lemoniee, you asked me if I would use social services to snatch your boys to stop you exposing them to christianity. That's why I made my post 'other people's children' meaning not yours. You have the right to teach them what you like. Surely I was clear on that?
I would fight for your right to believe what you want. I just don't want it pushed onto the rest of us. That means schools would be for teaching geography, history and science etc, but churches and homes would be for teaching about your religion.
Of course schools would teach that religion exists just as they teach that political systems exist. They would just not teach that they are fact.
What do you fear so much anyway ? Shouldn't you rather worry about violent gang culture, knife crime, identity fraudsters, handbag snatchers or lying polititians , rather than a happy clappy love thy neighbour bunch of people ( like me ) who very occasionally might happen to approach you with conversion attempt ( wanting to share ) and in absolutely most cases retire after your polite no thank you. WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL ?>>
Firstly I do fear those other things. I also happen to think that some of the failings of our society are aggravated by the concept that god will deal with it or that it doesn't matter because all the good people will go to heaven eventually anyway. I don't blame religion for it all though obviously.
As for 'happy clappy' I explained in my last post that by adopting the christian label as though it were one big group, even the gentler, less harmful branches of christianity lend credibility and support to the other kinds and to organised churches which are not happy clappy. When you defend christianity and don't specify a particular group you are in effect standing up for the abuses of children, the smuggling of peadophiles out of the country to protect them from the law. The campaigns to stop those in other countries using condoms to protect themselves from AIDS, the homophobia and so on.
Are you unaware that there are laws in this country that the christian god must be worshipped in our schools? Did you not know that bishops have the right to sit in the house of lords and rule us?
Books and plays are forbidden if they offend your god. It should be enough that you don't read or watch them, but your chrisitianity demands the right to tell US not to. Your chrisitianity isn't interested in live and let live, but in power over the rest of us.
Your christianity puts signs up saying "obey god or die horribly" Your people knock on doors saying it.
(If you don't support all that then I suggest you stop defending christianity as a whole and instead defend whatever subgroup you are in)
It doesn't matter that I don't believe it. If I believed that one day all children will be raped and murdered can I knock on your door and tell you about it? maybe you'd let me leave some leaflets about it for your kids to read? How about if I bypass you and give them to your kids at school to stop you from blocking their right to hear the 'word' Surely it sounds crazy and offensive put like that?
I am not an atheist that 'knows there is no such thing' We all try to explain this, but it's hard without examples and for the example to work it has to be something no one would believe in, so bear with me.
I doubt you have a belief that 'rubber ducks are aliens' so think about your feelings about the concept that 'rubber ducks are aliens' for moment. I guess you don't have any feelings about it at all do you. It's just a meaningless phrase, right?
So you wouldn't accept it if I said "but you must believe rubber ducks are aliens until you can find proof they are NOT" would you. Surely you'd say "give me one good reason why I'd think they were in the first place!"
That is my position. I've been offered no reason whatsoever to believe in god. There is no evidence at all. I don't mean not enough to convince a court. I mean zero, none whatsoever. So it goes in the pile of all the things that I have no reason whatsoever to think might be true.
In the meantime If I see that UK schools must be taught that rubber ducks are aliens I will be annoyed. Especially so if they are told that the rubber ducks don't want us to have anything to do with those gay people etc.