I support Secular Education. It
is crucial that children should be taught every subject in a truthful
and unbiased way, and this should include Religious Education –
not the biased sanitised version of believers, but an honest and
objective appraisal of religion, its history and current effects.
What is not acceptable is the teaching
of religion from a partisan point of view – the view of the church,
the mosque or the temple, the traditional views of those who believe.
Biased teaching is wrong. It is an abuse of children’s trust,
and their right not to be taught opinion as fact – on
any subject. There can be no place for anything less than objective
teaching in education.
As well as the views of those who
believe in God and the Devil, the ‘goodness’ of religion, the
promise of an afterlife and religion as morality etc.– should go the
views of those who regard superstition and sectarianism as divisive and
cruel, with the historical and current evidence of its effects on human
life at every level. Its role in conflict, personal guilt, prejudice and
discrimination against women & gays, racism and anti-Semitism, and
the politics of fear should be part of religious education.
What is also important in the context
of this booklet is the effect that the ownership and control of
education by religion, for the promotion of religion has had on the
development of our culture – our attitudes and prejudices.
The effect of ignoring religion and
leaving it to the religious organisations and believers, as is the case
in US schools, in line with its secular constitution, has lead to a
massive and dangerous rise in fundamentalist religion. Going along with
the idea that religion is benign, that "it doesn’t matter"
and should not be criticised or opposed, leads to the ignorance of its
real effects at every level of human life and society.
Secularism asserts ‘freedom of
religion’ and ‘freedom from religion’ within a state that
is neutral in such matters, giving no subsidies or privileges to
religion, as at present. And this should be the default position for a
secular nation in its schools.
The History of
Education for the Promotion of Religion
It is often claimed, and goes largely
unquestioned by most people, that one of the good things about religion
is that the Church is to be credited with promoting education for the
good of humanity. What is never acknowledged is that the Church owned
and controlled education, and used it for its own purposes for
centuries; keeping it for the promotion of religion, the preserve of
monks, priests and biblical scholars. It was the Christian Emperor,
Justinian (483-563), who had the dubious honour of closing down the last
schools of Greek philosophy, plunging Europe into the dark ages.
The first schools were started
and run by the Churches, and the universities arose from the
Cathedral schools of the 12th century. Although they employed lay
masters, they were controlled by the Church and its monastic orders,
they decided what should be taught. Education was kept away from the
rest of the population, especially the ‘lower orders’, for whom real
education might have been instructive as to the way society was ordered,
and might have represented a challenge to Church doctrine and authority.
The religions only reluctantly conceded change as and when the
professions required increasing numbers of literate recruits, and later
when the state and commerce required a literate work force. They fought
to the bitter end to keep the Mass and the scriptures in Latin so that
most people would not understand them, thus retaining their supposed ‘mystical’
qualities and their reliance on clergy to interpret them. Individuals
who attained education ‘above their station’ and attempted to spread
education in any way other than to sustain belief in and compliance with
religion, were considered subversive and a threat to the peaceful
acceptance of the status quo. A possible spur to revolution.
Women, working men, servants, and
slaves were kept uneducated by the Church. Its overwhelmingly
conservative attitudes towards social order, the place of women, the
poor, and servant classes had over time resulted in their compliance -
meekness, obedience, subservience and the acceptance of ‘the nobility
of work’ etc. Though this situation was interrupted by the conditions
after the massive reduction in population and consequent shortage of
labour after the Great Plague in 1664. The value of skill and labour
were at a premium, which resulted in higher wages and more autonomy for
working people. The church promoted the still strong ‘Protestant ethic’
that shapes our lives from cradle to grave. For the ‘lower orders’
to have access to questioning education might have enabled
them to question their allocated station in life, and the fairness of
their society.
The Church has always taken great care
to keep education under its control from the earliest times to the
present day. It has done this by dint of having the widespread
infrastructure and political influence at both local and national
government levels to assert its policies. Rich in land and property
built up over centuries and paid for by compulsory tithes, and by its
position at the centre of the structures of power and influence, it also
had the resources to carry it out; enough people who were sufficiently
educated to teach, in all parts of the country, money to pay them,
premises in which to hold lessons and domination over the lives of
parents and employers within the community. These were powerful ways to
ensure compliance with the interests of the Church.
Education was seen as both
life-enhancing in itself for the devout, and valuable for the
advancement of the professions, government, law, medicine and
engineering, whilst for the workers, universal primary education was
embraced as a tool of direction, correction and chastisement for the
poor. The widespread experience of harsh discipline and rigid training
methods directed at instilling obedience and passivity, that created a
compliant work force with just enough skills to perform their work, was
prevalent well into the second half of the 20th century.
These punitive methods were mirrored
in the harsh training of the children, particularly the sons of the
elite, those ‘born to rule’, especially in boarding schools that
suppressed emotion and human compassion and taught the value of
bullying and domination. According to many this is still the case in
some of them, and it explains the behaviour and attitudes of those in
the upper echelons of our class society, and the personal and sexual
hang ups of some of the men brought up in these unbalanced institutions.
This would matter less to society, if it were not these men who play
such a dominant role in public life, and influenced the lives of others
through the professions and government.
Even now there are schools
that maintain the harsh punitive ethos that demands rigid
discipline, uncritical acceptance, and strict observance of religion.
Children are indoctrinated into their sectarian divides and are
instinctively prepared for sectarian conflict. Some schools run by nuns
and priests in Ireland, until the middle of the last century, showed the
harsh discipline, physical, mental and sexual abuse, and psychological
trauma inflicted on children by religious fanatics [1] They demonstrated
the effect of disturbed and disordered adult thinking on the treatment
that was meted out to those over whom they had almost total control,
often children who were assigned to their care because of lack of family
to care for them and the lack of well-run, well-funded public services.
Sectarian Education & Its
Importance to the Church
It was and still is important to the
Church to retain control of children’s education, selecting their
intake from families of their religion, often requiring documentation
from the appropriate cleric, attesting to Church attendance. Aspects of
this are to be seen in a report by an Anglican Archbishops conference in
2001 "The Way Ahead" — with a whole chapter on the ‘ministry,
Church, and parish’. For the Church of England nationally the schools
represent a bulwark, for whilst congregations and parishes are declining
one factor holding back the collapse of the Church are the schools, with
their demand for school references and ‘passport stamps’.
One area that seems to have been
skated over by the church is the discrepancy between children attending
Church schools and then becoming active Church members. If these schools
were so successful in passing on the ‘good news’ then the Churches
should be full, but instead they just pander to a form of class-based
snobbery. Conversely, if the demand for references and passport stamps
were to be removed, then so too would the need to attend Church for many
middle-class aspirant parents, leading to the further crumbling of the
Church as a viable national body of authority.
There is also a discrepancy between
the idea that all that is wrong with society is ‘lack of religion’,
when a significant majority of the population and policy makers are, or
claim to be Christian.
Language
One of the most important effects upon freethought has
been the suppression by the dominant religions of the language in
which it could have been expressed and developed. The development of
language is a function of education, if education is used to promote an
ideology, language is one of its most powerful weapons.
Language goes hand in hand with the
development of culture and ideas. If ideas are suppressed, the language
in which they can be developed, discussed, and promoted is retarded.
Likewise, if language is suppressed, then it will be difficult for the
ideas to develop and find expression.
It is a primitive idea that if something does not have
a name it does not exist, and therefore if you do not give something a
name, you deny its existence.
It has never been in the interest of the religions
that freethought should gain credence in people’s minds. The ability
to express arguments freely and oppose religious doctrines, policies,
and practices has been successfully suppressed over the centuries of
religious domination. As a result, the language of atheism, humanism and
secularism, has never fully developed. Freethinkers, in the modern
meaning of non-believers, find this lack of appropriate language a
constant problem , its poverty inhibits the expression of the range and
depth of free thought.
In addition, our culture and language are suffused
with Christian words, phrases, sayings and references that are used
without thinking – and they constantly reinforce at an almost
subconscious level, the idea of Christianity as ‘normal’ and ‘essential’.
Its Effects on Schools and
Society
Sectarian schools are potentially one
of the most serious social problems of 21st century Britain. About a
third of all primary schools are Church schools and the current policy
is to increase this number by literally handing over existing state
schools. Denominational schools are largely funded by the state, but are
run and controlled by the religions. They are a cause of social
divisiveness and ghettoisation and of the racism it often leads to, when
the religions are those of immigrant or racial groups such as the Irish,
or Pakistanis. As families cluster near to their fellow religionists and
‘their’ schools, the ghettos and schools entrench the separation
from the rest of the locality. Government's acquiescence to the demands
that state schools retain religious instruction endorses
religion, and a requirement to make children pray and worship in ‘broadly’
Christian assemblies alienates believers in other religions, thus
encouraging them to demand their own schools.
Church school authorities demean
‘comprehensive’ or ‘community’ schools, by promoting ‘faith’
schools as being better than mixed community schools, even though
there is evidence that their selection procedures favour more
intelligent children from more advantaged homes, so that some of their
‘success’ is at the expense of community schools. One of the ploys
used is to promote the impression that there is huge unmet demand from
parents is to deliberately restrict the numbers of places.
As a ‘Rights’ Issue
The existence of faith schools and
demand for religion to be promoted in state schools overrides the rights
of those in the community - children, parents, teachers and the
community who want, honest, objective, non-sectarian education in a
multi-cultural, multi faith society..
Teaching of opinion as fact, and
demanding prayer and ‘worship’ by children who are not of an age to
understand the issues, is an abuse of the children’s right to honest
and unbiased teaching. There should be no place in education for the
teaching of opinion as fact on any subject.
There are also the issues of the
rights of teachers and other school staff, raised by discrimination on
the basis of belief, of non-belief or lifestyle. Faith schools are
allowed to discriminate against homosexuals, those ‘living in sin,’
and atheists. The employment prospects of these teachers are thus
significantly reduced in many areas of the country
There are also other issues
surrounding sectarian schools, social divisiveness and ghettoisation —
not only in housing but extending to the social and leisure facilities
in those areas — as well as all the problems for families and children
who are unable to go to their nearest community school. These problems
are, as usual, worst for poor families, those without their own cars
(and many women do not have access to the family car) and those
with several children who may at some stage be going to primary and
secondary schools in different areas.
Other problems with selective schools
include ‘the school run,’ whereby parents transport children to and
from scattered selective schools that segregate children by class,
wealth, sex, intelligence or religion, creating gridlock in many areas
of many towns and cities on a twice daily basis. This is having a huge
impact on the working lives of hundreds of thousands of working people
and the businesses for which they work.
The Effects on Minority Groups
Nor is it only ‘white liberals’
who see the dangers in increasing the number of ‘faith schools’.
There are black and Asian Britons who fear that their children will be
marginalised and their communities fragmented by pressure being exerted
on them to separate into smaller and smaller ethnic or religious groups.
They fear that if they are not integrated through their school age
children, divisions will deepen between themselves and the white
community. They also fear that this divide-and-rule tactic will put them
at a disadvantage, as politically acceptable ‘community leaders’
may be used to prevent them from lobbying for a fair share of resources
for schools in the areas in which they live.
For women and girls it can mean
greater cultural control by their ethnic elders, who seek to perpetuate
inequalities and oppressive religious practices, social and family
roles, arranged marriages, attitudes to ‘marrying out’ and
subservience to men. Older family members who do not speak English, and
who might learn to integrate with the help of their younger relatives,
may be tempted to retreat further into a cultural ghetto if their
communities become more segregated.
Preferential selection of
teachers from ethnic minorities into faith schools takes these teachers
out of mainstream schools where their presence would provide role models
much needed by all students.
The predominance of single sex
Catholic and Muslim schools also limits choice, and the opportunity for
girls and boys to meet and work together in multi-faith, multi-cultural
mixed schools. It is a vicious circle
Education as ‘Mission’
At home and abroad, education was and
still is seen as a way to bring people to god, useful for reading the
bible, bible tracts and prayer books, useful for spreading the word, and
filling the churches. The place of ‘education’ as a missionary tool
is still used — not education in the sense of enabling people to gain
a wider understanding and facilitate critical thinking but as a
closed doctrinal activity. For many of them education was, is, also used
as a way of attracting kudos and money to pay for the Church’s
promotional activities. Latterly it has been more acceptable to beg for
contributions under the sole pretext of ‘providing schools for the
poor of developing countries’, rather than converting them to their
religion, although that is still one of their primary aims.
The value of education, as interpreted
by Christian missionaries at home and abroad, was in manipulating people
politically in favour of the church, the colonialists and these days to
gain support for the political power ideologies they support. This
activity can put genuine, secular aid workers at risk, from action by
governments that understand and object to political subversion under
cover of ‘missionary’ or ‘charity’ activity, particularly by US
right wing evangelical Christians. In some circumstances however, the
teaching of religion encourages compliance, obedience, and
acceptance, characteristics greatly valued by leaders, employers,
and governments and especially religious and politically repressive
regimes. Promises of riches in the next world, have successfully kept
many peoples subservient. Education and the development of a
critical faculty gives people the knowledge and confidence to
oppose or resist oppression wherever it comes from, but it can only
do this if it is honest, objective and unbiased.
In Britain Today
Education has been used to inculcate
and reinforce religious belief, and still does to a considerable extent.
The privileged Christian Churches exert continuous pressure through
their existing denominational schools. Now they are predictably being
joined by other religions in our increasingly multi-cultural,
multi-faith society, bidding for their own ‘faith’ schools, in which
they have a free hand to indoctrinate children. And at the same time
they exert pressure on all schools to teach religion, through
legislation, the curriculum council, and locally through the
religious syllabus councils most of whose members represent the
predominant religion. In addition, local clerics get themselves
onto the governing bodies of state community or comprehensive schools.
This pressure creates and maintains a chronic, low-level acceptance of
religion and its attitudes that are not challenged or balanced by the
views of non-believers.
An example of the widespread effect of
this is the fact that in a country in which there is compulsory
education from the age of five to sixteen and is often longer than that,
most of the population are not aware that the popular celebrations like
Christmas and Easter, are not specifically or uniquely Christian! Nor
are most people aware of any of the arguments against the ‘truth of
belief’, religion and least of all its malign effects.
Belief in gods and the religions built
upon them are continually reinforced through ‘broadly Christian
assemblies’ and religious ‘education’, the only compulsory
subject. There is a right for children to be ' 'opted out' but this is
rarely taken for fear of making children feel 'different' or miss the
communal aspects of assemblies and through the attractive option for
school and pupils to take religion as a ‘soft option’ examination
subject. The process is sustained by the demand for 'knowledge of
tradition and culture’ and 'ecumenical tolerance’ of
religious ideas. The partisan nature of religious 'education' is
the result of the traditional unwillingness of most people to
countenance criticism of the Churches and religion. Not just by ‘not
wanting to be different’, or arguing from a position outside the norms
of traditionally ‘respectable’ opinion, but born of centuries of
suppression and punishment of atheism and the values of secular humanism
(see Appendix)
The effect of this is not only to
promote religion, but also to actively discriminate against the
teaching of the values of non-believers and the employment of
people, who hold these views, in faith schools, even if their jobs do
not require religious belief. This has been the case since the churches
demanded and obtained exemption from the European Union directive on
employment discrimination in 2003. The interpretation of history, and
the role of religion are embedded in other subjects, but this
is rarely brought into the open, or, if it is, it is discussed as
if the role of religion was incidental, and nothing to do with its
ideology or with no critique of its role in events. This ‘censorship’
goes mostly un-remarked, even in the supposedly objective educational
‘establishment’ though it is becoming evident to more and more
people, in Britain at least, that the claims for religion are at odds
with its actual practices and effects.
In universities there are still
considerable amounts of money spent on Theology Departments funded at
public expense. Some of course have changed their names to the more
politically correct ‘Departments for the Study of Religion and Ethics’.
But I suspect that it will be a long time before ‘philosophy and
ethics’ are allowed to replace ‘theology’ in some of them!
There are however signs that more
teachers, heads and the schools inspectorate are beginning to demand
secular education, as are many more members of the public. Politicians
however are more reluctant to make changes, some because of their own
religious beliefs, and some because of their fear of political pressure
from the organised religions in their constituencies and on the
government. This situation can only get worse as more of the other
religions are allowed to take over existing schools or create their own
schools, such as the 'Academies' teaching evangelical Christianity and
creationism, and Muslim, Sikh and Jewish schools that will add to the
sectarian divide and make integration even less likely.
It is remarkably difficult to get
intelligent, educated people to understand that for the religions to
withdraw 'their' children from community schools forces community
schools into being equally sectarian, against their right to be secular
i.e. integrating all children, irrespective of class, colour,
race, or the religion or non belief of their parents, in the pursuit of
common educational goals.
It is crucial that citizenship comes before
religion if we are to develop a peaceful, cohesive, multi faith, secular
society, and this should be reflected in our schools.
The Effects on Women,
Health & Sex Education
The role of religious teaching on the
lives of women has been profound.
Until recent times, in Britain, women
were excluded from other than primary education thought suitable for the
roles traditionally allocated to women in the home, in service and
entertainment. Until a mere hundred years or so ago higher education,
the professions, and decision-making institutions were closed to them.
Think how much more advanced education, art, literature, medicine and
science could have been had not so much potential talent been wasted!
How much more balanced would the professions, government and
administration have been had women not been excluded from the
decision-making? – Been allowed to participate and contribute their
female perspectives and skills? How much more advanced would our
community life be had more human resources been spent on health, secular
education, science and technology; and welfare rather than being devoted
to the glory of god and the church, violent conflict, religious wars and
persecution? This reflected the interests of the men who dominated these
political, religious and military elites throughout history.
And the history of women's oppression that is rooted in the religion's
view of them as inferior should be taught in our schools.
One can look back through centuries of
male philosophers and poets through to the relatively modern social
sciences - sociology, psychology. In doing so you will see each
generation’s scholar’s deliberations on human behaviour and the
human condition, and suddenly realise that they are overwhelmingly
elderly, white, middle class men. And on many subjects, those giving
their learned views are those with the least experience of the
practicalities of the subjects of their study – the most obviously
being on learning and child development, from the doctors of the 17th
& 18th centuries to Freud, Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner
through to the present day. People who I guess saw little of any
children let alone looked after them!
The church's attitudes to women's
place in the world, and what is expected of them is high on their list
of objectives and these attitudes do not stop at the school gate. An
interesting exercise even at the beginning of the 21st
century would be to examine the school library in the average primary
school and see how many books show a range of interesting female role
models, and exciting prospective careers for girls.
One of the major objections now being
recognised by some ethnic minority activists in the UK is the extent to
which segregation of their children into sectarian schools, subordinates
girls and women to their paternalistic, conservative 'community leaders'
who are drawn from the male dominated religious elites. Women and girls
can be pressured to accept aspects of their religious culture that they
find oppressive, as do some Catholics. Separation from the wider
community of other women and girls means that they are less able to
assert their own ideas. Domestic violence on Asian women is as bad if
nor worse than that on white women, because of the 'closed' nature of
some of their communities. Added to this are the problems in some
cultures and some religions, of female genital mutilation, forced
marriage, betrothal of underage girls, and brutal punishments - the
maiming, stoning of women in some countries, and the grossly misnamed
‘honour’ killings.
The fact that women were denied
education had the effect of 'justifying' their status as inferior to
that of men who were better educated. Thus their talent and effort were
considered as of lesser worth than those of men. The supposed
inferiority of the uneducated leads to notions of supremacy, racism and
xenophobia. And women's lowly role was maintained by refusing them
education and further reinforced by denying them employment outside the
home. It still affects attitudes to their services as carers within the
home and family. And wherever religion dominates a school's ethos, these
attitudes to women's place prevail, as do their attitudes to women's
rights and to full and frank sex education, including contraception and
abortion.
Sex education is an area in which
religious attitudes to women’s rights over their own fertility impinge
on women's lives to their detriment. What is needed is to explore all
the factual information and implications of different behaviours with an
open mind and a rational approach, from which young people can choose
their own paths. The religions relentlessly oppose the open educational
approach and insist on their traditional view of sex as only for
heterosexuals within marriage. Based on the notion of sex as only valid
for procreation and not pleasure they would prefer total abstinence
outside marriage. This policy has lead to large numbers of teen-age
pregnancies because it is unrealistic and does not work.
The opposition to information and
advice, outside of family pressures, on sexual activity, contraception,
sexually transmitted diseases, and provision of ‘morning after’
prevention of pregnancy if necessary, comes from the religions. The idea
persists, regardless of evidence to the contrary, that providing
accurate information will lead to more sexual activity, at a younger
age, rather than the fostering of responsible attitudes in young people,
and particularly greater self- confidence and assertiveness in women and
girls.
It is also the religions that try to
prevent intelligent discussion and acceptance of sexual orientations
other than heterosexuality in schools. Constant religious pressure on
politicians and schools makes them fearful of discussing homosexuality
in its rightful place in relationships and within the school community,
and makes it very difficult to counter prejudice and homophobic
bullying. It also makes young people who think they are homosexual from
discussing it openly and instils in them guilt and fear about what may
well be their natural orientation. This is of great importance at an age
when they need to learn to adjust in a mixed society and when all
children need to understand and accept natural human diversity.
Religious Teaching and Science
The religious attitude to science has
always been ambivalent. Knowledge, scepticism, the scientific method and
evidence-based decision-making do not sit comfortably with ‘belief’
and faith in omnipotent gods, the supernatural and immutable religious
doctrine. Technology is rather different, and those who refute the idea
that religion is incompatible with science base their arguments largely
on the fact that it is not incompatible with technology,
and that throughout history educated people, religious or not, have
promoted technological innovation and change.
However, any attempts to understand
any aspect of life, that did not conform to the scriptures and current
theology was suppressed by religion and any theories or discoveries that
challenged their beliefs were censored, and their proponents cruelly
punished. Some science could be useful to the church, such as the use of
astronomy and mathematics to work out their calendars of saint’s days
and celebrations; and print technology to disseminate their message; or
could be interpreted in such a way as to confirm their beliefs. Much of
this has been quite easy, for those clever enough to move away from the
scriptures as literal truth, to accept that everything that has now been
explained, however previously obscure, could still be attributed, along
with the process of science – to their God’s plan.
If god is the creator of all things,
what need is there to search for physical causes that might challenge
that? Science is thought of as a relatively recent human activity, but
it is in fact very old. Its impact has only become a major preoccupation
for us as its potential as a practical tool for good or ill has expanded
into all areas of life rather than just a philosophical or theoretical
discipline.
In a discussion on the BBC with Melvin
Bragg on his book "The Closing of the Western Mind, the rise of
faith and the fall of reason," [3] Charles Freeman pointed out how
Christianity embraced and eventually smothered the tradition of
philosophical and scientific thought. Aristotle, Copernicus, Galen, the
17th century physicists and the work of the Enlightenment
thinkers were, he says, ‘frozen’ and interpreted as supporting
religion.
Religion has slowed scientific
progress both for theological reasons and as a result of its influence
in relegating women to an inferior and subordinate role in society,
excluding them from education and science; it has also exerted social
pressure to prevent the spread of scientific knowledge. Charles Darwin,
who undoubtedly made one of the most important scientific contributions
to an understanding of evolutionary development, was severely
constrained by the need not to offend the social, scientific and
religious establishment of his day, his own professional peers, and his
own wife and family. His concern for the feelings of all the devout
Christian people around him prevented him from any public challenge to
their superstitious beliefs. It was only in personal correspondence that
he made his views known.
In an assessment of science in
Pakistan from 1947, Dr Anis Alam Professor of Physics at the University
of Punjab, Lahore, describes the Pakistan Scientific Community as
"the most irrational, conservative and least objective professional
body anywhere"[2]. In a country of 134 million people, three
quarters of whom are illiterate, a country in which there is widespread
poverty, in which boy children spend their time learning the Koran by
heart, also described in Irshad Manji’s book ‘The Trouble with Islam’[4],
vast sums are spent on a nuclear capability, not for humanitarian
infrastructure, education, and health facilities, but for nuclear bombs.
He also describes how Islam manages to "cobble together a confusing
mixture of science and religion". He also describes how scarce
resources were "wasted on activities that only promoted an
anti-scientific attitudes and values"
And lest we get smug at the situation
under Islam, we must consider the even more astonishing success of
'creationism' as the story of man’s creation. This has been brought
about, not in a scientifically illiterate medieval society, but in 21st
century US and Britain. In the US massive pressure is being exerted
by the evangelical churches to replace Charles Darwin's scientific,
evidence based 'Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection’ by Creationism in
the classroom.
In Britain wealthy evangelical
individuals have been allowed to sponsor secondary schools for a 10%
payment towards the capital costs secondary schools. The rest, and the
running costs will be paid for by the exchequer, but controlled by this
minority of evangelical Christians.
More recently the religions are at the
forefront of trying to prevent progress in the use of genetic research,
stem cell and embryo research. Rooted in their doctrinal view that human
life starts at the moment of egg fertilisation, well before any
differentiation of cells or foetal development has taken place, they
seek to prevent knowledge that could lead to the prevention, treatment
or cure for some of the many terrible human diseases. Not least the
degenerative diseases that blight so many human lives.
The Effects of Religious
domination of the Arts
Another aspect of the received wisdom
that is rarely if ever questioned, is that ‘the role of religion has
been to promote, sustain and nurture the arts’. The arts have
certainly been used for the promotion of religion, but they are seen as
an adjunct to past religious purpose, rather than an integral part of all
aspects of human experience that should have a central place in secular
education.
Much of the price paid by humanity for
religion has been the almost total dedication of art, music and
architecture over hundreds of years, to the glory of god and not the
glory of humanity. The church has prospered while people suffered
terrible deprivation.
This does not mean that we cannot
appreciate religious works of art, music and architecture. Not least for
the human inspiration, skill and labour that has gone into them. One
does not have to worship the piper to enjoy the tune or the skill of the
player! But one may consider how much more beauty might have been
created if there had not been such a narrow religious base of
sponsorship. How much more art, sculpture, music and great public
buildings might have been created for instance if there had been more
secular patronage, or if women had had the opportunity to become
artists, musicians, craftspeople and architects.
Each religion has in turn desecrated
the art of those they supplant, so that even within the narrow confines
of religious art and architecture, there only remains what has survived
the centuries of demolition, burning, and looting by successive waves of
religious fanatics.
Churches, and other religious
buildings, have been well built, with great skill, and the best
materials. Time and expense no object in works dedicated to the glory of
god, using the labour of people who lived in the most basic of housing
conditions.
When earthquakes devastated parts of
Turkey and Iran some mosques and churches, even with their delicate
decoration, withstood the quakes, while flimsy dwellings and public
buildings around them crumbled. In the 2004 tsunami the devout took it
as a religious ‘sign’ that a mosque was left standing amid a
flattened village – no more a ‘sign’ from God than was the tsunami
itself (as was said by some at the time) but a reflection of the fact
that priority is given to religious buildings (and in some the arches
that strengthen the structure).
In Britain, Churches and monasteries,
were considered worthy of the best fruits of human endeavour, paid for
from the compulsory taxation - tithes, labour, and deaths of the
peasants, labourers, and artisans of the times.
Artistry and resources were also of
course lavished on the ‘prestige’ buildings of other elites,
government, commerce, palaces and stately homes. Then came greater
demands for substantial housing for the new middle classes as well as
factories and mills, as well as magnificent building and engineering
works such as pumping stations, underground, bridges and central railway
termini.
But many more modern public buildings
were thrown up as quickly as possible, using cheap materials and cutting
corners, in order to maximise profit. Hospitals and schools became
decrepit after only a few decades. In this country over the 20th
century, one set of slums has been replaced with another and the lives
of thousands have been blighted by having to live in substandard
housing, in high-rise blocks and on estates without adequate facilities
and infrastructure. A few years ago, it was reported that in Italy,
buildings, including blocks of flats, put up in the last thirty years
were found to be in imminent danger of collapsing, as one had already
done, killing more than a hundred people.
If hospitals, libraries, schools, town
halls, buildings for secular ceremonies such as weddings, had been
considered as deserving of care and quality in every aspect of their
construction as have places of worship — deserving the best art,
stained glass, sculpture and design — everyone’s lives would have
been enriched.
Even more important to the lives and
wellbeing of everyone, every individual, every family, is the devotion
of as much care and skill to ordinary family dwellings. Beauty and good
design in housing for ordinary people and the environment, seems to have
been sadly lacking after a brief renaissance from the late nineteenth
century (at least for the rising middle classes)
If more resources were put into the
education and training of artists, artisans and craftspeople and there
were freely available opportunities for everyone, and especially
children and young people, to be artistically creative, we could all be
better off. If human effort and artistic skills were to be devoted to
public buildings of all sorts, more people would be able to appreciate
and benefit from the skills of engineers and builders, and enjoy in
their daily lives the beauty of architecture, arts, and decoration and
the advantages of good design.
Educational
Elitism
The relevance of this to the subject
of ‘Religion’s Role in Education’ is that for 1900 years
British education was under the almost total control of the Christian
church.
Those who have control of education -
its infrastructure, the selection of students and teachers, what is
taught and what is left out – can and do shape education and through
education they shape society. What is taught, inculcates not only
knowledge, facts and information, but attitudes and ethos, that over
time become deeply embedded into the culture. It does this through the
professions, administration and government and importantly the media,
print and publishing. Control of ‘promotion’ and ‘censorship’
are powerful tools in any society.
The ownership and control of the means
of education meant the permeation of society with the attitudes and
prejudices of Christianity. The ‘inferiority’ of women, the cruelty
to women who transgressed their ideas on women’s place, the harsh
punitive attitudes and hositility to dissenters of all kinds, and
attitudes towards the welfare of the poor, children, all reinforced the
political and military elites of the past. The results can be seen in
the harshness and squalor of Victorian London as described by Henry
Mayhew [5]
Although considerable resources are
still spent on Theology Departments in universities and colleges, the
overt control of higher education has been wrested from the religions.
But Christian attitudes, including elitism, inculcated over centuries,
are still very much in evidence in our society and therefore also
reflected in our education system. Added to which, once entrenched, it
is difficult to see those who benefit from it, and the status it
bestows, challenging it!
Elitism has worked in combination with
other forms of suppression and censorship throughout the ages —
punishment, social pressure, linguistic, and political suppression —it
has been used to discriminate against the expression of religious and
political dissent.
The effect of this tradition of
elitism is far reaching, built as it is on an ingrained and in some ways
understandable idea that to be intelligent and educated is better than
not. Naturally, for any human progress, intelligence, education and the
ability to use that it, is of great value. But they are not the only
important and valuable human attributes. They have attained a
position and emphasis of overarching importance, which have turned them
in some respects away from serving human needs and progress and in some
cases actually acted as a brake on human inventiveness. Not a point of
view you may have heard expressed!
There is also confusion between
education and intelligence, and while educated people are considered
intelligent even when they are not, intelligent people are often
dismissed if they do not have the educational credentials so valued by
academics and society. There is also no recognition that without an
ability to make use of one’s education or intelligence, these
qualities are of limited value. So while intelligence and education are
both important they are not the same, and no more important than some
other human characteristics, such as good judgment, integrity and
creativity.
For example too many educated people
have decided that writing style and the ability to spell are more
important than the ideas being expressed. Academics in particular will
turn away ideas, opinions that cannot be referenced, leading to
the nonsensical assumption that if ideas have not been said or published
before, they do not deserve consideration!
In the Appendix to the 1998 reprint of
Shelley’s, ‘The Necessity of Atheism’ (for which he was sent down
from Oxford), Nicolas Walter writes, "It is impossible to establish
an authoritative text of ‘The Necessity of Atheism’. The manuscript
and proofs (if any) disappeared, and the printing of the original
sixteen-page octavo edition was so eccentric that some correction of the
spelling, punctuation and even wording is needed to make sense of
it;" It is perhaps just as well that the editor did not decide it
was not worth printing!
In many fields particularly
publishing, those in positions as ‘gatekeepers’ can enforce their
own narrow limits. From suitably impressive educational qualifications,
and being good at climbing the academic or professional ladder, capable
but not necessarily inspired, they are in a position to censor at will.
Those people who were, or are, able to maintain creativity, or come to
it later in their careers, are often too focused on their own careers to
be able to stand back and see what others are doing, saying or writing.
How many valuable insights, inventions and discoveries have been lost
because of the self-interest of established academics or editors in
positions of power? Examples of those who were eventually
successful are John Harrison, the inventor of the ships clock and
Michael Faraday responsible for the crucial discoveries of electricity
and magnetism, and many of those who struggled in medicine to bring
about innovation, against the stultifying elitism of establishment
figures, who were set on maintaining the status quo. Even Albert
Einstein needed considerable persistence to get his work accepted.
In all arguments over ideology the
proponents like to claim that they are supported by ‘highly qualified’
people (whether or not they have special knowledge, of research
findings, for instance) as if intelligence and education of itself
lends credence to an argument. If all clever, intelligent and educated
people were on only one side, it would be reasonable to recognise this
as verification of the ‘truth’ of an argument. But the fact is that
on most political and religious arguments as well as many other issues,
there are intelligent and educated people on all sides, which must mean
that those attributes are of no overwhelming importance in themselves.
It has always been the rationale for
further and higher education, and greater and greater specialisation,
that such advanced knowledge is the only way to progress; but it
is only one side of the equation. While the great and the good climb
higher in their ivory towers, the product of their study needs to be
followed through by others who can take their material and translate it
into a usable form if their valuable gifts are to be used for human
progress. Too much academic knowledge and research is concealed with
jargon while the population continue to worship and pray, still
believing in irrational superstitions old and new, oblivious to new
ideas. Now Internet searches are helping to overcoming this in leaps and
bounds and simple searching will produce a range of information, old and
new on any given subject!
In Politics
Education
and teaching are not the same - education is not just
teaching. Both are political with a small ‘p’.
Teaching can be used to teach selected
facts and inculcate attitudes that favour any ideology – religious or
political - right or left. Its success or failure can be judged by
whether or not its specific objectives are met, not whether or not it
presents the whole picture. Its content can be changed to reflect the
current ideology or that of the teacher!
Education teaches how to think, to be
critical, self critical and analytical – and it is thus to be feared
by those who cannot control it and reduce it to teaching only what they
want taught. Education must be honest and objective.
Education can be incompatible with the
prevailing ideology. For instance, promoting a progressive, cooperative
ethos makes it incompatible with conservative politics that demand a
competitive ethos to drive forward a competitive workforce, economy and
society. Yet a left/liberal political ideology that wants to promote a
cooperative, conflict free society needs people who see the values of
cooperation over competitiveness. Education has to pose both along with
the supporting evidence.
Religion is political too, though its
‘message’ and its ‘actions’ are contradictory. It claims to want
cooperation and compassion, yet it supports prejudice against gays and
women, curtailing the freedom of expression of non-believers whenever
possible. It claims to want peace not war, yet it causes, exacerbates
and prevents negotiated, evidence-based resolution of conflict. It wants
children to be taught their version of religion. The religions
fear honest, objective education, and want religious ‘education’,
worship and prayer, even the teaching of ‘comparative religion’-
without the views of atheists and secular humanists. This is neither
honest, objective nor is it education.
Both right wing political ideology and
religion use the same tactics of creating fear to undermine people’s
security. For both there is a price to pay for failing, for falling
short of their declared objectives – both are punitive – punishing
by poverty, or fear of ‘the wrath of God’ or being ostracised!
Conservatives want selection and academic elitism, and the religions
want the promotion of religion in all schools.
Religion is allied to and reinforced
by state religion, through the law, through privileges and
subsidies given to the religions, and by the use of religious ritual in
civic ceremony, oaths, prayers and services. ‘Men of the Cloth’ sit
automatically in the legislature, are considered automatically
appropriate to give references and sit on public bodies in preference to
those without religious ‘status’. This applies to Christian Britain
as well as Muslim countries.
It is the power of education
that makes it so important to both political ideologies and the
religions.
In Employment
Another aspect of the ideological
domination and control of education is the way it has been used to imply
that being educated, white and religious makes one superior — socially
and politically, part of the elite - and in employment deserving of
greater rewards.
For education to be the preserve of
white Christian men - a religious activity - as it was for centuries,
created and reinforced the notion that to be educated, white and male,
made one ‘better’ than those not in that group. The modern
British ‘middle class’ system is built upon the unfairness of
educational elitism, first created by the religious control of education
and feudalism. Some of these attitudes are still deeply ingrained in our
cultural thinking, and still underlie many if not most of our political
attitudes.
It is only within the last few decades
that it has been seen as of equal value to educate girls to the same
standard as boys, that it is as important for black children and
disabled children to be educated to the same high standards, and that
they should all have access to university education should they meet
academic standards. We still have not touched the unfairness of the
discrimination against those whose talents lie in other, non-academic
fields of endeavour!
Even today there is a strong link
between the level of education and training - and class, income and
employment. The discrepancy between the professional and highly skilled
and the less educated and unskilled worker – the former being
considered ‘better’ and thus more highly rewarded, is a cause of
resentment and alienation, with the resulting antisocial behaviours such
as crime and vandalism. The advantages to the intelligent and educated
are in having more choice in the work open to them, more satisfying jobs
with more job security and job mobility, more autonomy, better pensions
and of course better pay. Conversely the less advantaged and least well
educated are usually those who are stuck with the dirty, boring, low
status jobs. They have least choice, least autonomy and curiously
also the lowest pay and pensions. And to add insult to injury they are
expected to work with a smile and be grateful that they have any sort of
job at all!
This does not necessarily take any
account of innate intelligence, their inherited characteristics,
ambition, the wealth and position of their parents, their upbringing
etc.- all are a matter of chance that makes genuine comparisons
impossible. But the extent to which they are the crucial factors,
is greatly influenced by the quality of the education that is available
to them.
Yet it is almost universally accepted
that those with intelligence and education are better, and more
deserving than those without those advantages. And no account is taken
of the effort and motivation that it may take disadvantaged people to
attain even modest status. It is accepted that one claims credit for
success and blame for failure, though in reality most of the
circumstances are a matter of luck – genetics and environment;
personality and aptitude; motivation and ability; inherited
characteristics and opportunity!
Thinking one is superior leads
inevitably to the corollary — that thinking that others who are not
educated are inferior e.g. those with good jobs are better
than those with menial jobs. It promotes the notion that those who are
‘saved’ are the 'chosen ones’. And we all know where this idea of
'the chosen people' has lead! This elitism of learning and
scholarship throughout the centuries is established now in all areas of
education and employment, and also into the print and publishing
industry and the media. One of its greatest effects has been to exclude
atheists and secular humanists and their opinions from the curriculum.
In doing this it has largely prevented the discussion of the values of
‘non-belief’ and suppressed any opposition to superstition and
sectarianism in school as it does in other areas of society.
Elitist attitudes as to the value of a
western ideal of education have also played their part in the
devaluation of groups of people without this particular form or view of
‘education’. People of different cultures, races, blind, deaf and
otherwise disabled people were, and often still are considered by some
as of lesser value. Women were, up to less than a hundred years ago,
excluded from higher education on the basis of their supposed
inferiority and its irrelevance to their lives. That they may have different
cultural values and prorities is not recognised, and for many this
attitude is still the norm, even if not acknowledged. The scriptural
notion that disability is caused by god — as a punishment for misdeeds
in a former life, or ‘visiting the sins of the fathers, down the
generations’ — has reinforced such ideas that are still held by some
devout souls!
It is sad to think how much progress
we might have made, had the talents of the whole of humanity been
available on which to base progress — not just those of educated,
white, men. Imagine where we might be now, had the ideas and
capabilities of women, black and Asian people, and the vast majority of
people men and women, who were consigned to the grind and waste
of poverty and disadvantage — been fully used!
This was how it was and how it still
is in some respects. Progress is still constantly restrained by elitism,
sexism, racism, class, and unwarranted privilege.
One thing is different now. With the
Internet revolution it will perhaps only be a matter of time before the
censors and petty gatekeepers will have had their day, and they may find
themselves on a more level playing field with those whose contributions
they seek to restrict.
Appendix – The Values of Secular
Humanism
Why should Humanism be taught
in schools?
Because it is unacceptable that belief in the
supernatural and religions, should be taught (endorsed) in schools
without it being balanced with the equal teaching (or endorsement) of
the views and values of secular humanism.
The POSITIVE VALUES OF SECULAR HUMANISM (Atheism,
secularism and humanism)
We value rationalism, scepticism and use
of the critical faculty; (we are against superstition –
belief in the supernatural and sectarianism)
We value belief in the scientific method and
evidence-based decisions making;
We value honesty and
objectivity;
We value autonomy, freedom and equality
etc. for men, women and children, within the framework of,
and consistent with the needs of the individual
and society - 'the public good'.
These are the values, and they apply to every area of
human life. They are not specifically or uniquely humanist. Many people
strive to measure up to these standards with a greater or lesser degree
of success.
But there are many areas in which religious belief and
practice distorts these values - creating and maintaining bias,
prejudice and discrimination that due to history and their dominant
position they have made ‘traditional’.
These are policy areas where these values are not
applied -
Education - its institutions and
curriculum - Sectarian Schools, partisan teaching of
religion, and the teaching of opinion as fact etc.
In the field of Health, Welfare & bio
ethics -Abortion and Contraception, Assisted Dying, Human
Fertility and Embryo Research Pressure to prevent Condom Use in
HIV/AIDS control programmes, 'faith base' public services.
The environment and ecology
Religious pressure to prevent UN Population
programmes that give abortion and birth control advice.
Crime and punishment
Prison regimes that give privileges
to those who join up to faith based rehabilitation, drugs
and alcohol programmes. Religious oath taking
in courts of law.
National and international politics
Special status of the Vatican in the UN
Demand for 'special consultation status' for
religions in government and the European Union.
The communications industry and the media -
print and publishing
The blatant bias of BBC radio in refusing to
fairly represent atheist and secular humanist opinion, compared
with the amount of religious programming. Lack of access to
the mass media and ‘right of reply’ when false claims are
made.
Government and administration
Automatic tax exemption for church
halls but not village halls. Refusal to extend
equal rights to secular users of church owned premises
even though they are effectively subsidised from general
taxation.
Personal Issues and the rights of women, gays
& children.
Aristotle said that there is
no point in studying ethics unless it would have some beneficial effect
on the way one lived ones life - ['Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online Version 2.0]
These are the areas of practical applied
secular humanism.
Sources & Further
Reading
[1] Search - ‘Magdalen
Laundries and Child Abuse in Irish Industrial Schools run by the
Christian Brothers’.
[2]‘Problems of Science in Pakistan’
Dr Anis Alam – International Humanist News July 2002.
[3]‘The closing of the Western Mind,
the rise of faith and the fall of reason’ Charles Freeman Publisher:
Alfred A. Knopf
[4] ‘The Trouble With Islam - A
Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change’ (Mainstream Publishing) Irshad
Manji
[5] ‘London Labour and the London Poor’ by Henry
Mayhew
Science & Religion: Do they Conflict? http://atheism.about.com/od/sciencereligion/
The Campaign for Secular Education –
Definitions, Information and Links on: - www.c.s.e.freeuk.com
Further information and other views on
the topics covered can be researched through the Internet with simple
Google searches.
Atheist and secularist links on
www.secularsites.freeuk.com
Other
titles in this series:
‘Illicit Sex and the God Machine’
How the narrow doctrinaire attitudes of the male
dominated religions to women and illicit sex have shaped our culture
over history, and can be seen today in many aspects of life, especially
the lives of women, gays and children. Their punitive attitudes affect
the law, social and political policy, in education, health and
science and still blight the lives of those who do not comply with the
distorted thinking of superstition and doctrine that they promote.
‘A Challenge to Religion on Health’
This challenges the claims of the religions to have
promoted and enhanced human health and well-being. In reality, in many
areas, its attitudes to the human body, sex and pleasure, and the
exclusion of women from health education and science has held back
progress. Its role in sexual and reproductive health, and its attitudes
to illness as God given or the work of the devil, has caused suffering
and death - from persecution, to over-population and the problems of
controlling STDs, specially HIV AIDS.
'A Theory of Belief'
This 33 page A5 Booklet gives a new ground
breaking perspective on how and why, intelligent, educate and otherwise
rational people continue to believe in superstitions and the
supernatural.
It shows how indoctrination and belief, and other such apparently
'mystical or mysterious' phenomena such as the placebo effect, the
brainwashing of cults and bizarre beliefs in alternative therapies and
faith healing, use the normal systems of human physiology. The prime
purpose of these systems is to maintain, physical, mental and emotional
health and well-being, but a side effect can make people, particularly
children and vulnerable people susceptible to manipulation.
The basis of the theory can be seen most clearly in its particular
relevance to its role in health care, conventional and alternative, but
is also to be seen in many other areas of the manipulation of behaviour
- politics, teaching and child rearing
Transience
Poems
written by a woman freethinker, on a range of subjects
relevant
to her beliefs or rather non-belief - life and death "the
honourable state of godlessness", feminism, the environment and
peace.
Available from
Secularsites, PO Box 172, Westerham, TN16 9AN
Price
£2.45 (5 for £10) – inc.p&p payable to secularsites –
e-mail
secularsites @freeuk.com
_________________________
'secularsites' is an independent,
not-for-profit- website, the sole purpose of which is to promote atheist,
secularist and secular humanist ideas and values on the Internet and in
print.. All monies taken for these titles over and above the costs of
publishing and distribution are used for the above purpose.