For parents to be 'good'... surely they have to stay together? Yet statistics that appeared last year showed that a higher percentage of religious couples divorce than atheists, and the highest divorce rate is amongst fundamentalist christians... I wonder if religion could be a factor there?

Interesting to read the posts here and the different styles of arguing. Frustrating how in many instances the participants seem to be talking past each other rather than engaging in a "meeting of minds". Is it the Tower of Babel Syndrome? Perhaps the Scholastics of Old had a point when they insisted that for a fruitful debate points of reference should be well defined and agreed upon.

Ginx,

Thanks for responding. Fair comment!

I probably did go overboard if I gave an implication that parental responsibility in education is a specifially Christian thing. All parents everywhere should and generally do take a responsible role in their children’s education. So I’ll have the luxury of another go and try and clarify what I meant.

As the discussion was centering around government responsibility, I would like to emphasise the role of the parent in having more of a say in what their kids are taught, even at school. If all religious concepts are dismissed as superstition, as some were suggesting, then God or other religious ideas will never be mentioned, leaving God irrelevant and atheism taught by default. This is hardly neutral or ‘secular’ (depending on how you define that word), especially if it goes against many parents’ wishes in any locality.

If Christian parents see no room for their own values in state education, then this will only drive them to start their own private schools. This is a trend which the Prime Minister seems quite happy to encourage. Is this what the state system wants, people to vote with their feet, leaving the system impoverished? This is why I suggest that common spiritual values and tolerance need to be sought.

Apis, it is not possible for a mind that believes in supernatural, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent supermen in the sky, to ‘meet’ with a mind that rejects such infantile notions.
Mick V; Religious concepts of supernatural extraterrestrial gods and devils and heavens and hells are unfounded beliefs based on nothing but myths and legends. To indoctrinate children with such palpable nonsense is criminal – how will they ever learn to think? To question? To live in the real world? The multifarious visages of Christian and Islamic gods are more than irrelevant to human survival… they are an impediment! As for ‘teaching’ atheism, what on earth do you mean? There’s nothing to teach! Atheism simply means not believing in gods. There’s no dogma, catechism, myths and other spurious nonsense. Would you teach ‘not believing’ in fairies? ‘Not believing’ in father Christmas? ‘Not believing’ in gnomes? Of course not! And neither should we teach children that the bizarre beliefs of the most recent superstitions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are worth considering. After rejecting the twenty thousand or so religions humans have followed over the millennia, surely it’s time rationality prevailed and the beliefs of these three relatively recent, monotheistic, warlike religions should be tossed into the same waste basket as the beliefs of the Incas.

hold up the reasons as to why atheists choose to be atheists, right alongside the reasons christians, muslims, jews, hindus etc choose their religion and i think you'd find the ranks of rational atheists would swell considerably.

weighing up all the fanciful fairystories littered with inconsistencies and contradictions when next to each other gives good perspective. As Dawkins so aptly puts it (to paraphrase): "We are all atheists to the thousands of gods that have been worshipped on this planet, some of us choose to go one god further."

Nice quote from Richard Dawkins julatron!

I think that 'Comparitive Religion' classes are a good idea. What's more they should be compulsory in schools belonging to a single religion. This way the children have at least some protection from the usual mind-bending indoctrination.

In the meantime society should reinforce the general idea that unquestioning religious faith is counterproductive to the human mind. THE 'DEFAULT SETTING' FOR THE HUMAN MIND SHOULD BE DISBELIEF. Only when the evidence is sufficient should the switch be made from disbelief to belief.

This mindset of disbelief is useful to the individual when combating the evils of tribalism and peer-group pressure. Scepticism and disbelief reinforces creative individuality and makes the human mind less open to manipulation and abuse.