[GoldHeart]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Well not really, atheism isn't a belief as such, it just means you don't believe in a god or gods.

I didn't have a strict upbringing both my parents are pretty laid back and neither are religious at all eventhough they still got us baptised and made us go to mass cos that's just what you did (neither go to mass now though funnily enough) but here over 90% of state run schools are actually Catholic ethos because it was the church who originally set them up so religion is taught in schools and you didn't question the stuff you were told in Religion class because it was taught as fact which imo is incredibly wrong. The sooner we get that out of our schools here the better. Thankfully that grip the church had is getting very weak

I know Athieism isn't a belief but I'm saying if parents are atheists it doesn't always mean the kids will stay NON religious.

Nothing wrong with teaching Religious Education in schools as long as it's taught properly, when you're being taught in schools unless it's a Catholic school etc I can't imagine them teaching it as "fact" . They never did that when I was at school , it was more a case of this is what it says and you make your minds up .

Even when kids showed disinterest or said they don't believe ,the teacher wouldn't challenge the student ,it was just a response of " well if you don't believe it ok ,I'm just telling you the story " etc .



However I think RE exams were extremely difficult back then , and I wonder what point of view they wanted people to use . Maybe religious studies are different today.