December 18th, 2008
Godless religion - Atheism’s great pretense
Godless religion!Isn’t it interesting! The Humanist Society of Victoria has developed a curriculum of “humanist applied ethics” which they want to teach in the time set aside for religious instruction. According to ‘The Age’ newspaper the Victorian State Government accreditation body is about to approve it for use in state primary schools in Victoria. The interesting thing is that for more than 150 years Australia’s state education was supposed to have been ‘free, secular, and universal’. Parents have known for a long time that education has not been free, with costs in government schools each year escalating, and costs in private schools reaching at times astronomical levels. Nor is it universal, as the Collins report on aboriginal education in the Northern Territory showed. There some 5000 secondary school aged kids have no access to to a school suitable for them. But the issue here is the secular nature of education. Secular means to be concerned with worldly rather than religious things. That at least is the definition given in the dictionary. The history to this is of course some of the dreadful persecutions that have been inflicted by groups from one part of Christianity onto groups from another part of Christianity. Roman Catholics persecuted Protestants, and when they had the opportunity, the Protestants returned the favour! The church got itself mixed up in politics and tried to be what it cannot be, a national government. So governments, not surprisingly, started to insist on the separation of church and state. The church, they said, has no business running the state. Quite rightly too, we might add! This is not, of course, the same as separating religion and politics. This is a common view now, that the separation of church and state means that you can’t bring a religious view to bear on matters of the state. That a religious understanding of something is inadmissible in public debate. The effect of this is that that one religious view has been allowed to dominate all other religious views, simply by pretending it isn’t a religious view. And the inevitable result of that is that that view dominates all public debate, with all others getting squeezed out. By pretending that it is not a religion Atheism has got and is getting a huge free kick for itself in Australian society. Atheism’s success has been in passing itself off as not being a religion. Even Access Ministries, the group that accredits the Christian volunteers that teach religious education in schools, has accepted this pretense!. You can see the effect of this in schools. By pretending to be ’secular’, Atheism has managed to be able to get its view of origins, evolutionary theory, to be taught in all schools, while not allowing another religion’s (in this case Christianity) view of origins to be taught. Even though for many years Christianity’s view of origins was held by the majority of the people. Christianity and other religions have had to content themselves with a tiny 30 minute timeslot during each week, while Atheism’s worldview is taught as the foundation of all learning. Atheism has pulled off a pretty neat trick! Its very effective pretense of not being a religious viewpoint has let it control not only public debate, but also learning in the public schools! It is hardly surprising that parents are rebelling against this and establishing private schools all over the country. But in trying to take over that tiny part of the school week that had been left for religious instruction, Atheism has blown its cover. Now we can see it for what it actually is, a religious viewpoint in disguise. Professor Desmond Cahill of the RMIT understands this. Speaking in ‘The Age‘ newspaper he says ” … there’s an increasing realisation that the notion of religion has expanded to include all kinds of spiritualities and associated world views, including atheist and humanist world views.” So if Atheism is actually a religion seeking equal time with other religions in the weekly timeslot set aside for religious instruction in schools – and likely to get it, too! - why shouldn’t other religions get equal time to teach their religious viewpoints in the rest of the school curriculum. Creation and evolution, both of which are religious understandings, would get equal time in state schools. The science that these two religious viewpoints both use are applied to each viewpoint equally, and examined to see which religious viewpoint is best supported by the evidence. That’s only fair, isn’t it? If education is going to be secular then it cannot support one religion over the other. So Atheism should not have exclusive rights in the classroom! It should be shared with other religious viewpoints. Why should Atheism have the right to be the foundation of all learning? Jenny Stokes from the Salt Shakers makes the point that humanists can’t have it both ways, pretending not to be a religion and then claiming the rights to religious instruction. But it doesn’t stop there. It also applies in the public debate. Atheism is not the only religion in town and the others have their right to be just as much part of the public debate and the decision making in our society. A Christian politician can let his faith sway his thinking and decision making just as much as an Atheist lets his or her faith sway his decision making. A Christian teacher in a public school can let his or her faith influence the way he teaches just as an Atheist teacher lets his or her faith influence the way he or she teaches. Without getting censured for it. This will work itself out in so many ways. Simple things like Christmas nativity plays being a part of Christmas celebrations again, instead of the atheists insisting that no-one is allowed to have a religious celebration in the public place. But this is only a part of, and an indicator to, a much bigger battle. One that will go on until the end of time. The bumbler |
