However, I think that this gives too much power to the state.
The state already has the power to teach facts about the planet and its people.
Why should my kids be forced to take a course which I believe will give them a false set of beliefs or values.
But why would you believe that the course will give them a false set of beliefs? The Religious Education would be 'Catholics believe x about y. Muslims believe z about y. Hindus believe a about y. In fact, Hindus have a ritual surrounding y and the Sikhs wear jewelery that symbolises y.'
That is a true set of beliefs, so there would no compunction to believe any of the beliefs mention - just a compunction to believe that people have those beliefs, which is a compunction to the truth.
On the surface this appears to be an unbiased course on world religions.
Do you have any reason to believe that this this appearance is only surface deep?
What if an atheist were to say that they didn't want their kids taking the course?
I'd say, 'suck it up'. You don't get the option of not going to classes that teach facts about the world: It's compulsory education. It may be judged far too important for harmonious cross-cultural interactions for the populace to remain ignorant of other people's religions.
Imagine a nation where people were ignorant of other religions! I'm sure their misunderstandings would lead to xenophobia, prejudice and the like. That nation would be parochial, probably unable to even find the Middle East on a map, and would find themselves laughed at behind their metaphorical back. Imagine that!
I have no idea why an atheist would object, to be honest.
IMHO it is the parents job to teach religion, values, ethics etc to the kids
It's the parent's job to teach values and their religous views, ethics etc to their kids. But the state has an interest in educating those children in the basic facts about other religions.
As an example: It is the parent's job to say 'contraception is bad, sex is for procreation only, save it for marriage.', but it might be in the State's interest to tell all of its citizens: 'Contraception exists, here is how to use it, here are some associated risks regarding sex and various other important facts you'll need if you are going to regarded by society as being able to give 'informed consent' over anything to do with sex.'
Here in the UK, Religious Education is compulsory. In 'Schools of a religious character' aka Faith Schools, RE is all too often an indoctrination into one particular religion class (how often is difficult to tell, they are not subject to any governmental oversight so they can do as they please). However, in non-Faith Schools, it is mostly an unbiased account of the facts.
I say mostly, both of my RE teachers were Christians. One, an ultra-liberal CofE. The other I never found out the specific denomination, but it was a bit more 'doom and gloom' than the other. So there was some bias in the teachings. The exact things that are taught are biased by the neighbourhood you live, by design. So because we were in a mostly Christian neighbourhood, most of the RE was about Christianity - the different views of different UK based denominations. But there was quite a number of Muslims in the school, so we did quite a bit about that too. I remember eating bitter herbs (horseradish) when we learned about Judaism.
So here, its really mostly education about the local religions along with some information on major world religions. And it seems odd to object to teaching facts about real things. I guess if some of the religious get offended by the existence of atheists, teaching about their points of view would be anathema!
Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.
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