http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10791997



Mr Dawkins may consider to start a free-thinking school.

I've always wanted to use this reference in the title.

Anyway, I don't find the idea bad.

I'd actually oppose this, because I'm against ANY religion or belief being taught to the children in school. Atheism is, in my eyes, still a religion. Belief in no god is still a belief. Children should be told facts. They should be told that 1 + 1 = 2, that Leif Ericson is considered to be the first European to land in North-America, stuff like that. I'm of the strong conviction that religion, of any kind, doesn't belong in school. Still, Isuppose Atheism is closer to no-religion than we've had before.

And Atheism isn't really "free-thinking", if you think about it, the whole definition of Atheism is "the belief in no God". If you need a certain belief to be an Atheist, how can it be "free-thinking"?

Eh, I think education should provide for people to educate children the way the parents see fit. Besides, faith-based schools tend to have better results, which I suppose is this way because it educates children in the tradition most of them have been raised (and not because they are intrinsically better). I prefer them to private schools, which draw disproportionally many resources away from the public education system.

I agree that free-thinking can be a bit of a smug label, though it is probably justified when one looks at the statistics (but only marginally so). This means it doesn't have to make any sense at all on a personal basis. Technically, freethinkers are not necessarily atheists and it has been used by atheists, agnostics and deists for as far as I'm concerned.

Even if it comes with better results, I don't think it should come at such a price. Children don't have any way to throw up an intellectual defense against religious ideas, and there's a point in life where they will believe anything their parents (/grandparents/teachers) tell them. In my eyes, religion is a freedom you possess, a choice you get to make. Now my opinion maybe a bit colored from the religious class I got to witness a few years back, but I think that the only way religion can fit into school, is if they go at it like they did in my old school. Give the choice, and also try to educate students about all religions so that they can make their own decision when they want to.

I mean, I know that what I'm about to say is a bit on the edge of the scale here, and that there were more advanced ideas in ancient Greece, but still... When you're sitting in a class, and you're listening to a teacher tell blatant lies to his students, about other religions and science, it's hard not to jump to the conclusion that religion in school is a dangerous thing. (To tell you about one of those blatant lies, he actually told the children that Judaism was based on Christianity, and that Roman catholicism was the oldest religion in the world)

I don't think it is a high price, really. Sure, children are likely to accept it, but I believe they are capable of questioning their beliefs when they are older. When you raise children, you do have to teach them some morality, whether secular or religious.

To me it is preferable to enable the parents to decide how to raise and educate the children rather than enforcing the results of somebody else's opinion on them. I'm opposed to centralised schooling anyway.

The fact that the teacher told those lies seems more a problem of his own professionality rather than a problem of religion in education itself; as far as I know, the Roman Catholic Church itself completely admits it was originally a Jewish sect and way less organised than it is now (but then again I'm not Roman Catholic).

But children are never taught to question anything in our society, until they're like, 16 or even older. Parents don't teach it because they don't want to undermine themselves, and the same can be said for teachers. When you're pretty much teaching kids to accept what they're told as the truth for a large majority of their childhood, how can they suddenly turn around and resist a part of their upcoming? I mean, to call religion indoctrination might sound a bit crude, but it's pretty much what it is. A large majority of the children growing up is never taught to question it, because their parents are scared that their child won't go to heaven/valhalla/whatever if they do question it. Of course, this can also occur in atheist families, because the parents are convinced that they're right and that everyone else is an idiot.(ironically, that makes them just as bad as biblehumpers) Alright, so a large part of my issue with this is the way parents react, but still, school has an equally large share in the issue.

I just think that religion should be kept away from children until they're old enough to make their own decision. It may be possible for them to make their own, different decision when they grow older, but that bias towards that one choice your parents/school made for you will be incredibly hard to supress.

Most American schools make it a priority to ensure that students understand different religious beliefs/customs, especially because of the middle eastern crisis.

In Thailand, we're still indoctrinated with the old nationalist curriculum which is most heavily peppered with the glory of the Buddhism.

I doubt people will be unable to question the beliefs they have been taught. If I look at the people my age, many of them did and turned away. Rather, I think it is more difficult to resist peer pressure than to resist church or parental authority. Anyway, I think people eventually are able to overcome biases of their education, I have done so several times (ironically those were secular aspects). I have little reason to suppose that others are not capable of doing so, whether they do so sooner or later, forever or never, holding any faith without a period of doubt seems impossible to me. With quite a lot of silly bias around in the media (ask a journalist what a "fatwa" is and you can have a laugh) it seems no more than justified than to me. Being a parent should allow you to raise your child to your own convictions; this is affiliated to my ideas on morality and moral rationalism, though.

My schools have never enforced beliefs on anyone, so I don't think that is an argument with a universal scope. It does have a scope, but I do not see it as an argument against faith schools per se.

Also, I think we should ditch the idea children have no opinions whatsoever. I'd say they have proto-opinions, they can clearly have views about things, how misinformed they may be (and not because their parents indoctrinated them).