A group called Fairness In Religions In School has paid for a billboard depicting Jesus and a dinosaur to be displayed in a Melbourne suburb.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/billboard-dinosaur-triggers-row-over-religious-instruction-in-schools/story-fni0fit3-1226863680579

They are campaigning to get volunteer Special Religious Instructors out of our state schools. Many of these volunteers are provided by Access Ministries.

“There has been opposition to the content and activities provided by Access Ministries. They have been criticised for teaching children unscientific creationist songs, providing children with material claiming girls who wear revealing clothes are inviting sexual assault, and that homosexuality, masturbation and sex before marriage are sinful, and for a comic book that was said to imply that teachers were either too lazy or callous to help children unless God intervenes.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Ministries

I certainly am not against primary school children being exposed to religious studies, my concern is that they are being left in classrooms with volunteers who have done as little as 6 hours study and who can come from creationist backgrounds.

Fairness In Religions In School's aims are as follows;

“Maintain an inclusive school curriculum that does not require any student to withdraw from class on account of different religious beliefs.

Formally cease the practice of volunteer-run special religious instruction (SRI) during school hours.

Follow an objective, fair and balanced comparative syllabus for education about religions and beliefs.

Treat all religious organisations who wish to use the school facilities outside of the school day with transparent and equitable policies.”
http://religionsinschool.com/

Ultimately primary school years are formative for our children so exposing them to possible anti-science and anti-tolerant views are risks that should not be taken lightly.

Just to follow on here is Access Ministries' “CRE Curriculum Overview 2014”.
http://www.accessministries.org.au/sitebuilder/creteachers/knowledge/asset/files/13/curriculumoverviewvic2014.pdf

It is interesting just how much it attempts to justify each teaching point claiming “Our program actively focuses on the development of personal and community values, such as integrity, resilience, empathy and respect.”

All sterling goals of course but it is when you look at the content of the document you discover just how long the bow is.

For instance in aiming to impart the values of “Community, Integrity, Understanding, Tolerance and Inclusion” the so called 'Big Idea' is “Learning about the natural world”.

How exactly is this purportedly achieved? Through exposing children to the following message; “The world is an amazing place created by God. I can explore it through my senses. God made me.”

Ouch! And that was for the 4-6 year age group.

In the 6-8 group the values of “Responsibility, Freedom, Environmental Sustainability” were to come from the idea of 'Celebrations', specifically “Students hear the Christian stories of Easter and Christmas.”

I'm sorry but I regard this document as a very poor attempt at gilding the lily. To be dressing up what is essentially a soft indoctrination into a religious faith as providing strong curriculum outcomes is patently ridiculous.

Dear SteeleRedux,

I wouldn't be that concerned about these primary
school children. I was raised as a Catholic, and
I'd like to think it did not stunt my mental growth.
After-all we grow and mature and make our own choices
later in our lives. However having a religious upbringing
did give me a spiritual base for which I
am grateful. It gave me a sense of belonging
and a belief system to guide my behaviour.

I'm probably not a good Catholic to-day - because
I don't like what organised religion has done to the
world. However, I would find that life without a
conscious awareness of God would be difficult.

Dear Foxy,

Thank you.

I certainly accept what you see as a positive in your contact with religion within a school setting though I'm not sure the Catholics who were teaching you were young earth creationists.

My two nieces changed schools from a private religious campus to the state school where my children were enrolled. They were really struck by how open and accepting of others their new school was. Contrary to the purported curriculum aims of Access Ministries there is an inescapable result of religious teaching and that is the imparting of a sense of them and us. If someone wants to inflict that on their children by paying for a place at a religious school then I suppose it is their right. But mandating it to be part of what is suppose to be a secular state school education is wrong in my book. At the very minimum parents should be asked to opt in rather than opt out.

Seems obvious the likes of Steelie are still threatened by truth.To think he is happy for the fairytales of evolution and big bang to be included in science.It is obvious that the Christophobes are happy to continue to show their bigotry and closed mindedness to truth. The rottoness of the fruit produced by their godless delusions does not deter them.

SteeleRedux El-Hajj,

Greetings dear friend and ally.

I am mindful of all the good works you have done for our cause on OLO, but I must urge caution in your latest venture.

You have cited in your newest thread, dear friend, the following:
“girls who wear revealing clothes are inviting sexual assault, and that homosexuality, masturbation and sex before marriage are sinful..."

You might well have been talking about one of our many Islamic schools. If fact, I was moved to check our latest recruitment brochure which held similar sentiments fearing you copied it from there. But I was consoled to see our brochure goes into much more detail about divine creation and is much more forceful in its damning of that demon doctrine Darwinism.

Brother, you need to wary of bringing such matters to the attention of the infidels since they might make the extension to our schools --I know you would never do that, but others might well.And as we discussed after our meeting, at the last Eid al-Fitr festival, we must not stir their concerns till our numbers grow.

Allah has no truer defender on OLO that you [and Foxy (PBUH) and Poirot (PBUH) ] --though being male you enjoy an infitinely greater status and responsibility than the latter two mere women and servants of men.

wa 'alaykum salaam!

Keep up the good work and remember 40 doe-eyed virgins await your in the afterlife.

Grand Mufti
Caliphate of Victoria.