3.11.3
Christianity & Public Life
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Should Christianity Play a Role in Public Life?
Many secular humanists think that Christianity is about personal beliefs and should not, therefore, play a role in public life, such as government, state, education and schools.
British Humanist Association
- The British Humanist Association campaigns against schools with religious character, saying “we aim for a secular state guaranteeing human rights, with no privilege or discrimination on grounds of religion or belief young people of all different backgrounds and beliefs can learn with and from each other.”
Danger of religious schools
- Some people who are against religious schools might argue that they could become places where radicalisation takes place.
- Some religious schools are anti-science and teach that evolution is a myth.
- Faith schools can increase intolerance as they can teach that all other faiths are mistaken or even evil. This can promote hatred, fear and mistrust.
- In their opinion, the state has no obligation to teach faith and taxes (from many non-religious people) should not be used to fund religious schools.
Dawkins' view
- Dawkins adds that religious schools replace evidence-based approaches to understanding our world with superstitions.
- He argued that teaching evolution alongside other theories, such as creationism in science classes, fails to credit the evidence of evolution.
Dawson - dangers of secularism
- Christopher Dawson’s essay The Challenge of Secularism argues that secular education is problematic. Dawson points out that where education systems were consciously anti-religious (meaning deliberately avoiding religion), such as in communist countries, that religion becomes endangered. Removing religion from culture, art, architecture, music not only deprives religion but also people who are trying to make sense of their own culture.
Conroy - liberal democracy
- Professor James Conroy argues that religious schools have an important role in a liberal democratic state – they provide parents with a choice and prove counterbalance to any single driving influence on education.
1Philosophy of Religion
1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato
1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle
1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body
1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation
1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason
1.6Religious Experience
1.7The Problem of Evil
1.8The Nature & Attributes of God
1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic
2Religion & Ethics
2.1Natural Law
2.2Situation Ethics
2.3Kantian Ethics
2.4Utilitarianism
2.5Euthanasia
2.6Business Ethics
2.7Meta-Ethical Theories
2.8Conscience
3Developments in Christian Thought
3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings
3.2Death & the Afterlife
3.3Knowledge of God's Existence
3.4The Person of Jesus Christ
3.5Christian Moral Principles
3.6Christian Moral Action
3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology
3.8Development - Pluralism & Society
3.9Gender & Society
3.10Gender & Theology
Jump to other topics
1Philosophy of Religion
1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato
1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle
1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body
1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation
1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason
1.6Religious Experience
1.7The Problem of Evil
1.8The Nature & Attributes of God
1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic
2Religion & Ethics
2.1Natural Law
2.2Situation Ethics
2.3Kantian Ethics
2.4Utilitarianism
2.5Euthanasia
2.6Business Ethics
2.7Meta-Ethical Theories
2.8Conscience
3Developments in Christian Thought
3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings
3.2Death & the Afterlife
3.3Knowledge of God's Existence
3.4The Person of Jesus Christ
3.5Christian Moral Principles
3.6Christian Moral Action
3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology
3.8Development - Pluralism & Society
3.9Gender & Society
3.10Gender & Theology
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