Tony Blair is wrong: teaching children to respect religion isn’t the answer to radicalisation

[cbayer]

http://theconversation.com/tony-blair-is-wrong-teaching-children-to-respect-religion-isnt-the-answer-to-radicalisation-33037

16 October 2014, 6.26am BST


Moved with the spirit. Dominic Lipinski/PA Archive

At a time of increasing concern about religious radicalisation, Tony Blair has issued a call for school children to be taught to respect religion. But he’s got it wrong on all counts: it’s literacy about religion that our children need, not blanket respect for it.

Respect per se cannot provide children with the skills they need to navigate their relationships with each other, or in the wider world outside of the school gates. And in any case, not all ideas are worthy of respect.

There are many different religious beliefs practiced in the UK alone, let alone globally; even interfaith organisations which include more than just the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism), or the “top five” religions (adding Hinduism and Buddhism) still exclude some religious groups such as the Druids. If we’re to teach our children to respect religions, we first need to figure out who decides which religions to “respect” with our attention – and which we can afford to overlook.

This isn’t a simple problem to solve, as the UK’s Supreme Court showed in 2013 when it reversed an earlier decision that Scientology chapels were not religious places of worship. Given the level of animosity directed towards Scientologists, we can imagine that the decision to teach their beliefs and the need to respect them in schools would hardly be met with universal approval.

more at link

[edhopper]

1. He is wrong

we should teach children critical thinking and to rationally question everything.
We can respect the rights of people to believe without leaving them unchallenged.

[cbayer]

2. And that is pretty much the author's point.

[edhopper]

3. yeah

I was concurring.

"Tony Blair, pretty much wrong about everything, a man whose faith has led him astray"

He is the anti-Jimmy Carter, a former leader and a man of faith who can still see things clearly and with compassion.

Blair has been blinded by his faith, an major part of his support for the Iraq War as well.

[cbayer]

4. I am also not a fan and I think he put this very poorly.

[rug]

5. He looks like Howdy Doody in that picture.

[cbayer]

6. Yep and it was probably chosen for just that reason.

[DetlefK]

7. Problem: You can't respect all religions all of the time.

One religion says "X", another religion says "not X". What do you do? You cannot reason with religion and reconcile this through negotiation, because compromise would mean that your religion is at least partially false.

And what happens once "X" collides with the law or some other moral code? What happens when "X" contradicts fact? Which one gets the preference?

[cbayer]

8. Again, that is the point the author makes. He makes

the case for literacy not respect.