Comments on: Catholicism: Is there a place in schools for it? – by Alice Kinsella

By: John McMahon

John McMahon — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:31:54 +0000

The RC Church controls only the schools which it owns. The writer is being less than honest in trying to depict the property of the Catholic Church as the property of the State. When she attended a Catholic school, she was a guest of the RC church and of the RC people of the neighbourhood. Why did she not behave as a courteous guest should?

Separation of church and state does not call into question the right of Catholics to control the education of their children. There are Catholic schools in France and in the USA.

The writer is less than honest when she states that the school was maintained by non-denominational taxpayers. She insinuates that Catholics do not pay tax.
She also seems to be questining the right of Catholic schools to teach Catholicism. And seems to think that the Catholic church is responsible for there being no non-Catholic schools within easy reach of her home. Her anti-Catholic rant fails to acknowledge that it is for the parents of children to decide what control (if any) the Catholic, or any other church, shall have over the education of their children. And she refuses to acknowledge that the Catholic church has a right to preach what it wants to preach about Gays, lesbians or anything else. From her rant, one could get the impression that Catholic schools are in the habit of sending out snatch squads to grab the children of non-Catholics from the streets and drag them kicking and screaming to be “indoctrinated” in a Catholic school.

By: Alice K

Alice K — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:37:15 +0000

BK,
Hi, I wrote this, and yes we were told 2 of those 3, the third is obvious exageration but not so far from what is true for many. It’s humorous as well as serious. It’s obvious through the tone of the article. It’s not a lie as it’s quite plainly comic relief.
What a life one would lead if you had to take every single thing literally.

By: Sven

Sven — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:06:08 +0000

One major flaw in the argument though… About Americans being all the more accepting…

But yes I understand your outrage, and I too abhored having to sit through nonsensical prattle for the majority of my early education (and indeed college as I studied in Milltowns now defunct philosophy department). On the positive side, however, this religious onslaught has made me all the more outspoken and aggressive on the issue. It’s the risk that religions don’t realise they run – by forcing themselves upon us they are radicalising generations into neo-Neitzsches (I mean the blasphemy law has finally allowed the atheists of this country to unite and actually get media attention from it).

So maybe it’s a good thing that schools are falling short of their promised inclusion? Maybe this is allowing us to not be stifled in the beliefs that we’re all happy and wonderful and everything is good. Maybe, just maybe, this extra push towards dissention is just what’s needed for our generations to get up and make the status quo worth accepting?

By: Tanya

Tanya — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:12:03 +0000

i am a member of VOY and it is up on our website not just on here. its very well written and its goood 2 c that it was published on here

By: BK

BK — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:00:34 +0000

Were you really told this:

“…dinosaurs didn’t exist, babies are gifts from god found in fields, every time you masturbate god kills a kitten, the usual” ?

Did the priest really tell you that “god kills a kitten” when masturbate?
I don’t think so.
It’s hard to take an article seriously that contains such an obvious lie…

By: David

David — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:36:26 +0000

This is a great article, but it’s preaching to the choir (pardon the pun) unless it is published somewhere other than on an atheist website. I hope that this appears either in print or online somewhere else, for non-atheists to read.