Creationist Schools

[Gromit]

Should the Government approve and fund by the taxpayer, schools run by Creationist Groups?

http://www.guardian.c...approval-free-schools

[anotheoldgit]

youngmafbog

/// So by your reckoning AOG we will soon all be taught Islam in the schools? ///

How do you work that out YMB?

There are already Muslim schools, Roman Catholic schools etc.

/// Under no circumstances should the state fund a penny to either private or religious schools. ///

The state is obliged to provide an education based on the National Curriculum, so they should pay for it.

But if any group wants to set up schools at their own expense then they should be free to do so, and the state should only pay for what they are obliged to pay for.

[jake-the-peg]

That's the point - the state sets the national curriculum

Acts of worship should not be on it

[anotheoldgit]

jake-the-peg

/// That's the point - the state sets the national curriculum ///

/// Acts of worship should not be on it ///

You forgot to add IMO.

I think you will find there are many who will disagree with you.

[mrs_overall]

For once I am in agreement with AOG.

I need to lie down now

[sandyRoe]

Was it Queen Victoria who said that it was faith in the teachings of the bible that had made England great?
Look at the sorry state we're in now. We have since lost that faith, and as a consequence, a great empire on which the sun never set.

[Gromit]

// since [we] lost that faith, and as a consequence, a [we lost] great empire //

And there was me thinking we had lost our empire because the Germans and the United States conspired to bankrupt us.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// And there was me thinking we had lost our empire because the Germans and the United States conspired to bankrupt us. ///

Please explain that one Gromit, I thought we had plundered our Empire countries for all their wealth, so how could we ever be made bankrupt?

[Gromit]

Not sure if you are taking the p*ss or really do not understand AOG.

WWII. We went to war with the Germans. We ran out of money fighting them.
We had to go into debt to the US which took 60 years to repay. Empires are expensive to run and we were broke. The US largely took over our influence after WWII.

[vetuste_ennemi]

You'll never achieve the sainthood you aspire to if you keep succumbing to those devilish impulses of yours, Sandy.

[LazyGun]

You have to suspect that the agenda behind these "creationist" schools is to teach their faith based belief. They might say they wont teach it in science class, but I would be sceptical myself.

I have seen documentaries where they taught the kids what was needed to pass their GCSE Biology course, at the same time telling them that basically it was all just lies to get them a pass in their subject, and the reality was the faith based creation story.

We need to grow up regarding religion.Comparative religious teaching in RE. Science should be free of any religious connotations.

So no, I don't think Govt should offer funding to schools set up with an overarching religious agenda.

[LazyGun]

@Sandy - I think thats what technically known as correlation, Sandy - not causation.

And by any yardstick, our society is much, much better than it was in Victorian times.

[Quizmonster]

Vetuste, we did indeed meet over a demon...good old Jimmy Clerk-Maxwell's one!..and Ms Gribble is still around occasionally in the Q and P category.
Re this thread, I too have no objection to children being taught ABOUT religionS (plural), but there should be no specific indoctrination of any sort in schools.

[anotheoldgit]

LazyGun

/// And by any yardstick, our society is much, much better than it was in Victorian times. ///

And that may well be, but then Victorian times where much better than say Georgian times, and Georgian times much better than the first Elizabethan times.

How far do you want to go back, try 60 to 70 years ago, and surprisingly enough even the war years were better than today, I was there, was you?

[vetuste_ennemi]

Lazy Gun, Sandy's having a little fun at our expense.

[emmie]

i would rather we had schools that left religion to the parents, and got on with teaching our children how to read and write.

[LazyGun]

@ AoG - and your point in this post is what, exactly?

"LazyGun

/// And by any yardstick, our society is much, much better than it was in Victorian times. ///

And that may well be, but then Victorian times where much better than say Georgian times, and Georgian times much better than the first Elizabethan times.

How far do you want to go back, try 60 to 70 years ago, and surprisingly enough even the war years were better than today, I was there, was you?"

I was addressing a comment by Sandy - lighthearted or otherwise, that implied that the decline in religiousity since Victorian times could be equated with a view that society was worse now than then. I was pointing out that it wasn't, by pretty much any yardstick you care to use.

I am genuinely unclear as to the point of your post. First, you make the entirely sensible comment that each successive generation within our society has a better life. Then you say that life was better in the war years than now. Again, what yardstick are you using? It certainly was not better for people in the sense of living in peace - how many families had to live with the heightened sense of mortality? We were not materially wealthier, nor did we have as much choice and freedom as we do now. No, I dont think your comment holds true.

[AliceTickband]

'I say Creationists absolutely should be able to open their own schools. But only if they can build them in six days' - Chris Addison, twitter.

[bazwillrun]

and it will be very cheap for them to get teachers, just hire one to start the ball rolling then as you need more just take a rib from the first one and hey presto two teachers
Blindingly simple and yet cheap at the same time.

not exactly sure how they would explain anything over 10,000 years old to the kids though, probably come up with some bullschit, theyre pretty good at it ya know !

[LazyGun]

Adam Rutherford wrote an interesting piece on this in the New Humanist, recently.

"Creationists may share Jesus as their saviour with all Christians, but not their biblical literalism. The Wedge Strategy is wicked because it promotes deceit and back-door machinations for political ideological gain. This is what needs to be crushed, by the right-thinking faithful and atheist alike."

http://newhumanist.or...2841/ending-the-wedge

[Gromit]

Anything older than 6,000 years (the age of tne Earth according to the bible) is false evidence planted by the devil.