JON T.
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The woods are lovely, dark and deep. | Jonathan D. Thompson
But I have promises to keep, | jthomps1@d.umn.edu
And miles to go before I sleep, | http://www.d.umn.edu/~jthomps1
And miles to go before I sleep. |
Robert Frost |
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Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public
school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday Schools,
meeting for an hour once a week,and teaching only a fraction of the
children do to stem the tide of a five-day program of Humanistic teaching?
Charles Francis Potter
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On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Derek McLarnen wrote:
> I have been involved in debates here a year or more ago, but for those
> who don't remember me, I'll post a short bio.
>
> My name is Derek McLarnen. I live in Canberra, Australia. I am 41 years
> old, married with 5 children and work as a telecommunications
> consultant. While a nominal Anglican (Episcopalian is the US equivalent,
> I think) and mostly living by Christian ethics, I classify myself as an
> agnostic philosophically (since I don't know whether any deities exist),
> and as an atheist for practical purposes (since I live as though no
> deities exist). Technically, I suppose I could classify myself as a
> modernist, but I don't see a compelling reason to do so. I have a strong
> interest in exploring the areas where religion and science intersect,
> but I am an amateur in these disciplines, not a professional (unless
> someone can find me a place where religion intersects with
> telecommunications theory or practice).
>
> Jon Thompson quoted:
>
> > __________________________________________________________________________
> >
> > Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American
> > public
> > school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday Schools,
> > meeting for an hour once a week,and teaching only a fraction of the
> > children do to stem the tide of a five-day program of Humanistic
> > teaching?
> > Charles Francis
> > Potter
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________________
>
> My short answer is "Nothing!". And I would also suggest that American
> public schools, if Australian public schools are any guide, have moved
> away from "humanism" to become strong proponents of "ecoism" (a system
> of values based on sound ecologically sustainable principles). And if
> Christians thought the fight against secular humanism was a difficult
> one, the fight against ecoism (both secular and new-age variants) will
> make it look easy.
>
> However, this quote of Potter's does raise a number of questions worthy
> of debate.
>
> Is education really the most powerful ally of humanism, or indeed an
> ally of any type of -ism, or is Potter's claim merely rhetoric?
>
> Are American public schools really schools of humanism or even ecoism?
> >From what we hear of them in Australia, they are schools of
> individualism at best, or nihilism at worst.
>
> Given that for much of the last 1600 years, education in the western
> world was dominated by theistic, specifically Christian, institutions,
> what has caused educational institutions to distance themselves from
> Christian control and influence as soon as it became politically and
> economically feasible to do so?
>
> If one or more of the many theisms continue to have intrinsic value, why
> has "Education" chosen after so many successful centuries of symbiosis,
> to reject any role for theism in its programs?
>
> If an education system is to endorse a system of theism, it can only
> credibly endorse ONE, since few theisms cope well with pluralism. How is
> an education system to determine which theism to endorse? In the past it
> would appear that the decision was based on state law, state preference
> or on the dominant theism of the parents of the students. Are these
> valid methods of selecting a theism? If not, how should an educational
> system select its preferred theism?
>
> This quote appears to assume that it would be a good thing if "the tide
> of a five-day program of Humanistic teaching" could be stemmed. I notice
> this assumption among many Christians, but mostly evangelicals. They
> appear to very rarely, if ever, question the worth of their belief
> system, or their perception of the lack of worth in other belief
> systems. They appear not to notice that the rest of the world,
> particularly the western world, is putting a great deal of intellectual
> effort into questioning all belief systems.
>
> Is Potter's assumption, that it would be a good thing if "the tide of a
> five-day program of Humanistic teaching" could be stemmed, a universally
> valid assumption? Or is it only valid for supernaturalists? It is
> difficult to argue with the evidence that humans exist. On the other
> hand, gods or other supernatural entities have not been shown to be more
> than hypotheses.
>
> It should be remembered that, in the western world, we have tried the
> five-day program of Christian teaching over many centuries. Surely it
> wasn't rejected without serious consideration!
>
> While schools have children for about 30 hours per week, and Sunday
> schools have children for about 1 hour per week, the home/community has
> children for about 67 waking hours per week (assuming 10 hours sleep per
> night). On that basis I would suggest that the real problem for
> proponents of the various theisms is not that they have lost the
> respect/devotion of the educational system, but that they have lost the
> respect/devotion of the wider community.
>
> The fact is that, with the exception of a number of geographical
> regions, the western world has largely, in fact if not yet in name,
> moved beyond devoted support for the theisms. I don't expect that it
> will return willingly.
>
> Regards
>
> Derek
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
> | Derek McLarnen | dmclarne@pcug.org.au |
> | Melba ACT | derek.mclarnen@telstra.com.au |
> | Australia | |
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
>
>