Do you feel it is important to share your views on faith or atheism?

[gingerdodger]

This is a genuine question, I am not asking to promote a faith vs atheism debate as we have plenty of those.

My question is whether people feel that it is part of their faith to share those beliefs with others? How far do you take this and how do you approach it? Similarly for those who are atheist, do you feel it is important to share your opinions and in what ways do you do this?

I know some faith groups see this as absaloutely fundamental to their faith whilst others are more relaxed. I also see that those who do not believe in God(s) also often wish to share their opinions widely. It interests me to think about what this achieves in terms of sharing opinions, understanding of each other etc.

From my point of view I strive to be open about my faith, I like to listen to other's perspectives as this makes me think (providing they are listening, I tend to bow out when it starts to feel adversarial and not inquisitorial). I don't feel compelled to actively knock on doors (metaphorically or otherwise) to share my faith but rather subscribe to the view that I hope my approach to life and openness about faith allows me to discuss my faith openly and honestly. I do believe actions speak louder than words and the best form of 'preaching' is to live Christian values of love (not saying I am good at this).

"Hak we dealt with the selfish issue upthread."

No we haven't. You just keep saying that you're not being selfish by imposing you will over me just because you can.

BigDorrit my point is opting out of worship would be less stigmatised if more people did it.

Some schools do have lunchtime worship clubs. However this is a little un fair when there is such a limited amount of time for breaks, all children are entitled to a proper lunch break and schools are, by law, expected to provide collective worship (the assumption being it should be planned as part of the school day).

But again, it is not me you have to convince. I don't make the decisions, and am not responsible for making them.

Hak there is not a completely unselfish, neutral stand point. I get the clear impression you would not like collective worship taking place in a school, even if all the school community wanted it. Your views of what take place support your views of religion as much as my views support the way I view religion. Equally selfish. The only difference is, that what is happening, lines up with my views, more than it lines up with yours.

And I am not imposing my will. As I have said I don't make the decisions.

learn something useful

Collective worship has been useful to my DC.

According to you and others on this thread. There are others who support it. There does not exist an unbiased position regarding this.

Collective worship is part of education, for those communities that want it, it covers all aspects of life. The educational element is learning what it is all about and the worship leaders can specifically tailor the worship to the needs and abilities of the children.

A view of schools is that they are a microcosm if the community around them. If religion is a feature of the community, even nominally, it would follow that it features in it's school.

What do you think of other community leaders visiting schools, such as the police, fire service, health professionals and employers?

Children are not forced to worship either.

My DC had a fire brigade talk complete with handy fire risk assessment to complete at home and hand back with contact details, complete with an exhortation that if your home did not pass to have an officer round to advise you.

I can quite see there was the event present conflict of balancing fire safety and home security, reminiscent of my DF's dilemma keys in the door = easy exist for us but also easy entrance for intruders, ditto for locking windows and permanent fire escapes. Thankfully we chose fire safety over security. We didn't have to do a home security risk assessment....but it was gob shut time, regarding security, and a cheerful reassurance that our house is 'fire safe'.

^ever present not event present. Typo.

RE lessons do not teach how to worship experientially.

Health professionals are allowed into schools to advise children on medical treatments and screening, and provide medical treatments and screening, in the absence of their parents. Some of these treatments can be controversial.

I'm giving up now. You seem to have a complete inability to see anything beyond your own wants.

No, I don't. However just because I may understand other people's wants does not mean I have to agree with them. I am allowed my own beliefs and opinion. Collective worship is a legal requirement, I am not the only person to think as I do.

Medical treatments are not only controversial to the religious. Many are concerned over the health risks of inoculations, allergic reactions and so on...

^regardless of religion.

I am an atheist and I don't tend to talk about it much, other than sometimes with DH who is also an atheist. I sometimes see religious stuff on friends' FB feeds, but am always wary of posting atheist stuff in case I offend them (I follow the Richard Dawkins Foundation on there). I was talking to a Christian friend (as in active church-goer) about religion, as since having children I've come to appreciate the role of the church in terms of serving the community. In fact it would be quite nice to have a non-religious version of church (like the Sunday Assembly thing).

Hey, my DC received all the advised inoculations. However I fully understand why people choose not to inoculate. My point is that there is lots of belief and balancing of risk involved when deciding whether to inoculate or not. I do not judge either way.

In a way there is a 'worship' of sorts involved. A god or gods can be regarded as whatever a person reveres the most, places in the position of highest importance. This could be money, power or indeed, in the case of deciding whether to inoculate, certain scientific/medical/received wisdom/compliance with authority or alternatively more cynical world views.