It's all about God

[andrewducker]

ciphergoth pointed me at the piece here on mandatory school prayer (still a legal requirement in the UK).

[Poll #1396727]

The train of thought presumably goes like this:
1) Children should be trained to do the morally correct thing until they are old enough to make their own decisions.
2) Praying to God is the morally right thing to do.
Therefore) Children should be trained to pray.

I can't see that lasting much longer, when the majority don't believe (2).

Comments

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

Who is this majority you speak of? The majority of pupils in schools are believers, particularly now that 25% of school pupils are now from minority ethnic or religious groups for whom religion forms a key component of their identity. The majority of teachers are not, alas, the progressive atheists your friend from Oxford mentions, but committed to a policy of inclusion that actively seeks to sanction religious bigotry in the name of multi-culturalism.

[andrewducker]

According to MORI 43% of people consider themselves to be a member of a religion, but only 18% of them were actively practising members. Only 12% of people in the UK actually belong to a church.

I think that puts them squarely in the minority.

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

That's a useful broad picture of religion in the UK, but does not ask people what they would like done with their children. Those who are inactive members of a church etc generally still want their children to have some degree of religious input in school.

[andrewducker]

Good point. The question being what percentage of people do want that, and how much they want.

It just strikes me as likely that it will be revisited at some point - especially as apparently 80% of schools don't actually manage it at the moment.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

According to MORI 43% of people consider themselves to be a member of a religion, but only 18% of them were actively practising members.

Hmmm. "According to MORI, 25% of people incorrectly consider themselves to be a member of a religion".