RELIGION IN SCHOOLS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 290, 12 January 1945, Page 5

RELIGION IN SCHOOLS

| Sir-A.M.R. contends that "the people who own the schools" should decide this question, and he quotes "the actively pro-religious minority" and "the passive pro-religious majority" in support of this contention. He evidently believes in majority rule, but the general understanding is that the majority settled this question long ago, and thus we have what is called "secular schools." Ministers of all denominations are always bewailing the sparse attendance at church on Sundays, and we are given to understand that barely 10 per cent of the people attend regularly, If this gives the true picture then such a small proportion as 10 per cent do not possess the right to demand that religion be taught in schools. There is no virtue in majority rule, on the contrary, it is a pernicious rule, the only democratic way is proportional representation. A referendum might be suggested, but no "first past the post" solution is just or stable, and a three-fifths majority should at least be insisted on. Under our system of secular schools it would be superfluous for the training college and university to include the subject of religion for prospective teachers, and -‘"A.M.R." underestimates the difficulties involved. Religion is not a science, as it depends largely on. supernaturalism for its authority, and it cannot be taught like chemistry. Because of its miraculous claims, the Bible cannot be treated as history. We all know that Henry VIII. was a rascal, but after all, it does not matter; whether history gives us the correct story, it will make no difference to us. This is not so with the history of the Bible, where an infallible claim is made.

When I attended school, religion was taught, and when the hour for religious instruction arrived, many of us found ourselves outside in the playground, because our parents objected to the brand of religion taught. To make up for nonattendance at religious instruction we had to take poetry in its place, and when the weather was not favourable, we could remain in the classroom, although treated as absent. All the fundamentalists, including Roman Catholics, were in this dissenting group, and for different reasons. Apart from religious instruction we had also Bible reading, treated gs an ordinary lesson, when all denominations joined in, there being no objection so long as no interpretation of religion was forthcoming. Bible reading ought to be the solution for all, but to many this has also its objections.

ARGOSY

(Te Awamutu).