Losing Religious Identity

Being irreligious, or atheist has its challenges. The main one is to retain sympathy for those who do believe in the presence of a benign spirit that looks over the heavens and the affairs of humankind. Should an alien, outer space presence ever be discovered on another planet, as astronomers and astrophysicists believe is possible, it would be interesting to enquire of them, should communication be facilitated, whether they too believe in a divine spirit, outside nature.

Perhaps it's the agnostics that have it right; no proof, sit on the sidelines and await revelation or absolute denial. Coming or going, they've got it down pat. Those who believe in the divine and that godly spirit's relevance to their lives, its omnipresence, and omniscience, find great comfort in their belief. Like a trusting child knowing its parents are not far, and should something inopportune occur to threaten them, they have but to call, and response will be immediate.

In the best of all possible worlds, those who believe in a divine spirit would themselves behave in a manner to do that entity proud, just as children harbour a wish to make their parents proud of them. In reality, children and parents both understand that each will continue to disappoint the other; the children will not get whatever they demand, and the parents will not receive all the respect they demand.

In Drummondville, Quebec, a number of families have protested a relatively new school course introduced several years ago, on ethics and world religions. These are not parents who reject the presence of the Almighty, but observing Catholics. They take exception that teachers are ascribing, through the course, equal value to comic-book characters and Jesus, and Christmas as a quaint folkloric practise.

In their great good wisdom the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the objectionable course does not infringe their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion. The parents' appeal was dismissed. They wished to have their children exempt from the course. The majority opinion of the court was that the parents failed to demonstrate that the Ethics and Religious Culture Course interfered with the transmission of their faith to their children.

"Parents are free to pass their personal beliefs on to their children if they so wish. However, the early exposure of children to realities that differ from those in their immediate family environment is a fact of life in society. The suggestion that exposing children to a variety of religious facts in itself infringes their religious freedom or that of their parents amounts to a rejection of the multicultural reality of Canadian society and ignores the Quebec government's obligation with regard to public education." Justice Marie Deschamps

The course itself and its universality of application is seen as the completion of secularizing education in the province. And that is a laudable enough achievement; there should be a separation between public education and religion. But the protesting parents have a good and valid argument; their children, at the age of 7, are still being informed about their Catholic spirituality, and to introduce the confusing attributes of an entirely other religion like Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, can only be confusing.

And that is a state of mind that is deeply unsettling to the devout religious adherent, wishing to have their children follow their example and become attached to the same values as their parents. Some of the justices felt that not enough time had been given to the course to adequately evaluate its effects.

"...is it a program that will provide all students with better knowledge of society's diversity and teach them to be open to differences? Or is it an educational tool designed to get religion out of children's heads by taking an essentially agnostic or atheistic approach that denies any theoretical validity to the religious experience and religious values?"

As long as that doubt arises, and it should, logically, such courses should be refined to ensure they are even-handedly neutral, and addressed to children in their teens, sparing younger students the confusion that would surely ensue, having their teachers and their school experience contradict what their parents are imbuing them with in their religious values.

One of the mothers quoted, had an absolutely irreproachable response:

"We live in a secular society and that is good. But as individuals, can we not have solid religious convictions and historic roots? How far do we go in trying to be welcoming and tolerant? Where we lose our own identity?"