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From: mats@dual.UUCP (Mats Wichmann)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Prayer in schools and WHY
Message-ID: <274@dual.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-Feb-84 04:01:10 EST
Article-I.D.: dual.274
Posted: Mon Feb 13 04:01:10 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Feb-84 01:37:37 EST
References: <198@mi-eec.UUCP> <623@ihuxp.UUCP> <270@dual.UUCP>
Organization: Dual Systems, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 59

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	Having just read some of the articles concerning religious
	instruction in schools, and in particular my co-worker Erik
	Fair's response, I must say that I have learned something.
	As a confirmed, life-long atheist, I have always felt that
	religion had no place in the school system. Our constitution
	guaranteed religious freedom, presumably including the
	right not to practise a religion at all. How are my rights
	being upheld if I am being forced to study a particular
	religion??? The first thing I objected to was having to
	say the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of every school
	day (something the `progressive' Berkeley school system
	discontinued rather early on in my life). I have no particular
	objection to pledging allagiance to this country (this is
	where I have spent my entire life, after all, I WANT it to continue),
	or even its flag (although that is somewhat of a contrived
	symbol), but I object to the reference to God in the Pledge,
	as if he were taken for granted. Another thing that bothered
	me early on was film and television depictions of court trials -
	you know, Perry Mason and all: each person who took the witness 
	stand swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
	truth, `so help me God'. I used to ask why I should swear by something 
	I didn't believe in, and what such an oath would mean (still do 
	question this, for that matter). 

	So much for background. I still believe (or refuse to believe)
	in the same things as before, although the radical days of my
	early youth in Berkeley (days when we felt that displaying a
	Cuban flag on flag day seemed like an appropriate gesture to many of
	us) are in the past. But I now feel that religion has a part in the 
	school system of this country. The schools are supposed to prepare 
	you for the rest of your life; religion is such a large part of so 
	many people's lives that to ignore it is a mistake. But I feel that 
	it is very important for the schools not to present any one view, 
	whether it be religious or non-religious, as being correct. It is 
	very valuable for each youngster to have explained to him/her/it what 
	the various major religions of the world are about, and especially how 
	they influence what is happening in the world today, as well as their 
	historical implications. To present any one view as correct, whether
	it be evolutionist, creatonist, or any other, is imposing a judgement
	or the youngster that no individual should have the right to do. If
	we were able to provide instruction about religion in the manner
	I have described, it would be a very valuable part of the learning
	experience for the children attending school in this country, or, in
	fact, anyplace on the face of the globe. But from what I have seen, 
	this cannot be in the current climate in this country. Somebody or
	other is always trying to impose his will on as many people as possible,
	be it Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, or whoever. Following someone whose
	two main attributes seem to be a tremendous personality and a burning
	need to line his own pockets seems extremely shortsighted. But as
	the saying goes, `There is none so blind as he who will not see'. Let
	us not encourage blindness in our children by forcefeeding one
	doctrine or another down their throats to the exclusion of all others.


	    Mats Wichmann
	    Dual Systems
	    {ucbvax,amd70,ihnp4,cbosgd,decwrl,fortune}!dual!mats