally has only been corrupted by male influence.

"Such a template has no empirical basis and additionally subverts causes and effects into fallacies."

Posted by Aristocrat, Wednesday, 11 November 2015 10:17:52 PM

bwahahahahahahahaha!

There are several fallacies in that post by Aristocrat:

* the composition fallacy - attributing qualities or characteristics of parts of a whole to the whole itself, or attributing qualities or characteristics of some parts of a whole to all parts.

* strawman fallacies (sorry about the use of '-man' there, Aristocrat, but that is the terminology) ...

Feminism is essentially about equality of opportunity.