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Politics : To be a Liberal,you have to believe that..... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (2440)	9/15/1999 9:18:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6418

As a believer, I want the chance to say that I believe that God exists, that he/she/it/they has/have certain attributes, and places on us certain obligations as to how we should live and values we should live by, and here is what I believe those are. You have every right to say that. You have no right at all to force anybody but your own children to listen to it. What I think you are missing is that there is no such thing as value neutral teaching, or a values neutral school system. You equate the teaching of values with the teaching of religion. Error. Our values are expressed in our laws and our culture. You think they were transmitted from above, I think they grew out of observations on socially utilitarian behaviour. But it is perfectly possible to teach the values without digging into their sources. If you will let me define them for your children, then great, we're all happy. But you won't. And nor will I let you define them for my children. So we're back where we started, aren't we? We're back to common sense, which tells us that school is a place for teaching skills, knowledge, and basic social values, and that religion belongs in the home and the church. There is a basic, practical logic to this that you cannot seem to perceive or accept. There are many religions. All of them claim to be the sole representatives of God on earth. None will accept the teachings of the others. We have no idea which of them, if any, is really the sole rep of G. on E. God presumably knows, if there is a God, but God ain't saying. Since nobody wants to be preached to by members of another belief system, don't you think it makes perfect sense to keep the whole issue out of compulsory settings such as school? There is no way such a contentious issue can be presented in a school without forcing someone's kids to listen to something to which they object. It is not necessary to deal with it in school at all. The school should leave a vacuum in that area, and allow parents to fill it as they will. Parents have abundant opportunity to add whatever religious elements they feel are appropriate.