I am an atheist.

[formant]

Or they weigh the pros and cons of a better education vs the religion and decide it's easier to undo the religion (or let the child make up their own mind when they're older) than fix a bad education.

As I said earlier, I'm all in favour of parents making the effort to 'fill in the gaps' themselves. No school is going to perfect. Even those schools with the best Ofsted ratings may have just been expected on a good day, with the inspector observing only the competent teachers. Either you have to iron out religious stories presented as facts, or you have to add a bit to what the kids maths, reading, writing, etc. Same thing, the latter is just a lot less hypocritical, I find.

[MyUserName]

Hell has no power over heaven, and so, no, the people in heaven won't feel anything bad for the people in hell. Hard for us to understand how that could be, as it seems callous, but that's the way it is. One alternative some prefer is a universalist approach that in the end everyone is saved. Others think that non-believers merely suffer annihilation, which is what atheists effectively think they get anyway.

So if I was a Christian and my daughter was not then I would be at paradise in heaven, knowing she was being tortured for eternity for her lack of belief - something which by definition is not her choice (you cannot chose whether you deep down believe things) and I would not care?

I would need some pretty powerful brain altering mojo for that, caring for my children is an intrinsic part of me and if you take that away I will no longer be 'me'. Hence I will not be in heaven, a distored version of me will be.

The more I hear about the Christian God the more I think he is horrific.

[NotAllThere]

This inverse correlation is simply down to the fact that God is more merciful to the less intelligent.

[formant]

I will probably send my daughter to the local faith school that is attached to our church. The reasons are that they have very small class sizes and have excellent resources for handling autism. When she is old enough to apply critical thinking and logical observation I have no doubt she will see straight through religion, if she ever asks me I will explain to her why I do not belive it myself.

Excellent resources for handling autism/disability are probably one of the few things I'd say outweigh the faith thing.

[MyUserName]

This inverse correlation is simply down to the fact that God is more merciful to the less intelligent.

Of course, they are his prime audience.

[mudskipper]

Also worth noting if you feel that strongly about it - even at a faith school you can 'opt out' of the religious bits - a few kids at my son's primary school did, although on grounds of following other religions, not on grounds of no religion. Interesting that at his secondary, where there are lots of Asian kids, no-one opts out.

[SupremeSpod]

No you couldn't. Someone who confuses typos with intelligence has got to be thick as a plank.

The point I'm highlighting is the fact that you're so quick to leap in, foaming at the mouth no doubt, to denegrate other people's education in the futile attempt of somehow elevating yourself above the hoi polloi that you bollocks up your spelling.

Slow down, have a little think, then subject us to your tulipe in a readable form.

Just saying, like.

[IR35FanClub]

Ironic then that faith schools are now perceived to offer a better standard of education.

My son goes to a CofE junior school (not cos our beliefs, but becuase we thought it would be better). It just failed its offstead as they were letting the kids idle. As in they get the best intake easily pass the SATs and were coming out just as average. In terms of indexes against average they were getting, 1.1s kids in, and putting them out at 1.0 up to senior school. When given a push they could get 1.2s! The local high school in in the top 10% of the country - so no excuses!

I blame labours obsession with statistics and "teaching to targets", instead of teaching to learn. In an extreme example - say If all the kids already knew how to read and do maths before starting school, they should do calculus and a foreign lanuguage. (But this is now off topic).

[sasguru]

The point I'm highlighting is the fact that you're so quick to leap in, foaming at the mouth no doubt, to denegrate other people's education in the futile attempt of somehow elevating yourself above the hoi polloi that you bollocks up your spelling.

Slow down, have a little think, then subject us to your tulipe in a readable form.

Just saying, like.

My, my, you have a fertile imagination.
Shame about your

[IR35FanClub]

Moving to send your kid to a 'good school' (probably going by little other than the Ofsted report) is quite a lazy approach, I find.

Its a lot cheaper than private schooling - you can sell the house when the kids have grown up and move back somewhere cheaper - or out in the sticks. Plus you can stilkl do all the extra partenting you described.

Why would "strongly athiest" parents send their kids to a "religious school" in the first place? If they do then they're obviously not "that" strongly athiest.

To get them a good education and grounding in morals. I used to go to Sunday school - and although I would say it was my parents that gave me most of my morals, I'd say I'm more likely than the average bloke to give money to charirty and help others (I have volunteered as a credit untion director and energy saving groups in the past).

I think it's going a bit far to say that faith schools indoctrinate the kids (although no doubt some do). My youngest went to a CofE primary - they had a religious assembly a couple of times a week, and did church visits at Easter, Founders day etc, but it certainly wasn't pushed all day every day.

I'd agree with that - they don't ram it down the kids throats, but may discuss the meaning of christmas a little longer than a state school.

Well, no doubt people define indoctrination differently. I do think it's indoctrinating if kids are taught religious stories as facts and if you have later iron that out again as a parent. Children are meant to be able to believe that what they get taught at school is the truth, so when parents are then forced to undermine teachers' credibility, it adds a lot of unnecessary confusion and is likely to make kids challenge their teacher's authority (my older stepdaughter has by now repeatedly gotten into trouble over telling teachers they're "wrong"). Of course there are probably plenty of non-religious parents who don't bother even finding out what religious rubbish their kids get taught, in which case it may be less of an issue.

I do feel as he gets older - I'll be telling him the facts as I see them. He's only 7 and has just been debating with me the mathmatical argument that 10 is not 10 x 1, but only 9 times more - as you already had 1 to start with. He has a point! Why can't he just ask where babies come from?