Richard Kay
@copsewood.net
48 followers 86 following 380 posts
Done cyber, teaching, networking. Doing community currencies. Love worship music, country walks, and making wine, cider and beer. A list of my other social media profiles is here: https://copsewood.net/mastodon.html
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copsewood.net
N. Ireland isn't about Protestant v Catholic. That small religious difference has been co-opted by leaders of unionist and republican political aspiration, who are now working together reasonably well for a shared Irish peace process. Political power is not about Christian faith, see John 18:36.
copsewood.net
The belief that beliefs other than secularism need to be excluded from public life, public spaces and publicly funded education treats beliefs other than secularism as inferior to secularism, effectively claiming secularism as the only true belief. It's opposed as is any other kind of theocracy.
copsewood.net
"You just think atheists are inferior"

Your fallacy is straw man. Some, but not all atheists, as with those of other faith positions, have inferiority complexes. If you believe other people think you're inferior, you could be engaging in psychological projection. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychol...
Psychological projection - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
copsewood.net
"Eg. Happy with Madrasas in UK are you?"

What is your problem with Muslim communities educating their children in their own traditions and values after conventional school hours at their own expense ?

Are you Islamophobic ?
copsewood.net
To the extent those of faith have minds of our own, there are as many viewpoints as there are those of faith able to think for ourselves. That doesn't mean we can't work together on shared concerns, e.g. educating children within a state supported and inspected framework, providing Foodbanks etc.
copsewood.net
You appear to be hostile to religious viewpoints different from your viewpoint on religion, & in denial that your viewpoint is religious, making your viewpoint more part of the problem than any resolution based on the principles of understand, engage, learn about differences, live and let live.
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Nosferatu the Vampyre
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"as in the insistence of a god. I’m happy to debate this."

Belief is a personal choice. All knowledge depends on believed axioms. The knowledge system within which God is axiomatic offers unique insights into our existence, purpose and understanding of ethics. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
List of Christian Nobel laureates - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
copsewood.net
The evidence is the continuing popularity of many UK faith led schools within their secular communities and the achievements of their pupils. I'm aware of higher performing faith led schools compared to secular schools near me both in richer and poorer suburbs of my city.
copsewood.net
I believe state financed education is stronger in the UK on the basis that diverse communities which achieve highly enough on the same common school inspection standards can lead schools based on our community values. Schools which meet these standards are places of education, not indoctrination.
copsewood.net
If you throw out the axioms of an epistemology, you don't benefit from what that system of knowledge can teach you. You could make a similar argument against the teaching of maths due to not liking the axioms. The understanding by the faithful of existence, purpose and ethics depends on our axioms.
copsewood.net
Suggest you read up on it. Science can't rationally prove the validity of it's own methodologies. E.G. Its understanding of ethics is weaker than it's methodological need for ethics, e.g. no-one has any reason to believe science done dishonestly or in ways that harm.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientism
Scientism - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
copsewood.net
Areas of agreement between those of different faiths, e.g. on ethics and how to live a good life and what laws are needed to regulate society, are more remarkable than their individualities. E.G. my Sikh neighbour is active in community engagement and charitable work similarly to those of my faith.
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I know a few religious studies teaching professionals who work and have worked in local faith led and secular schools. They don't see their job in the way you allege at all. Education concerns furthering understanding through study of facts, not about teaching students what to believe or think.
copsewood.net
The religious prejudice of Scientism disqualifies believers as leaders of schools expected to teach art, history, literature, philosophy, psychology etc. in addition to maths and science. Scientism is easily refutable, as science methods depend on non science knowledge e.g. metaphysics & ethics.
copsewood.net
The same criticism applies to your own faith position. If you claim to believe nothing, you can logically know nothing. Nihilism is not accepted as a basis on which education of others can proceed.
copsewood.net
The purpose of religions education isn't to tell students what to believe, but to encourage the development of their understanding of significant established and respectable faith traditions.
copsewood.net
Why would anyone choose your faith position over mine ? The idea of a privileged group which holds a view from nowhere is a fantasy, as every viewpoint is from somewhere. Teachers who understand their own position can do a better job than those who have no self awareness imagining they have none.
copsewood.net
Without belief in the axioms of your epistemology other knowledge is unfounded and inaccessible. Only nihilists claim not to believe in anything and the penalty of their choice is ignorance.
copsewood.net
The "secular" is separate from faith on account of faith which rejects political power as a means to enlightenment and truth, see John 18:36. If you believe no axioms you can have no knowledge so can't teach, see Gödel's incompleteness theorems. Secularism is a religion, worse than many others.
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When secularists claim they have and are the only truth in education, and they are therefore the only people with any right to lead or provide it, they become a theocracy to be rejected. For education to respect diversity, it has to be diversely led.
copsewood.net
I don't have a problem with secular schools so long as these aren't the only choice. If that were the case I would see them as religiously secularist. Faith-led schools inclusive of other faiths and none are popular, partly on account of moral leadership and partly based on added value & outcomes.
copsewood.net
A light cotton throw went over mine a few weeks ago.