to think that my DD has a right to a secular education

[Tinnitus]

Two years ago my DD came home to tell EXP and Me about the "true meaning of Christmas". We are both atheists and had purposely sought out a non religious school and so we were perplexed. We took every opportunity to explain that this story was just that, a story, not the literal truth.

Inevitably DD soon started on about the true meaning of Easter and so I made an appointment to see the headmistress of her school. By the time of the appointment I had learned from DD that it was a classroom helper who was feeding her this guff and not a teacher, and I felt a quiet word would suffice.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only was the helper indoctrinating DD, but the local evangelical church held monthly assemblies with the children. Indeed it turns out that every school in the country must be affiliated with a church of some type, but is not obliged to brand themselves thus. The head mistress was courteous and obliging and agreed to my request that the brainwashing of DD stop. I made no demands about her education other than She does not come home spouting twaddle.

Two years on and she is beginning to again to talk about Heaven, Hell, God and the Devil. But she has no idea who Adam and Eve were. When I "tactfully" quizzed her about this I discover a local CofE vicar has been regularly talking to the children about his faith, but without emphasizing that it is only his own opinion. Worse still, He has had my DD praying in class.

I have asked the school to live up to their earlier agreement as calmly as I could.

AIBU

if you took all of the great minds throughout history, I think the atheists would be in the minority

agree Spacehopper5, best to look at modern times. But even then I suspect the atheists would still be in the minority

TheFallenMadonna, my guess would be that men are more likely to be religious because they like the rules which put the woman on a step below them.

I hope it's that! if it turns out we are just more gullible that's going to be embarrassing

Actually now I come to think of it that reason is pretty embarrassing anyway.

Onagar, saying that lots of intelligent people have a religious faith is not contradicted by the studies you mention. You can't use those studies (not that you would of course) to suggest that religious people are necessarily unintelligent. So that's why I question why they are being used here, unless to refute the suggestion that religion has the intellectual edge.

Nooo - men are more likely to be very intelligent. No idea about religion.

Or at least have a higher IQ. But htat's a whole other can of worms

men aren't more likely to be religious. Go into any church and you will see old ladies in the majority. The people who carried on believing in Russia, under threat from the communists, were brave old ladies.

just for the record I'm really not suggesting that religious people are necessarily unintelligent

Isn't it the Jesuits that go in for higher education in a big way?

the majority of people travelling to Lourdes are women. The majority of people lining up in the Piazza San Pietro are women.

claig, I don't think anyone was claiming men were better because they were more religious. I certainly wasn't.

I think the reason that churches are full of old ladies is not really anything to do with religion. Women are, in general living longer than men, and when they do they seek company and community in the church. I think you will find that many people who attend church do so because of a sense of belonging it gives them, and some of them deep down probably know that god doesn't exist, but still enjoy going.

S'alright claig - that was a misunderstanding between me and onagar. You don't have to convince us!

onebadbaby I think you could be right, but I think women are more superstitious which is why more off them got to Lourdes as well

sorry very lazy typos

Or it could merely be that men see going to Lourdes as similar to going to the doctor, which of course most of them avoid at all costs

DOesn;t surprise me at all that the more intelligent a person is, the less religious s/he is. Because the bottom line is that believing in gods and pixies and fairies is fundamentally stupid. Some people do it because it comforts them to think that death is not the end, or they the idea that their Imaginary Friend has got their back in all situations, some do it because they are nuts, some because they like being able to justify their own prejudices ('Men are more important than women, Great Pumpkin says so') and some because they are, in fact, terrified of life and other people and can only cope if they fill their rattling empty heads with a set of pointless rituals and taboos against almost everything that might be enjoyable or involve actually using one's higher cognitive functions.

SolidGoldBrass, I think it is a bit more subtle than that. I think it essentially comes down to whether you think we are here only by accident or whether there is some sort of purpose or meaning for our existence.

It isn't that the more intelligent a person is, the less religious they are. That is a misunderstanding of the findings.

Well life can have purpose and meaning without imagining we were made by a god.

I suppose you could just as easily say "whether you think we are here as the logical result of the laws of the universe or at the whim of a being who enjoys watching suffering"

"Whether you think we are the result of billions of years of evolution or we are pets"

It all depends doesn't it

we create our own purpose and meaning, but is there an underlying meaning of which we are unaware of, and which is the reason for all life itself?
Why are there laws of the universe, why is there not chaos? What is the purpose of the laws? I think it is unlikely that the being enjoys watching suffering, because the being could create a lot more suffering if the being wanted that.