To want the Gideons to get the #### out of my child's school

[PatriarchyPersonified]

As I have made clear on threads on here in the past, I am an atheist (I'm actually a strong anti-theist) and I believe in the secularisation of society. (i.e religion can be there for people who want it but it should be irrelevant to anybodies day to day life unless they want to make it relevant.)

I believe that children should be taught about religions in school, as part of a comprehensive RE syllabus, and particularly about Christianity, as I believe from a cultural and historical perspective, it is impossible to fully understand the history and culture of the UK without reference to the bible. I would feel the same way about the Qu'ran if I lived in an Arab country btw.

What I am not happy about is that my oldest DC (12) has just had the bloody Gideon Society hosting an assembly in their school and dishing out Bibles! School is not the place for this. There is a reason why religious groups always target schools and prisons, its where the easy targets are.

so, if a pagan came into the kids school to teach about lokie and freya and gave them a book about Valhalla would that equally bother you? just out of curiosity??

Kids what get a

"And what do we think of that" conversation in my house most definitely.

“so, if a pagan came into the kids school to teach about lokie and freya and gave them a book about Valhalla would that equally bother you? just out of curiosity??

If he was part of of a programme of talks about different belief systems- no.

If I lived in a country where belief in Loki and Freya was granted privileged status and worship of them was statutorily required of schools - yes.v

Re is fine but honestly, I wonder why people wouldn't rather the time be spent teaching children about their government and British politics. There is a pressing need for that from what I have seen.

It's a little thing called respect.

What about the lack of respect from people of faith who try and convert people?

The lack of respect from our local church who have obtained my personal details from somewhere to send me unsolicited materials intended to convert?

Do you celebrate Christmas? Easter?

I'm a Head of Year and was hounded by the Gideons people to allow them in to do the bible assembly. I said 'no thank you' politely many times before ignoring them completely. I couldn't justify the complaints from parents to allow them in.

What is the difference between believing in fairies and god? There is no evidence for either. Looking out the window and thinking god must have created life etc because mankind can't yet recreate it is non sense and a logical fallacy known as an argument from ignorance. As I said before, I will stop campaigning against religion when it stops claiming privileges based on so called holy books.

“Do you celebrate Christmas? Easter?”

“Gets out bingo card”

Totally agree with you.

There's a huge difference in teaching different religions and beliefs of groups around the world and being preached to about one particular belief system and given literature about it.

OP, I completely agree with you. DC1, also 12 has the Gideons in to hand out Bibles this week (eyes OP suspiciously- is that you fellow anti-theist mum?!) and I am pissed off I didn’t get a chance to withdraw my child from these evangelical guff. DC are all critical thinkers, and won’t be phased but I wished I had the opportunity to protest to school before their visit. They have no place in schools.

Do you celebrate Christmas?

Nope. We get family together, give disgustingly extravagant presents and eat fab food. The true meaning of Xmas.

Easter

Nope. Unless being found face first in a car of Mini Eggs counts

Of course we could get into the hijacking of pagan festivals by the church...

“but I wished I had the opportunity to protest to school before their visit.“

No reason why you can’t object now. We managed to stop the covert evangelical group ever coming to run a “moving on” session in year 6 again after reading the material they handed out to our kids.

I'm also an atheist and one visit by the Gideons wouldn't really bother me... What does bother me is the evangelical organisation that comes to my DCs school every week to 'coach football'. It gives me the rage!

I do think it is pretty remarkable that someone of peasant birth, who never travelled far, could neither read nor write and preached something as basic and wholesome as love, kindness and acceptance is still inspring millions of followers all over the world today.Perhaps that is in itself a miracle? Yes I agree. And those words love, kindness and acceptance are the key ones.

Jesus didn't advocate being nice to everyone on the contrary he was anti family and claimed that you should put before any family members or friends.

By Jesus- I presume you mean the coalition of people who wrote down stuff about a probably but not definitely real person over a couple of hundred years drawing on third hand accounts, hearsay and the retelling of ancient myths?

But anyway. This isn’t about Christianity. It’s about whether any religion has a place in tax payer funded schools. Which it obviously shouldnt-apart from as an academic study.

a probably but not definitely real person

I don't think any serious scholar , religious or not, has any real doubt that Jesus the person existed

Jesus didn't advocate being nice to everyone hmm on the contrary he was anti family and claimed that you should put before any family members or friends.

that doesn't make sense, do you mean 'god' before family and friends.That is not being 'anti-family', I for example would put my DC before my beloved cats.Does not make me anti-cat?
Not a christiam myself, but I believe honour thy father and thy mother was a pretty big teaching?

“How is it that you sought me.? Wish ye not that I might be about my Father’s business?”

5PlusMeandHim

But what do you mean by 'Jesus'?

That there was a person called Jesus who kicked around in Palestine 2000 years ago? Yes there were probably loads.

That Jesus was a famous person of the time who was known for his claims - not so clear, he isn't really mentioned in that respect in most independent contemporary accounts (I'm not the expert in this field tgough)

That he was the son of God - absolutely no evidence for that on any respect whatsoever, except the nonsense written in the Bible, which can't really be presented as unbiased and was all written down decades after his death.

“I don't think any serious scholar , religious or not, has any real doubt that Jesus the person existed”

Well, there is some doubt. But not a big deal. It’s just important to remember that the Gospels are not true, contemporaneous reportage, and Jesus, if he did, (as he, in some form probably did) exist, was not wandering round Palestine with a lamb round his neck uttering bon mots to the adoring multitude.