Atheists/humanists don't seem to realise that they are religious (atheist worldview) and that they already have a considerable sway over the way things are run in this country thanks to too many Christians walking away from the public sphere.

Indeed, there is religious bias and discrimination - by atheists and humanists!

Because for many people, our brains seem to treat beliefs we consider to be true, almost exactly the same as facts, we need to learn to distinguish the two. For many people this is quite difficult but it also indicates that worship needs to be disassociated with love. i.e. Worship is not love.

Love (Eros) always maintains the critical functions of the mind but worship effectively is designed to strip away critical functions and create obedient stooopids. This worship mindset seriously points to people drilled in accepting, believing in belief, in faith, and unthinking obedience to an all powerful 'teddy' figure. It creates through intellectual dishonesty a Goebbels with Nuremburg Rallies and many other absurd fictions.

If we are considering RI in public schools here are some lessons ...
Lesson 1
Worship is weakness.
Worship is always all twisted up over the most appropriate and effective mind control techniques.
Worship can only misinterpret or ignore or denigrate or deliberately distort evidence.
Worship will cripple Eros with varying degrees of destructiveness, depression.
Worship embodies a psychosis delivering at a cost nothing but very phony, cosy playpens for those who conform (which is akin to Thanatos).

Lesson 2
Love is the source of real breakthroughs and understanding.

To both Runner and Boazy who mentioned my name.

Runner, my children know about RI because in principle I'm all for Religious education as part of development. The best Religious education they received was at Catholic Schools. They learned things about Islam for instance that would give you Islam haters pause for thought. (For you older ones, things have changed massively in Catholic schools.)

It is about education, not indoctrination into a particular narrow fundamental Christian viewpoint.

Boazy, read a post I wrote elsewhere about reading and quoting passages from the bible. You're not the only one with a heavily underlined bible. I had lots of fun with that once upon a time too.

Philosophy, both Christian and non-Christian, is an important part of education in the public schools of our secular nation. A particular brand of Christian education is not. Private schools cater for this.

Bugsy: You'll note I didn't say the fact that many people believe in God makes it TRUE. I said it indicates there is significant evidence for such a belief. It may be WRONG evidence, but unlike with Santa etc, it is SIGNIFICANT evidence which convinces many intelligent educated people (at least people you'd have to admit are intelligent and educated in every other area of their life...)

West: I feel your pain. If you've had a bad experience with religion I'm sorry, but name calling doesn't really progress the debate.

All the name calling aside, I've seen nothing presented that makes optional RI any kind of a menace to society. I still argue the vast majority of school curriculum has a secular humanist outlook - God is not considered. It's not unreasonable for this view to be presented for half an hour a week

APR, if you have significant evidence of a Christian God, then please share it. I know of no such evidence.

As for whether RI should be taught in a public school, it depends upon what you mean by RI. If you mean "It's in the bible therefore it's true" then that's absurd. If you mean "The Bible says it is moral/immoral therefore it is" then that's absurd. But these are the obvious dangers if RI is taught by a professional advocate of that religion.

I don't see the fact that many people believe in a Christian God is relevant. Many people believe in astrology, but that is no argument for teaching it in a public school. (And, it seems that the current Queensland law would permit that, which is really the point of the original article). And, most people (at least in the U.S.) do *not* believe in evolution: would you use that as argument for the perversion of science education?

It seems to me that education is primarily about learning to reason (about life, science, culture, language, ethics, religion, everything). But that means everything is subject to the rational spotlight. That includes RI.

APR, I find it increasingly difficult to accept your argument. The fact that many people may believe in something does not constitute a basis for teaching it in school. It does not make the evidence behind it "significant" either. Many people believe in angels, in fact more than 80% of the American populace according to some polls, although no figures are available for Australia. And many people believe in ghosts, spirits and aliens, with numerous first hand eyewitness accounts! Would this constitute significant enough evidence to teach them in school too? The alien half-hour or the ghost period? Maybe we call have them all together on the same day and call it nutbag Friday?

Belief in God, and certainly religious instruction, is totally unnecessary in our childrens education at school. However math, reading and wide range of other subjects certainly are. But if you want your kids to grow up with that particular monkey on their back, then by all means take them to Sunday School, but please stay away from the State School.