Baptising children

Look I give up. Kids get all the sacraments and come out atheists. Thus calling it indoctrination is silly.

You really are missing the point, aren't you!

It serves as a counter point in terms of value to the gross materialism and narcissistic culture we are in. Kids might not believe in God after it but they might absorb some non head up me hole values.

As already pointed out, getting the sacraments and getting paid for them is not gross materialism? Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, Weddings, Christmas, Easter...are there any of these that do not involve significant materialism far outweighing the spiritual aspects? Even holding a 'house mass' involved ridiculous levels of redecorating and even building at huge expense, no sense of modesty or humility there, thankfully those are now a thing of the past afaik.

There are opt outs for religion. It's up to you to look them up.

Again, as already argued, religion should be an 'opt-in' in a state funded school, not an opt-out.

By your own arguments the whole business of teaching religion to children in primary school is a waste of time so why not have them engaging in more useful subjects. Including the 'non head up me hole values' in the form of social and cultural classes.

I think you should see a therapist about this or speak to a politician. This time Im breaking free.

Posting here won't change a thing

Article 44 of the Constitution:

There's only a handful of primary schools in the country which are not receiving state funding.

Not wanting your children indoctrinated is not 'shielding' them from the world, it's not wanting them indoctrinated.

You have whataboutery down to an art form in that post.

I am struggling to understand the argument about 'shielding'. Are posters saying that religion is something that is problematic but children should not be shielded from it as they need to learn to cope with issues? Does this same argument extend to exposing children to other problematic situations, such as cruelty, violence, trauma etc in order to help them learn to deal with them?

Schools that do not receive State funding do so by choice. (Or they might alternatively not receive it if they do not qualify in relation to standards etc).

I'm not sure why your quoting of the Constitution is trying to say here. You may be misunderstanding it. That Article just says that the legislation which provides public funding cannot discriminate between different religions, or none. So you can set up an "atheist school" tomorrow and be subject to the exact same legislation and rules governing funding as the local Catholic or Protestant School.

The Supreme Court has found that provision of funding to denominational schools does not amount to endowment of religion (Most people who try to "argue" some point about the Constitution for schools try to rely on 42.2.2). And the Article that you quote was used as a basis for that decision.

Fascinated by Bobtheman's contributions.

I agree that bad parenting has resulted in schools being expected to fill all the gaps in children's non-academic education, and this is the biggest issue at both primary and secondary.

However, I don't see why this means we should allow one faith (which has, like so many belief systems, a very VERY sketchy record with vulnerable groups) to pervade our education system.

Are you saying we should deal with religion once everything else has been solved? Why not try to tackle more than one thing at once?

Or are you saying that it's such a lost cause we should just leave it?

You clearly feel very strongly about it, judging by the number of times you have stormed off only to come darting back again. I just don't get any of your logic.

You clearly have done your research and are looking at the whole baptism thing objectively, what you are doing by baptising the child is promising to brainwash them towards a certain ideology. It's literally what a baptism is.

You are promising to not let your child make their own decisions, and you can guarantee that you will have to confirm your child to that religion before they are able to make the conscious decision themselves.

What the hell is so wrong with letting a person grow up and make their own decisions... I don't understand why so many younger people in this day and age are so bloody backwards when it comes to religion.