Ethics vs Christian Education

[Michael]

In New South Wales the Government is trialling a new ethics class which "would let children who did not take scripture class examine ethical issues, but without an overarching theology" - and the Christians are fuming:

THE Bishop of North Sydney has urged Anglican priests to collect information from principals of public schools to stop the spread of the secular ethics classes the Sydney Anglicans believe may threaten religious education.

Dr Jensen, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, said ethics should not be offered as an alternative to the Bible. He said the trial had been "rushed through" and complained that it was not easy to be heard in the debate about the trial, because of "countervailing forces that may be less scrupulous in putting their case".

www.smh.com.au/national/education/bishop-enters-battle-against-secular-ethics-classes-20100413-s7pp.html


The Christians are trying to stop the spread of ethics because it is a threat to religious education, The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney says "ethics should not be offered as an alternative to the Bible" and implies than anyone who disagrees with him is "unscrupulous". Does this attitude tell us anything about whether or not Christianity promotes ethical behavior?

[Michael]

Theists win

Complaints put brakes on ethics class trial

VERITY FIRTH is refusing to guarantee a 10-week trial for secular ethics classes will start next week in state primary schools as expected, after a flurry of complaints from religious leaders.

A spokeswoman for the NSW Minister for Education yesterday said getting the curriculum right was ''more important than the timing of the trial''.

www.smh.com.au/national/education/complaints-put-brakes-on-ethics-class-trial-20100416-skfy.html

[sandyprice]

If children are taught ethics, reason and free thought, they will drop kick Christianity on it's well deserved ass.

Living with my family on the San Andreas Fault in California drove me into lessons of survival along with the base of our moral values. It seems that watching films of others faced with earthquakes, fires, floods and tsunamis it became necessary to train the children in how to avoid these disasters once they start.

Praying is for fools. Knowing how to survive in a quake is for others who have the training to survive. Animals have natural instincts to head for high ground during floods and tsunamies. It is necessary for all children to realize what altitude they are at all times and where is a higher location. We all learned to locate our most valuable papers and pets and react according to our training. Survival is the best learning we can offer our family.

When people are told that all disasters are from God, they walk into big trouble and will usually die or be injured. I know of people who live in my area who pray to God to destroy California.

What scares the hell out of me is the movement to make America into a Christian nation. The next generations will be programmed to die for God. I put a hell of a lot of time, effort and money into my children to train them to be individuals. To do this we ignored the sky daddy but we many not be able to ignore the Palins and Huckabees who are lined up to take over our nation.

Every morning, I wake up knowing I do not have to put up with this crap much longer. I've fought against it for over 70 years and I am damn tired of the subject. My kids are free of the hell and damnation that my government is trying to push. They may be outcasts but they are free.

[Michael]

Apr 19, 2010 6:21:58 GMT -5 sandyprice said:

I know of people who live in my area who pray to God to destroy California.

I saw a YouTube video years ago (wish I could find it again) where a creationist says, "Chop down all the trees, use up all the oil. It doesn't matter because we're not going to be here for that long."

And these are the clowns who want to rule the world. You are right to be pissed-off. Fundies are the most dangerous people on the planet.

[sandyprice]

Americans are too uneducated to even check the history books on the destruction of all humans who did not believe in God. "Heritics" was the word used by the Evangelicals. I'm reading a book about Sir. Thomas More and the descriptions of the machines designed by the Catholic Church to torture men and women beyond the ability for the body to survive. Machines of slowing breaking the bones in the body that led eventually to burning them at the stake. These torture techniques followed the Christians all over Europe including the reign of Henry VIII.

Even today in America the Republican Social Conservatives have no problem with the Bush Administration using torture on the enemies of Christianity They are labeled Islam. When I write about this subject, I am called a Muslim sympathizer and unAmerican.

This Christian attitude is now found in the majority of American Republicans. They absolutely believe they are torturing and killing innocent humans in the name of Jesus Christ.

For years the Christians did not vote. To elect Bush 43, they bought the Christian vote with faith based federal grants. This destroyed our separation of church and state and the balloon of hatred has now taken over a political party that will win the Congress in 2010. I see America slipping into this movement of bringing America into the Evangelical position. The churches are now marking the ballots of their uneducated congregations.

I am no prophet but I am a reader of history. This element of Christianity has destroyed much of Europe and is now half way into American values. The only place to stop this love of torture is in the family. It is developing bully children as we can see daily in our news. The religious right is pushing for a civil war as they are tired of living with liberal attitudes. Electing a black well-educated liberal President will bring about this civil war and there is not one damn thing anyone can do to stop it.

American Humanists are trying to control this emotional hell that the people prefer but sadly we are not accepted by most Americans. Our numbers are growing but not fast enough to shut down the Evangelical insanity.

[Michael]

Unfortunately, Australian politicians are going down the same path. In the 1970's we had a Prime Minister who publicly declared his lack of belief in god - and then won three more elections.

Now we have a Prime Minister who is a creationist - and the Leader of the Opposition is a raving Catholic known to his colleagues as "The Mad Monk."

It doesn't look good...

[sandyprice]

I'm sorry to hear that Michael. Many Americans in search of reason and liberty are talking about moving to Australia. Americans are becoming fed up with this hokus pokus of Armageddon.

For many years, our "creationists" lived in what we call the bible belt here in the southern states. They seldom voted outside their own communities and were never a political power. Bush 43 brought them into voting when he promised the churches money from the government. For years, their candidates brought in the panic of gathering more Christians before the end of times.

I used to laugh as their panic but in 2000 they voted in masses as directed by their ministers. It is now so out of control that they have managed to gang up against our black President Obama. Our founding fathers understood this Christian zeal and how it could threaten the Bill of Rights. Reading many of their statements showed they fear mass Christians.

Once this panic of predicting the end of the world gets into the citizens of any nation, that nation is doomed. In the Middle East, Islam is also predicting this doom and their Muslim congregations are handing out the same message. This is insanity. Good luck in Australia.

[Michael]

The Australian population is not overly religious: 18% are atheists, another 9% do not declare their religion on the census forms, and only 8% of the population are regular churchgoers.

The problem is that many of our Parliaments (State and Federal) are evenly split between the two major parties (Labour and Liberal) so we often find a few Fundamentalist Christians holding the balance of power. They promise to vote with one or the other major parties on certain issues, providing the major party votes with them when they start pushing their Christian agenda. When that happens, the population gets up in arms about the new legislation, but it's already too late. The fundies (maybe only two or three of them) have already won.

It's OK if the occasional (and sensible) Independent holds the balance of power because he or she won't do anything stupid - probably because he or she wants to keep on-side with the voters and win another term at the next election. But the fundies are "single issue" politicians who couldn't care less about the future. All they want to do is get into Parliament push their (religious) agenda and then get out again. They don't care that half the population hates them and they don't care that they will never be re-elected. That's why I consider them a threat. There is a distinct possibility that they just might get what they want - a theocracy rather than a democracy.

Right now, today, I don't think that will happen in Australia, but I can't help thinking of the events in Germany in 1933 when the Nazis began as a minor party, formed an alliance with another minor party - and within four months Germany became a dictatorship! Things can move fast sometimes and we should be ever vigilant.

[sandyprice]

Absolutely correct Michael. In America we need to keep an eye on every member of he Republican Party. American Theocracy is behind much of their desires before they die. The problem is they have never had training as individuals but are brought up to believe they are sinners and in need of guidance from the sky daddy. My fear is that they have passed this on in numbers and will succeed. They will not succeed as loving Christians, but as armed killers.

I often use Germany as an example of mass insanity. To the Germans, Hitler was their savior. In America we have literally millions of tyrants who promise salvation. I fear for my grandkids.

Somehow, in the last 30 years, Christians are giving up law and order in a belief that they are above the law. Any action, no matter how cruel and deadly, if done in the name of Jesus Christ, is justified. America is turning into a theocracy and we are facing armed Christians. But this is what the American voters want.

I am not angry at this movement but as a Humanist, it breaks my heart. I relate this movement to someone training pit bulls to kill. The base members of the religious right are often retarded and have followed the one road presented to them. I fault the schools and the churches. I am not turning the churches into anti-American gangs, but the churches themselves will do anything for money. When the author (Dick) wrote "Deliverance" he was not far off the source of the religious south.

I do not want federal laws defining our Gods and paying the churches for their actions. This is Hitler; and today's voters do not remember Germany in the 30's.

Michael, I looked forward to my retirement years to work for improvement in our Congress. It was a terrible shock to realize how ill-informed the voters were in both parties.