VERSION|0.5.1|SUBJECT|Rev Andrew Martlew - Former Army Chaplain |CONTENT|[b]Rating[/b] 4 out of 5 (Highly platitudinous)

[url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130202.html][img=images/2013/02/pic130202.jpg popup=false float=right][/url]Far be it from me to use a privileged media slot with no right of reply to make a clearly self serving political point, but religion should be in the [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21261442]English Baccalaureate[/url]. 

OK, it doesn't include art or music either, but what's really, really important is that it doesn't include religion. It seems to be entirely comprised of so called "useful" subjects. Anyone would think that every culture's mutually contradictory teachings about their Invisible Magic Friends wasn't incredibly useful.

I would particularly welcome some religious education myself. Since leaving the army, where no one ever questions chaplains about their beliefs, I've been visiting primary schools. Let me tell you, some of those 8 year olds ask some [i]very[/i] difficult questions. They're clearly in urgent need of religious instruction, like not asking difficult questions about religion.

As we look around the world today, at the Islamic theocracies, the countries torn apart by religious civil wars, the long term mutual religious animosity, it's clear that any understanding of these conflicts depends upon knowledge of which Invisible Magic Friend they worship. If we happen to point out that our Invisible Magic Friend is the real Invisible Magic Friend and all the other Invisible Magic Friends are just the product of an over active imagination, well where's the harm in that?

We need to appreciate the world and all it's rich religious diversity. Only then can we truly understand why they're all so determined to kill each other.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014pn33]Listen/Read[/url]|CATEGORIES|78,92|IP-ADDRESS|94.168.119.214|DATE|1359792971|CREATEDBY|admin
