Thursday, August 19, 2010

Richard Dawkins: Faith School Menace?


Play all videos (4) - Viewers in the UK can watch it here
Aired August 18, 2010 on Channel 4
The number of faith schools in Britain is rising. Around 7,000 publicly funded schools - one in three - now has a religious affiliation.

As the coalition government paves the way for more faith-based education by promoting 'free schools', the renowned atheist and evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins says enough is enough.

In this passionately argued film, Dawkins calls on us to reconsider the consequences of faith education, which, he argues, bamboozles parents and indoctrinates and divides children.

The film features robust exchanges with former Secretary of State for Education Charles Clarke, Head of the Church of England Education Service Reverend Janina Ainsworth, and the Chair of the Association of Muslim Schools, Dr Mohammed Mukadam.
(Videos are blocked in the United Kingdom - Available on 4oD and YT)

36 comments:

  1. i want an FSM faith school too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Recently read an article about how the potential headscarf ban in public schools across europe is actually a step backward. As a result of the ban, all those little girls will be sent to muslim faith schools funded by uneducated, oil-rich saudis, increasing the ignorance and separation. At least if they went to public school they would be exposed to the culture, and at the age of 18 have the option to tell their parents to fuck off and go their own way.

    ReplyDelete
  3. <span>(Videos are blocked in the United Kingdom...)</span>

    This is scary.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How is that scary? You get to see it on tv :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. Muie la iehovisti, mormoni si atei!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Richard knows that to nip all this delusion in the bud, you must prevent the children from being indoctrinated.

    Thank the FSM for Richard and all those will will speak against religion and the harm that it causes, to speak up for reason, evidence and science in the public arena.

    There are simply not enough voices of reason speaking up in America. You can see how difficult for the majority of Americans to change their bronze age thinking.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That Richard had to make this program, and that it was also relegated to a low-viewer channel, put this on a proper channel that isn't afraid of airing controversial views (or is that become impossible).

    That we have been specially created is the height of absurdity, and that this is taught as a fact is a disgrace to the UK.

    That we can aspire to the moon and travel to space and still have large parts of the population unable to distinguish fact from fairy tales is annoying in the extreme.

    I nearly blew a gasket at the shameful ignorance displayed by the religites

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fortunately there will always be a non-trivial portion of the population that is inherently curious and skeptical, so regardless of any youthful indoctrination, they will break free of the religious mindset.  I agree that faith based schools are a farce and it is slowing down the rate of enlightenment of our species, but it is not an impassable obstacle.  There is hope for the future.   8-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. "And was it you that wanted to be a doctor...?"

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dawkins lost me when he implied that the state rather than parents should dictate the education of children.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for linking to this video.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I was really surprised that Dawkins didn't challenge the former education secretary's assertion that religious schools would close if they denied state funds.  In America, NO religious schools are state funded and yet they still exist through private tuition.  Why could such an arangement not work in the UK?

    I was also amused by the fact that the muslim teachers insisted that all their students were allowed to make up their own minds based on the facts about evolution and yet ALL the students had somehow decided that evolution was false, basically demonstrating that their teachers' claims were utterly false.

    ReplyDelete
  13. One of several massive blunders committed by Blair. He didn't just get it wrong, he got it bass-ackwards. Instead of moving in the direction of separation of church and state, for fear of upsetting C of E over their existing schools, he opened the gates for all possible faith schools. Blair did a pretty good job of keeping his insane faith in faith more-or-less under wraps while in office.

    I always thought that the muslim schools were going to cause the first problems, because the communities from which they draw their children are already highly ghettoized. Ironically it was a very old jewish school that caused a national scandal, in a case that was one of the first to be argued in front of the new supreme court in 2009. The school lost, in a verdict that to my mind demonstrates the ridiculous nature of allowing public schools to explicitly discriminate on the basis of religious faith.  

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yes, because everything the state does is BAAAAAAD, right Clunn?

    Don't forget to stock up on shotgun shells and canned food (regulated by government so as to not include E-coli).

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well her ein the US we don't have parental choice over schooling and everyone is mixed regardless of faith, and as a result religious wackos on school boards are trying to push creationism not only on their kids, but on everyone else's kids as well.  I see letting idiot parents indoctrinate their kids as an unfortunate side effect of allowing me to protect my kids from their brainwashing.  But also:


    http://www.youtube.com/v/jlJdsX181QU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140

    ReplyDelete
  16. its still on channel4 On Demand if you live in the UK.

    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/faith-school-menace

    ReplyDelete
  17. i thoroughly enjoyed this documentary

    ReplyDelete
  18. I loved this doc, it had a proper conversation about the issues I've always thought about. I think that his intial opinion that that out government went in the wrong direction was totally correct. They should have abolished Faith schools entirely. That way if privatly funded schools wanted to pop up they could but the government should have no been supporting it. Also I think as long as ofsted was allowed to inspect the privatly funded schools that would be enough.  I went to a totally mixed school however many of my closet friends went to a variety of single faith schools, across all faiths.  When having conversations about the issue there are some truly appealing positive reasons for sending a child to a faith school and the benefits that it may bring to the well being to the child.  However whenever a logical conversation about religion or science mattes arise I think the conversation is limited and seldom critcal.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Seeing Richard Dawkins conversing with children and answering their innocent questions is thrilling....brought tears to my eyes.  How I WISH parents knew enough to simply rear their children to allow for THE CHILD'S fullest potential.  Getting out of my children's way was the most brilliant lesson I ever learned as a mother.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Lucky for  your kids too. The less exposure they had to an idiot like you, the better.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Richard Dawkins is my God!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I was given a bible as a present when I was a teenager. I read it on and off, until I eventually got to the end, then I put it away. When I was in my twenties, I decided to read it again, so I dusted it off and started again - from genesis onwards. After a few months, I slammed it shut - and suddenly saw the light,I realised what a load of crap it all was, a manual put together to control people. As a close friend said to me one day - the first 'priests' 'witch doctors' etc, were in a way the first Psychologist, as they realised that if you can control peoples minds - you've got them for life. So put the 'fear of god' into them, and they'll do as they're told - or else.

    ReplyDelete
  23. fact is here in the states the "state" already dictates the education of children in our public schools, yet no oversight for the "faith based" ones... if we keep allowing our tax dollars to go to faith based schools via  school vouchers we will see massive tax increases as well as the decline of our public schools even further into the black hole their in now. we will also see our kids do worse in this global world we now have... no other nation is teaching their future scientists that T rex and mankind walked the planet at the same time or that it was noah's flood that killed the dinosaurs. some parents actually seek out this kind of education for their kids, if given a choice over this type of parent or the level headed state .. i'll take the state.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I'm not sure why but this website is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end? I'll check back later and
    see if the problem still exists.

    My blog post muna.4mystudent.com

    ReplyDelete
  25. If some one wishes to be updated with hottest technologies therefore he must be pay a quick visit this
    website and be up to date everyday.

    my web-site ... exercises to increase vertical

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hi there! I'm at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 4! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the outstanding work!

    my weblog: alleanzadellasalute.info

    ReplyDelete
  27. I could not refrain from commenting. Very well written!


    My weblog workouts to improve vertical

    ReplyDelete
  28. This is very interesting, You are a very skilled blogger.
    I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your
    wonderful post. Also, I've shared your website in my social networks!

    Here is my website; exercises to increase vertical leap

    ReplyDelete
  29. Does your blog have a contact page? I'm having trouble locating it but, I'd like to send you an email.
    I've got some ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great website and I look forward to seeing it improve over time.

    My web site - workouts to increase vertical

    ReplyDelete
  30. Generally I don't read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, very nice article.

    My webpage - www.szakibazis.com

    ReplyDelete
  31. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though
    you relied on the video to make your point.
    You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence
    on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving
    us something enlightening to read?

    My blog post: jump higher

    ReplyDelete
  32. Amazing! Its truly amazing piece of writing, I
    have got much clear idea regarding from this paragraph.

    Feel free to visit my web site http://kualumnicard.com/

    ReplyDelete
  33. Hi there, I discovered your web site by means of Google while searching for a comparable subject,
    your website got here up, it seems great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

    Hello there, simply became alert to your blog via Google, and located that it's really informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I'll appreciate for those who proceed
    this in future. Many other people shall be benefited out of your writing.
    Cheers!

    Feel free to surf to my site vertical jump exercises

    ReplyDelete
  34. Woah! I'm really digging the template/theme of this website. It's simple, yet effective.

    A lot of times it's very difficult to get that "perfect balance" between superb usability and visual appearance. I must say you have done a very good job with this. Also, the blog loads extremely quick for me on Firefox. Superb Blog!

    Feel free to surf to my blog post - vertical jump workouts

    ReplyDelete
  35. This design is wicked! You certainly know how to
    keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your
    videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost.
    ..HaHa!) Wonderful job. I really loved what you had to say,
    and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!

    My blog; churchofchristnet.com

    ReplyDelete