To get annoyed when dd(6) learns about Christianity?

[MooPointCowsOpinion]

She is at a non-religious, normal state primary. She is the type of kid who remembers everything she's told and parrots it back, so I hear about her entire day every day at school. Almost every day she tells me they sang this song about Jesus, learnt that story about Jesus, learnt this lesson about Christianity. Every assembly they sing a Christian song.

I am an atheist. I don't want her to learn just about Christianity, all religions are important in a 'this is what some people believe' kind of way but I feel like they're indoctrinating her into Christianity by pushing it so much. I try to counter it by teaching her other religious beliefs and telling her my beliefs, but I know the steady drip drip of information could plant a seed that could lead to what I would consider radicalisation.

I've brought it up with her teacher, she's sympathetic and has given us the option to opt-out but I'd hate for her to feel singled out and to miss important things in assemblies.

Does/did it bother you? AIBU to be annoyed?

Livelovebehappy, there's a place where parents can send their kids if they want their children to believe in Jesus. It's called church. School is where you learn facts. Again, this debate isn't about Christianity in the curriculum (taught unbiasedly), it's about it being spoken about as if Jesus was a real person in assemblies. That is a 'personal belief' and should be kept in the appropriate place.

As I said before, education is compulsory, religion is a lifestyle choice. Why should religion be preached at children who have to be in school to get an education?

Although DS told me it HAD to be true because it was on the white board. Apparently the whiteboard is gospel

When an authority figure like a school head teacher has to lead an act of collective worship, that does impact on young children.

I have worked in schools where children are convinced God is real. It's not my place to ask them to think about the evidence for it or to think critically.

And that's bad. Because then we teach science, history, geography and English where we tell the children to give evidence to back up their statements. You get no marks if you just say that this is true because I have faith it's true in any other subject.

LiveLove, the OP has made it clear that her children are in a normal community school, not a church school. But even if they were in a faith school, you might live in area with a selection-by-stealth faith school which parents are desperate to get their kids into, but in many, many parts of the country a faith school is the only state option. My catchment school isn't a faith school, but for most of the people in my city, and virtually everyone living in the nearby country villages, the only school their child has a hope of getting into is a CofE school.

I think that might be my new argument on this.

1. Schools have to worship a deity who has a track record of killing people who did not do what he said.

2. Pupils are expected to use evidence in their work to back up their opinions and to use reliable sources to justify their opinions. How does that square with teachers having to tell children that God is real? If a pupil asks a teacher how they know God is real, can they say because it says so in the Bible as reliable evidence?

Why 'set a plan in motion' that involves us all dying at the end of it....why not just snap his celestial fingers and put us all back to utopia again, with no knowledge of good or evil? Because apparently God is Pro-Choice!

My child has decided that God is real and that Jesus is his friend because he's been TOLD that in assembly by a blinking visiting vicar. Oh - and that if we don't pray, we're all naughty.
In a non-denominational, non-faith state school.
Infuriates me!

It should NOT be delivered as fact in an assembly setting. It should be a 'some people believe this..' approach and a 'you may pray if you wish to' ethos.

What really annoys me is that we sent him to this school to avoid the closer very religious faith school.
Why on earth are faith schools alllowed by catchment schools?

Allowed to be (autocorrect fail)

YABVU
Get over yourself

All things dull and ugly. Am excellent antidote to the happy clappy daftness.

Darlink why should the op 'get over herself'?

dalink why don't you share your thoughts...why is the op very unreasonable? And why should she get over herself, why isn't she entitled to a point of view?

Because apparently God is Pro-Choice!

Jolly marvellous!

What, exactly, should the OP 'get over'?

The fact that she doesn't want religion rammed down her child's throat?

The fact that a non-denominational school is spouting religious beliefs as fact?

I think she's being very very reasonably annoyed!

I think teaching your child that grown ups dont always speak the truth because adults say conflicting things are true is the most important thing here.

Its never rude to politely question an adult when they tell you something is true, especially if they are an authority figure like a priest or a head teacher.

A simple 'excuse me, but what kind of evidence is there for that?'

Then assess whether or not the reply follows one of the bad reasons for believing something is truth (authority, revelation, or tradition), before you decide to believe it.

Id be extremely proud if my dd had the courage to call out a pushy re teacher or a visiting priest that had the audacity to tell her that god was absolutely real and always watching her.

God is always watching her - sounds a bit creepy.

It would be an interesting class discussion to see if children could debate if God is real.

Or even if schools should have an act of worship.

Can the DFE guidance be used as proof that God is real? The DFE is part of our state and its words are law. So the law states that schools have to worship a deity. Is that evidence that a deity exists?

Growing up every assembly we sang religious songs at primary and lots of religious lessons. I still find myself humming the songs. The school has how become a c of e school. I'm not religious I went on to do ethics a level as I find all of them interesting. For a few years I didn't really know about other religions but hasn't changed me in the slightest. My parents always referred to them all as stories I think it's not a major problem

We used it as an opportunity to explain to the dcs that adults like children lie, even teachers...not always for a bad reason but we encouraged them to question what they were being taught.

John Finnemore on prayers in public service

If it's literal, I'm screwed too, because I'm certainly not one of the 144,000.

Can't believe I looked this up. Don't worry though, apparently the 144,000 are the select group of Jewish believers called to proclaim God’s message during the end times. Not the limit to the number who get in.

Thanks for the time you took to answer my q silence. While it hasn't changed any of my personal beliefs, reading this thread has made me see the pointlessness of arguing with believers. And vice versa. No one is going to change their minds . I've tried discussing it with oh with similar results (ie argument) so I'm out, have fun with the rest of the thread everyone!

I don't think you can really argue with believers in a purely rational way, because it isn't a rational thing. It's like a conversation about what motherhood is like because a woman with no children, a woman with a toddler and a newborn, and a woman whose children have grown u and left home - the experiences are so subjective and there ismy really the language to describe each experience unambiguously.

The purely rational part of me is aware that my experience of God might be some brain quirk, and I think there is evidence of a genetic and inheritable aspect to perception of divinity, but for those of use who do perceive divinity, it is generally a challenging but rewarding experience, and it would be extremely difficult and distressing to suppress that part of us.

It doesn't give me the right to impose my beliefs on others, but it does make my life richer and better. On an individual lever, I think it makes me a nicer person - part of my religious practice involves generally trying to be a better person and to bring about more love and fairness in the world, and my faith gives me more courage to take action to do stuff (a more extroverted, in your face sort of friend has the opposite experience, and finds herself standing back, speaking less and listening more when she feels connected to God). But I can't deny that lots of people have done and continue to do terrible things in the name of various deities, and that while the message of most religions is one of live and justice, religious structures tend to have all the flaws of the society around them, including structures of oppression. So while my personal experience of God is as a force for good, I can only conclude that either not everyone has this perception, that people filter their experience of God so much through their own worldview that they get things horribly wrong or that lots of people follow religions without really engaging with God. I think it's probably mostly a mixture of the last two.

TL:DR. I think God is fantastic, but not something to be imposed on unwilling people.

How beautiful that they encourage children to know about God and Jesus 😊

I also feel like a 'debate' on the matter of belief is rather useless. Neither side will concede. I keep asking believers to demonstrate any genuine reason for believing, and they always fail to do so. This is going to sound patronising but I have no other way if expressing it. I feel quite sorry for those who put their lives, hopes and love into an entity that is very obviously not there. I feel they must have had very difficult times to give up their minds to such things. That is their prerogative to do so though, and they are of course welcome to ignore every historical and current evidence that ancient religion was made up to both control people and play on their fears.

However, that still doesn't mean that it should be brought into schools to influence young minds. Religion should be private, it is a choice to follow it. It belongs in places of worship, and believers should keep it to those places. Learn about it in the classroom, but never as fact. No prays, no hymns, no 'this is what Jesus teaches us'. Education is a place of evidence and facts, and yes imagination and storytelling when it calls for it. Facts and storytelling should never be compounded into one though, at least not in school.

It's ok Edmund.

What Broomstick said!