In Britain, the British Humanists sent a “Young Atheists Handbook” to schools, in response to bible hand-outs to schoolchildren.
“A spokesperson for the BHA said it had received "loads of lovely responses", but that a couple of Catholic schools had said they would dispose of the book if the Association didn't provide a stamped addressed envelope to return it. .
"Which we think is a shame, as we only sent the books to state schools and we think all such schools should want their young people to be exposed to a variety of views and to make their own minds up in a spirit of free inquiry," said Sara Passmore, the BHA's head of education.” .
I agree with this move by the British Humanists, with the caveat that rebuttal hand-outs be provided as well. There is no Atheist definition of Good, and the Humanists have concocted a perverse definition which they have reconcocted for the purpose of obscurantism over the past 80 years.
The bible is an inadequate tool for children. It is filled with nuance and metaphor. However, children can be convinced by logic, and that is the approach to falsifying Atheism that would be most useful. A simple pamphlet asking, "Is Atheism True?" and asking for definite proof that "there is no God", and proof that the mind came out of minerals might suffice to allow children to question Atheism.
3 comments:
Stan, easy. I actually had to go look up a word this time. You couldn't have found something besides 'obscurantism'. I thought you'd run through all the '-isms', but it looks like I missed one!
I don't think it a good idea to take these 'debates' to the schools. The kiddles are not mature enough, most of them, to absorb and make a decision in 'the spirit of free inquiry'. They are old enough to respond to propaganda that flatters their adolescent preconceptions. I think the Humanists know that this is the point at which they are most vulnerable - old enough to rebel, but not yet of an age to reason. It's perfect, what BattleTech players call the 'sweet spot'.
Of course, they claim they are only battling against theistic propaganda. It's only fair they should get their turn. Of course, they stop talking about fairness the second they believe they have a leg up. Some of them are so arrogant, they cannot wait to crow about it and the mask is off before they have consolidated their position.
Such is their contempt for other selves. Such is their downfall. Supervillians capable of building deathrays no one else can duplicate always seem to hire stupid henchmen and engage in the dumbest, most self-defeating behavior you can imagine.
There are many reasons given for this, but the bottom line is that it's a trope. And it is a trope because it's true. In real life, reason is distorted and destroyed by ego, which is never satisfied.
Even kids understand that. I think if there were any sort of back and forth at the school level (and there already is, if my son's former curriculum was any indicator), this would be a way to address it.
We can talk about Nothing all we like. But kids want examples from their own lives to drive the point home. Adults too, I suppose. Which is why Lewis was so pursuasive when it came to his writing.
I think the British humanists are emulating their predecessors of the Soviet era,known as the League of Militant Atheists
They would hand out anti-religious text books in schools and universities,anti-religious flyers on the streets and broadcast their propoganda on the radio.There's even an anti-religious museum in Russia to this day.
@atehistcrimes: and we know how the Soviets wound up. I don't think it was coincidence that they did that propagandizing - and then expected things from their own people that could only be supplied by the sort of thinking they were busy choking off.
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