Sir, – Joe Humphreys makes some interesting observations about the 2½ hours a week of national school time spent on what he terms faith formation ("Church has no reason to fear secularism", Rite & Reason, February 23rd). His main contention seems to be that our taxes pay for this.
Having just overseen the education of two children in Irish Catholic national schools, I would like to reassure Joe Humphreys that there was very little faith formation; that in what passed as religious education our children’s artistic, musical, linguistic, philosophical, literacy and numeracy skills were greatly enhanced; that the church provided the land and buildings in which this and all secular education took place; and that parents paid taxes with which staff were paid.
Perhaps your columnist should examine the reality of Catholic education in Northern Ireland (or in Britain), where Catholic schools are shown to provide better results than socially and economically comparable secular schools, and this despite the fact that Catholic schools devote a similar amount of curriculum time to religious education as happens in Irish schools. – Yours, etc,
ALAN WHELAN,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.
A chara, – Fr Eamonn Conway (February 24th) misses the point.
Imagine an Ireland where the state educated all students about all subjects, including religion, but left faith formation to the parent and churches to conduct at their own expense. His church could then dedicate its dwindling clergy to a core group of parents who want their children to inherit the faith or who were willing to fund a Catholic school with a Catholic ethos.
The majority of children could then spend their core school hours learning facts and skills that have an evolved basis in the modern world and supplement them after school with religious training, if that was their parents’ wish.
Fr Conway should have the courage to test whether religious affiliation in Ireland reflects real religious faith or simply the power of the state to fund religious proselytising in 96 per cent of state schools. – Is mise,
BRIAN O’REILLY,
Northport, New York.
Sir, – I would like to take Fr Eamonn Conway up on one point.
Fr Conway takes issue with the implication that “no particular religion is true”. I would argue that all the world religions cannot all be correct, but they could all be mistaken.
In order to hold beliefs which cannot be falsified, are contradicted by others beliefs or by the best available evidence, one requires faith. American philosopher Peter Boghossian plainly defines faith as “pretending to know things we don’t know”. If we accept that definition, is using faith the best way to get to the truth? Is it wise that we build our education system on faith (read “pretending to know things we don’t know”)? Or would it be better to build an education system based on reason and evidence? – Yours, etc,
ASHLEY BROOKER,
Balbriggan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – Fr Eamonn Conway challenges Joe Humphreys on the proposed “Education about Religions and Beliefs and Ethics” course. Fr Conway states that “it seeks to impose one belief system, namely that of secular liberalism”. This is misleading. To quote the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the proposed new course “helps pupils to know about and to understand the cultural heritage of the major forms of religion, belief traditions and world views which have been embraced by humankind”. I suggest, as your columnist did, that people should go online and read the proposal for themselves. – Yours, etc,
MARY FRIEL,
Clonsilla, Dublin 15.
Sir, – Fr Eamonn Conway argues that removing faith formation from state-funded schools is not liberal. I’m afraid I don’t see how retaining it would be any more so. Having a single religion’s ethos as overwhelmingly dominant is inherently exclusionary. Certainly there are some arrangements made with regard to children of other faiths and none but these only serve to further divide them from their peers.
To be inclusive, state-funded schools need to adopt a secular approach and teach about all faiths without either showing preference for or advocating against any particular one. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN CLASBY,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.