But ethics is the tip of the iceberg for me. In an ideal world, my little heathens would be learning something like, how the Earth was created, since they are sure it wasn't by any spiritual entity.
This doesn't really get taught, as it conflicts with many religious beliefs, but what about for the ones who don't subscribe to that theory. Are they being punished for not believing, by being left to fritter the time away in meaningless colouring-in class?
I think it's fear based and a little background on me will show you why.
I was raised a Catholic. I attended mass every week as a child, and was educated in Catholic schools through both Primary, and Secondary. I never doubted what I was told. Life was blissful, I knew when I died I would go to heaven.
As with my political leanings, it only took one conversation with one person to change all of my understanding and belief (not the same person, mind you).
That conversation happened as I was just moving into adulthood. I remember sitting in a restaurant with my friend, a scientist, as he told me everything I needed to know – but still wish I'd never heard. Ignorance was blissful to me. Death never used to concern me as I knew we would all be together again in heaven. Now I don't have that safety-net, I think death is a scary concept.
Scary, too, that with no higher power acting as some kind of puppet-master, the world is a lot more accountable for it's actions.
I know now, that I will have friends who have probably stopped reading this, and I understand that. As part of me regrets losing the innocence of faith, I would never try to take it from another. Notice how I am not forcing any of my beliefs on you now.
I was incredibly mindful of this, as a parent. I wanted my children to have some set of beliefs as a basis and so chose to guide my children in Buddhist teachings. All religions have ethical guidelines that are important to us all, but the Buddhist philosophy doesn't subscribe to the belief in an all-powerful creator, so I steered them in that direction. That's not to say I didn't teach them about God, though. I told them everything I had been taught – unbiased. Answered every question as the good catholic that I had been raised as. If my children chose to believe in a god, I would be happy for them – I would never want anything to worry them or cause them anguish, and if believing in a god helped them to not feel scared then so be it.
But, after taking their time and carefully studying the facts, they have concluded there is no god. There is spirituality within people, but no omnipotent creator of everything. And that's the thing. You may have religious faith, and then decide to change your mind, but once you reach atheism, you can't go back. Once I was given the facts, as sad as it was to me to 'lose my religion', there isn't anything that anyone could tell me that would bring it back.
My kid's school was a bit trendy and forward-thinking as it offered a Buddhist scripture class as part of it's religious studies. This was great. My kids had all been blessed by monks as babies in 'baptism' ceremonies, and someone who knew more than me about Buddhism was guiding them every week at school. I even used to volunteer in the scripture class when I wasn't at work. Sadly, the teacher left, and there is no teacher available anymore (anyone want to teach Buddhist class on Tuesday mornings, let me know). I did not want my kids time at school wasted in non-scripture (colouring-in class), so I told them they were welcome to attend scripture lessons – Christian are the only variety available – as long as it was Catholic because then I could answer any of their questions. My girls opted for colouring-in, and Evan is in catho class – the little cutie he is, even came 2nd on the test they had! But attending this class has not made him Christian. It hasn't changed his mind at all. I said, I wouldn't mind if it did, but once you're a heathen, it seems there's no turning back. Evan is a good boy. He never questions his teachers in catholic class, though he very much wants to, he knows it would be impolite of him, and perhaps almost wrong to plant any seeds of doubt in his peers.
At least he is getting moral guidance. My girls aren't getting that while they are colouring-in.
So, come on guys. Don't you think that my kids deserve to be taught about right and wrong too?
It's no good them attending Christian scripture if they are sitting back being all cynical about what they are being taught, and the girls thinking they could be reading a good book instead.
In an ideal world, the non-believers would be taught evolution and the origin of the universe, but I'm sure that won't happen in this lifetime (perhaps the next life?). Let's give them a bit of ethics education. God forbid they turn out to not only be heathens, but heathens devoid of morality and the concepts of good vs evil!
Those of you for this should check out this Facebook page or go to this site http://www.specialethicseducation.com.au/ to see what it's all about and even email your state MP. There's also a petition available here.
Those of you agin may be able to follow up this petition
I'll end on a lovely note, because even I think this is a lovely thing to say…
As the 2SM priest wrote on his autograph for me (at a Monsignor's funeral we attended in primary school),
"May God carry you gently".
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