@Virtus83 – Not sure of any official movement. I would start by writing to your MP. As I have mentioned in another post, the UK population as of the 2001 census claimed to be 72% christian. This demonstrates a huge problem for passionate atheists.
Main thing is as you say Education. I feel we must educate, particularly the young and raise peoples awareness to the subject. I believe a lot of people just don’t think that much about it, and when they do they do not have sufficient knowledge to come to a balanced view. Rather, it all just seems too complicated and is far easier to plump for the easy option, God did it!
I start with my kids and wider family and friends, taking time to explain things, sometime many times. With younger people I find this easier because their minds are open to rationality. Older people it is more difficult, not least because a 50 year old christian has invested so much of themselves and their lives into it that even if they want to it is incredibly difficult to break the programming.
One thing I think this site is good for is providing a forum where atheists can discuss ideas. We should encourage more people to sign up!
Also, I know this wasn’t a popular suggestion but a forum here inviting theists to come and discuss and debate I think would be a good thing. We probably won’t change their minds but we may help plant a few seeds of doubt.
Virtus83
Hi Hans
Good job with your 2 lads. I was a Roman Catholic until about 3-4 years ago when I was pointed towards Dawkins, Hitchens and co. If anything could be considered a revelation that was it, my mother and grandmother are both staunch Catholics but not in a hard line Dickensian fashion. It became starkly apparent that they both “believed” because their elders had told them it was the right thing to do. I feel fortunate to have seen the light, as it were, and the religion in schools topic is something I feel very strongly about.
Do you know if there is an official movement in respect to the schools issue?
Thanks.
Hans
Virtus83,
I think I agree with you entirely. I am pleased to say I have two sons who have both been taught to think independently by me, contrary to the rubbish their primary schools tried to brainwash then with. They are both grown with very independent minds, both atheist, and both very moral and decent, useful members of society.
By teaching “real” values at a young age we give our children the best chance to grow up with a clear head!
I would strongly support the abolition of religious education in schools other than as history, and the abolition of faith schools. These can serve no use to mankind in the longer term.
Virtus83
Education! Education! Education! Probably the only good thing Tony Blair ever said. This is the key to freedom for the new generations, the government needs to get the facts sorted out and the national curriculum updated to represent modern understanding. Religion should not be a subject taught, especially in primary and secondary schools, to the youth of society as it’s hard enough learning the facts of reality without the fantastical loony books of unsubstantiated “one true Gods” being leached into the innocent mind. Historical reference to past societies and civilisations is the place for religion in education, every other subject is based on facts, proof and evidence except religion, WHY????
The single parent etc…these are the moderates or middle ground religious who go along with it because as you say Hans, it is the simplest choice, but is also the one they were most likely “taught” is the right choice depending on local denomination. If the children are free of dogma till they pass GCSE level then it is with an objective mind uncoloured by indoctrination, bias or imposed guilt, that they can look at religion in all its various forms and make an individual choice to join or ignore them. This is the freedom our democracy affords us but one the church, mosque, synagogue is allowed to conveniently ignore and this translates into their associated “faith schools”.
Hans
Well, the church has been ripping itself in various directions for centuries so I wouldn’t get too excited about one insignificant little church in Scotland veering off. They might talk loud but when it comes down to it they know they need each other to survive. The church will survive this.
Our task is to teach new generations that there is a better way. One of the difficulties i find is that some people simply don’t have intellectual capability to contemplate existence without a god. How did everything get here? On the one hand you have the scientific, everything started in a big bang from nothing caused by a quantum fluctuation which ran away with itself and spewed energy and time itself into a universe which is expanding all the time. Then somewhere about 10 billion years later we were made form chemicals forming into complex bonds; replication, RNA, DNA, evolution, natural selection blah blah. OR, god made us all to be happy clappy and smiley with a nice planet to live on!
To someone who is otherwise preoccupied with being a single parent or caring for a sick relative, or simply trying to make ends meet, firstly this is not their most pressing concern and secondly is much easier to plump for the short version!
Hey ho. Just keep on trying i guess!
Greyhound1405
Well, lets hope the police are watching their members carefully, as they will be taking their disobedient children to the edge of their town and stoning them!
I am fed up with Religious nutters insisting that certain Biblical commands given to desert sheep herders must be obeyed, YET blatantly ignoring the hundreds of other commands of their bronze age volcano god!
Graham Martin-Royle
So they believe in slavery, in genocide, in murdering children. The more the church’s tear themselves apart over this, the more irrelevant they become.
Comments
7 responses to “…and so the breakup begins!”
@Virtus83 – Not sure of any official movement. I would start by writing to your MP. As I have mentioned in another post, the UK population as of the 2001 census claimed to be 72% christian. This demonstrates a huge problem for passionate atheists.
Main thing is as you say Education. I feel we must educate, particularly the young and raise peoples awareness to the subject. I believe a lot of people just don’t think that much about it, and when they do they do not have sufficient knowledge to come to a balanced view. Rather, it all just seems too complicated and is far easier to plump for the easy option, God did it!
I start with my kids and wider family and friends, taking time to explain things, sometime many times. With younger people I find this easier because their minds are open to rationality. Older people it is more difficult, not least because a 50 year old christian has invested so much of themselves and their lives into it that even if they want to it is incredibly difficult to break the programming.
One thing I think this site is good for is providing a forum where atheists can discuss ideas. We should encourage more people to sign up!
Also, I know this wasn’t a popular suggestion but a forum here inviting theists to come and discuss and debate I think would be a good thing. We probably won’t change their minds but we may help plant a few seeds of doubt.
Hi Hans
Good job with your 2 lads. I was a Roman Catholic until about 3-4 years ago when I was pointed towards Dawkins, Hitchens and co. If anything could be considered a revelation that was it, my mother and grandmother are both staunch Catholics but not in a hard line Dickensian fashion. It became starkly apparent that they both “believed” because their elders had told them it was the right thing to do. I feel fortunate to have seen the light, as it were, and the religion in schools topic is something I feel very strongly about.
Do you know if there is an official movement in respect to the schools issue?
Thanks.
Virtus83,
I think I agree with you entirely. I am pleased to say I have two sons who have both been taught to think independently by me, contrary to the rubbish their primary schools tried to brainwash then with. They are both grown with very independent minds, both atheist, and both very moral and decent, useful members of society.
By teaching “real” values at a young age we give our children the best chance to grow up with a clear head!
I would strongly support the abolition of religious education in schools other than as history, and the abolition of faith schools. These can serve no use to mankind in the longer term.
Education! Education! Education! Probably the only good thing Tony Blair ever said. This is the key to freedom for the new generations, the government needs to get the facts sorted out and the national curriculum updated to represent modern understanding. Religion should not be a subject taught, especially in primary and secondary schools, to the youth of society as it’s hard enough learning the facts of reality without the fantastical loony books of unsubstantiated “one true Gods” being leached into the innocent mind. Historical reference to past societies and civilisations is the place for religion in education, every other subject is based on facts, proof and evidence except religion, WHY????
The single parent etc…these are the moderates or middle ground religious who go along with it because as you say Hans, it is the simplest choice, but is also the one they were most likely “taught” is the right choice depending on local denomination. If the children are free of dogma till they pass GCSE level then it is with an objective mind uncoloured by indoctrination, bias or imposed guilt, that they can look at religion in all its various forms and make an individual choice to join or ignore them. This is the freedom our democracy affords us but one the church, mosque, synagogue is allowed to conveniently ignore and this translates into their associated “faith schools”.
Well, the church has been ripping itself in various directions for centuries so I wouldn’t get too excited about one insignificant little church in Scotland veering off. They might talk loud but when it comes down to it they know they need each other to survive. The church will survive this.
Our task is to teach new generations that there is a better way. One of the difficulties i find is that some people simply don’t have intellectual capability to contemplate existence without a god. How did everything get here? On the one hand you have the scientific, everything started in a big bang from nothing caused by a quantum fluctuation which ran away with itself and spewed energy and time itself into a universe which is expanding all the time. Then somewhere about 10 billion years later we were made form chemicals forming into complex bonds; replication, RNA, DNA, evolution, natural selection blah blah. OR, god made us all to be happy clappy and smiley with a nice planet to live on!
To someone who is otherwise preoccupied with being a single parent or caring for a sick relative, or simply trying to make ends meet, firstly this is not their most pressing concern and secondly is much easier to plump for the short version!
Hey ho. Just keep on trying i guess!
Well, lets hope the police are watching their members carefully, as they will be taking their disobedient children to the edge of their town and stoning them!
I am fed up with Religious nutters insisting that certain Biblical commands given to desert sheep herders must be obeyed, YET blatantly ignoring the hundreds of other commands of their bronze age volcano god!
So they believe in slavery, in genocide, in murdering children. The more the church’s tear themselves apart over this, the more irrelevant they become.