In an open letter to Estelle Morris, Richard Dawkins calls on the Government
to think again about funding yet more divisive faith schools
Children must choose their own beliefs
Dear secretary of state,
The Government has decided, reasonably enough, that heredity is no basis for
membership of Parliament, and the hereditary peers are either gone or on their
way. Yet, in the very same year, you propose increasing the number of faith
schools. Having disavowed the hereditary principle for membership of
Parliament, you seem hell-bent on promoting the hereditary principle for the
transmission of beliefs and opinions. For that is precisely what religions
are: hereditary beliefs and opinions. To quote the headline of a fine article
in the Guardian last week by the Reverend Don Cupitt: 'We need to make a clean
break with heritage religion and create something better suited to our own
time.'
Full text at:
http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,625743,00.html
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Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment, malevolent AI,
non-sensory experience, SETI
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
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