Loudmouth, you should maybe realise that the opening poster has already advised in one of his posts that the 'creationism thing' was used by him in a sarcastic way to get the various OLO fundamentalists' attention. He just used it as a tool to get more attention for his topic.

His basic points are obvious if you read his posts properly. He seems to be saying we should keep religious tuition out of public schools, and let the churches handle that. He's also saying that the history of all the religions should be taught as a part of the history curriculum, including the bad things that the religions have done, not just the good things.

It seems he also thinks that Christianity should not be emphasised more than it currently is in the curriculum, and he says the same thing about our Western heritage, meaning our English, USA, European values. He obviously thinks we currently have the balance right with these things.

His language is a bit confronting for some here, but his actual expressed opinion (apart from the sarcastic creationism tug) is quite middle ground and makes a lot of sense. Don't forget that in Australia 'today' a right wing religious view of society and the country is very much a minority view, unlike back in the pre WW2 era.

GrahamY,
I have to ask the question;

Where is it a crime to be a bigot or predudiced, biased, partial and partisan, intolerant, sectarian, discriminatory, unfair or unjust?

Surely in censorship you expose your true self nature.

Wow all those good God fearing Christians looking out for our best interests and those of our childrens education. No doubt they will be slogging it out spending days conferring with parents, all over the state. To review the curriculum, and to address any concerns parents may wish to address. I have a sneaking suspicion that not many of the parents will be pleading 'oh my child will benefit so much from more religion classes'
If the suspicions are correct, I would seriously doubt the justification of those bulging pay packets and the other freebies the hand is accustomed to going out for. Allow those concerned and who will ultimately benefit, to have the ultimate say. It is the hard working families battling to to get by as well as get the best education for their kids. Listening to the people who you probably say a little prayer for every now and then wishing there were more you could do to make life less of a struggle.
As has been mentioned earlier religion is a personal choice. To push the idea of creationism onto a class room of possibly up to eight different faiths sounds like yet another stupid narrow minded idea. There are schools who cater for those needs. And telling a thirteen year old he is now going to learn all about god.
Good luck with that.
Im not a mum but spend alot of time with kids in their late teens in the work place. A few things they didnt learn :Appreciation, of anything. Respect for anything is pretty up there too. Respect your elders..oh i think thats long gone. To understand that $1000. a week should, without doubt last more than five days. The people you work with have responsibilities, mortgages, bills, and are not there to babysit feed and sympathize. A bit of self respect,hygiene a biggie. Respect for money, some poor single mum with kids struggles to survive on half of what you earn. Only ate half the pizza, dont throw it away. Wasteful, throw away, irresponsible bla bla. Boot camp in the curriculum.

I think GY was saying that he doesn't like trolls.

Was just reading up on the Catholic Church. Not alot of good going around. Lucky they are the richest institute in the world, regular million dollar compensation payouts...
Back to the subject, most kids these days arent dumb and to try and get them interested in something that may seem to them as believable as santa? As I said before dont like your chances.At a very early age maybe when they believe in santa too. Children whos families have taught them the story and practice the faith are more likely to enrol their kids in a catholic school, with the idea of a more thorough religious education.

Hi Jodelie,

Creationism in schools is not gonna happen. Let's look at more relevant issues, such as curriculum content and in-service teacher refresher courses, especially in basic literacy and numeracy, and parental awareness, so that, absolutely no child will be left behind, on the Dutch model, or the Finnish model. It's a tragedy that Bush & Co. hijacked that slogan.

Joe
www.firstsources.info