Peter Jensen – religious bigot 13 Apr 2010 Archbishop Peter Jensen is living proof of the old saw that religion should be a private matter. Every time he opens his mouth in public, he just exposes his bigotry against the nonreligious even further. Now he is saying that teaching ethics to children should be stopped because it will make public schools “noninclusive”. By which he means that it will mean children will no longer require the Anglican church as the foundation for moral behaviours. This, of course, worries him the way generic pharmaceuticals worries Glaxo-Smith-Kline. His market share is under attack. Secular ethics appears to him to be a personal attack, or at least an attack on his deity. To sensible people who live in the real world, of course, it means teaching children to think about what is right and wrong. This is, it seems, exclusionary of those who think that thinking about right and wrong is a Bad Thing (I wonder if it occurs to them to ask why?). God forbid that we teach children to think for themselves and not rely on, say, the authority of Anglican Archbishops… Can you say “special pleading”, children? I knew you could… Ethics and Moral Philosophy Philosophy Politics Religion
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I was one of the first students in Germany in 1985 to be able to attend an ethics class instead of religion class, it was extremely instructive and beneficial to me, kudos to the teacher also. I can’t believe Australia ,alredy 25 years late to the party, would have such a bigoted small-minded idiotic response, not only by bishops, that’s somewhat to be expected, but also by politicians .
It seems to be the season for this sort of slightly scary weirdness from bishops: us British Anglicans are having to put up with bizarre statements from George Carey [1] on who should judge cases of alleged discrimination against Christians in the UK, since we’re apparently an ‘oppressed minority’. It’d be laughable if it wasn’t connected with some worrying political manoeuvring. (I’ve always found Jenson to be somewhat terrifying, to be honest. I was under the impression that the Diocese of Sydney are rather… *unusual* as far as Australian Anglicans go, but not being Australian it’s entirely possible that I’m mistaken or out of date.) [1] Who appears to have forgotten that he’s no longer Archbishop of Canterbury…
His market share is under attack. Secular ethics appears to him to be a personal attack, or at least an attack on his deity. And to some extent, he’s right. The more the secular state and the private sector provide for the people, the less there is for churches to do. Eventually it reaches the point where church has nothing to offer but silly rituals and unbelievable stories, and people stop going. If the church isn’t the source of something useful, people have little motivation to go. Of course, I think that’s a good thing.
Morals, if not imbued by the creator, are garnered either culturally, or evolutinarily, or both. Are there data on the origin of morality?
I listened to interview with Peter Jensen yesterday on ABC Radio. He was promoting that since religion had been taught in schools since the late 1800s in a “protected zone”, i.e. without educational alternatives, we should continue that way. I was shocked to know that religious education in government run schools was given such priority and protection. Sure, if we had a comparative religion class it would be different but classes taught by, mostly, untrained staff in an unmonitored environment should not be supported. The alternatives for students seemed to range from colouring pictures and watching Sponge Bob Square Pants to library study. Library study was frowned upon because it would give those students who refrained from attending scripture classes an advantage. I went to a catholic school where religion was compulsory. I must say again how shocked I am that we have government support to indoctrinate children with religion at school when it should be a private matter. Oh, how I wish we had separation of church and state.
Are you quite sure that separation of church and state is what you want? Some of us tried writing it into our very Constitution and found that it still doesn’t work very well. Maybe the English way really is best: pretend you don’t have separation.
I think the issue is not constitutional, but a matter of social action: when the religious get too closely involved in state matters, kick ’em back and tell them to stick to their last.
A further statement by Jensen http://www.youthworks.net/index.php?s=&c=24&d=&e=&f=&g=&a=1225&w=7003&r=Y
check out this, too. drool. The Evolution of Morality (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology) (Paperback) ~ Richard Joyce (Author)
I’ll enjoy the spectacle of the Archbishop, seized by an unaccsustomed attack of reason, going on a campaign to ban The Abolition of Man and many heretical works by the same author. Why was Lewis never excommunicated for insisting that you could be virtuous without the Revealed Doctrine, and even talking of ethics using a name (“the Tao”) that’s CHINESE? Having won that battle (like a snowball in Hell, of course) he will proceed to drop the four Cardinal so-called Virtues from the curriculum. No sense teaching the kind of stuff that a virtuous pagan is supposed to understand. But will Australia miss temperance, courage, prudence, and justice? Not the first one, surely. (We tried that experiment once over here in the States, and sure enough, you’re right about it: bad idea.)
Dang, I was brought up without gods, realized I was an atheist without any outside help, when I compare myself against “generally accepted ethical standards” I know I measure up, and yet I really like SpongeBob SquarePants.