Secular schools

Tim Robbins

The Atheist wrote:

LOL.

Now there's an important reason for choosing a school.
Olympic Handball and Badminton won't cut it!

It's one thing the Catholic hierarchy got right actually was Rugby.
The Jesuits, Christian Brothers and Holy Ghousts are pretty much to thank for Ireland having competitive Rugby. In some respects, they manage to subvert the GAA, who of course didn't want any of us playing foreign sports.

Unfortunately, my non denom school never played Rugby but they do now albeit at a development level.

The Catholics are also the reason why Rugby is played in Argentina.

Fallen Seraph

dereko1969 wrote:

eh, where do you get that from?

Indeed, like the atheist said. One must swear an oath to god. Which one can't (honestly) do, unless you believe in him (singular). I suppose perhaps my wording was a bit strong, but it's still certainly an undesirable situation where you must lie to assume the position.

dereko1969

yep have now seen it in bunreacht na heireann :mad: 7 references to G*d in the Constitution, hadn't realised perhaps more importantly that all judges have to swear a similar oath as well as all members of the Council of State. Glad you made that reference, now i've something else to be pissed off about.

Nevyn

Tim Robbins wrote:

Thanks for the link, I checked it and it doesn't work, are you sure it's the right one?

It was live when I looked at it, I did dl a copy at the time I can dig it up i will host it somewhere.

donaghs

Does anyone else notice though that in England religious schools have better exam and discipline results than the standard non-reiligious schools? There could be other factors at work, here including the fact that religious schools can be fee-paying and can have more selective entrance requirements.

As an agnostic who grew up in Ireland, I came to dislike/hate the Catholic Church, and take a fairly dim view of religion in general. But now that the Catholic Church are in retreat and liberalism secularism has won on the major issues, I think a more important issue is - what comes next?

There are many more shades of non-religious people in Ireland today. But not all of them are have made an educated choice to abandon religion and to embrace an alternative moral system. In many cases Catholicism has simply been removed from their lives (or never been part of it), and nothing has filled the moral/spiritual void. For these reasons I'm wary of rushing to remove religion from schools without considering a serious civics/ethics replacement. Its one thing to reject religion because for personal reasons and reading Russell and Dawkins. For most people though I think there is a void there.

From my agnostic point of view, I think multi-denominational schools are a well-intentioned but a badly thought-out idea. Teaching comparative religion is one thing, but all the major religions have irreconcilable differences - can they all be part of a school ethos?

Tim Robbins

donaghs wrote:

From my agnostic point of view, I think multi-denominational schools are a well-intentioned but a badly thought-out idea. Teaching comparative religion is one thing, but all the major religions have irreconcilable differences - can they all be part of a school ethos?

I think pointing out to kids that religions have irreconcilible differences is a brilliant idea. It's the reality and the truth. Why hide it?

Zillah

Sangre wrote:

Well unless we start seeing some decent, rugby playing secular schools its gonna be religious schools all the way for my kids!

Wan the 'nure?