The rise of faith schools

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Most of the institutions of Europe and America were founded in a Christian context and in fact served a Christian worldview, so I have no problem with government-funded Christian schools.

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OK, but do you have a problem with the following?Most of the institutions of The Middle East were founded in a Islamic context and in fact served a Islamic worldview, so I have no problem with government-funded Islamic schools.

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2. Faith-based schools are more likely to produce honest, ethical, law-abiding citizens (this is based on what peer pressure is exposed to the children)

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So, this is supported by what evidence, exactly?

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Other religions are taught in many Christian schools as well. I know that we spent many years studying Judaism, Islam, Taoism, the writings of teachers like the Buddha, Mencius, Confucius and the different philosopies and philosophers. We had to build the case for Atheism, and also for Agnosticism. Our beliefs were challenged, and tempered.

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My niece's Catholic middle school taught a world religions class, and she enjoyed it very much.

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I think the value of faith-based education in generating quality human beings outweighs my objections.

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Again, any particular evidence you have to support this assertion?

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I am not sure they were ever that good.

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I am.Network TV news used to actually be about investigative journalism.Edward R. Murrow? Walter Kronkite?Now they are just about making money.

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In any case, they adapted to the business environment.

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Right.That's why the best informed people are the ones listening to non-profit outlets like NPR.

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But guess what? More competition has led to more balance (witness internet, Fox News and radio talk shows to get out the news and analyze what is happening).

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Er, no.Mainstream TV news is far, far, far more conservative and lacking in real content and analysis than ever before.

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I base that claim on:
1. My own anecdotal evidence with people of faith

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Anecdotal evidence isn't good enough to base national policy upon.

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2. From what police officers have told me about the profile of the types of people that commit crime and who are in the jails

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...which is more personal anecdotal evidence.

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3. Common sense ... they teach good values and have an incentive not to be selfish

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...which is just your personal opinion.If what you are saying is true, though, shouldn't we find a scarcity of religiously-raised people in our prisons?

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Good joke. Don't let the low monotone voices fool you. They are hardly non-biased. See the list above.

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It's not a joke, it's fact.It has been consistently shown through independent research that people who listen to NPR are better informed and hold fewer falsse ideas and misconceptions about various subjects than those who listen to, say FOX News.

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Nonsense about your claim as "conservative". All you need to do to disprove your statement is to listen to Rush Limbaugh and see what the news people did not report, or how biased they were in reporting it. Regardless of what you may think of him, Rush does a good job of exposing media bias.

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Rush limbaugh is not a journalist, he's an "entertainer". And, he lies and distorts. Have you ever fact-checked what he says? I have.

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Time to turn the table.
What is your source of information that faith-based schools produce worse kids than public education? (since you want to establish a blanket national policy)

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I never said they did.You DID claim, however, that faith-based schools do produce better kids than non-faith based schools, so what I an asking you for is the research or statistics or analysis which supports it.If you only have your claim without any kind of data or stats to back it up, you are just claiming something without actually knowing if it has any basis in reality.It's just an assumption or belief or hunch on your part, and as such, I have no obligation to accept it as fact.I am perfectly willing to accept evidence that faith-based schools turn out better citizens, but you have to provide some.

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but there is clearly a liberal bias in the ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR sources.

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Then why don't they ever show the caskets of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan?

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There is a separation of church and state and atheists like myself should not have to pay even more taxes that support things we don't believe in and find ridiculous.

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I do not believe in corporate welfare and I find it ridiculous, but I pay taxes to support it anyway.Not believing in something and finding it ridiculous is not an adequate reason to not having to pay your taxes to support something.Being agfainst the Constitution is the reason to not have to pay for it.

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Similarly, the schools don't seem to have a good curriculum, because the teachers in many cases don't understand and miscommunicate fundamental principles. This is verified by the polls that show that most kids don't buy it. If we can't get the public schools to teach this right, then how can you expect the Faith-based schools to teach a fact-based course?

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Maybe should outsource the teaching to another country and save money to boot.

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Maybe we should put our money where our mouths are and make public school funding equitable and not based upon something silly like property taxes.

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Whether it's evolution, religion, politics, or a legal case:
No matter what the subject is, if one side presents the case, you should not expect a fair presentation of the other side's view (on average...Jar has an exception, but I don't think it would be the predominant case).

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Attorneys are paid to win cases, not find the truth. Politics is about power, and religion is about faith in things unseen.Religion, politics, and legal argument are all ways of thinking or systems that are fundamentally different from, and frequently diametrically opposed to, the scientific method.The scientific method, by definition, invites informed criticism as a means to improve itself.