• Paganism to be covered in RE classes in Cornwall
    28 replies, posted
[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2129821/And-double-maths--paganism-Schools-told-witchcraft-druids-RE-syllabus.html[/url] [quote]Cornwall Council has told its schools that pagan beliefs, which include witchcraft, druidism and the worship of ancient gods such as Thor, should be taught alongside Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The requirements are spelled out in an agreed syllabus drawn up by Cornwall’s RE advisory group. It says that from the age of five, children should begin learning about standing stones, such as Stonehenge. At the age of 11, pupils can begin exploring ‘modern paganism and its importance for many in Cornwall’. The syllabus adds that areas of study should include ‘the importance of pre-Christian sites for modern pagans’. And an accompanying guide says that pupils should ‘understand the basic beliefs’ of paganism and suggests children could discuss the difficulties a practising pagan pupil might face in school. But the council’s initiative has dismayed some Christian campaigners, who are alarmed that a religion once regarded as a fringe eccentricity is increasingly gaining official recognition. ... Mike Judge, Christian Institute spokesman, said: ‘Religious education is squeezed already – there’s barely enough time to cover Christianity and the other major religions. 'Introducing paganism is just faddish and has more to do with the political correctness of teachers than the educational needs of children.’ However, Neil Burden, the council’s cabinet member for children’s services, said that the move would give children ‘access to the broad spectrum of religious beliefs’. The council said the teaching of Christianity still accounted for nearly two-thirds of religious education in its schools.[/quote] A good step if you ask me, RE classes should be more of an overview of religions rather than almost completely focused on christianity.
[quote]Mike Judge, Christian Institute spokesman, said: ‘Religious education is squeezed already – there’s barely enough time to cover Christianity and the other major religions. 'Introducing paganism is just faddish and has more to do with the political correctness of teachers than the educational needs of children.’[/quote] :v:
[quote]But the council’s initiative has dismayed some Christian campaigners, who are alarmed that a religion once regarded as a fringe eccentricity is increasingly gaining official recognition.[/quote] And once regarded before that as, y'know, common religious practice.
Pagan religions were a pretty important influence to our culture(s). Perhaps even more so than Christianity.
Pagan religions and traditions have had a great impact on our culture and on the religions we consider major religions today, and learning about them can be more interesting aswell so why not.
Wait, they're going to talk about neopaganism? That's a bit silly. e: muh automerge!
[QUOTE=Kljunas;43546698]Pagan religions were a pretty important influence to our culture(s). Perhaps even more so than Christianity.[/QUOTE] It's uncommon for most people to also know that many of their secular festivals had their origins in Pagan holy days - Halloween in modern times is simply a remade Samhain for instance.
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;43546726]It's uncommon for most people to also know that many of their secular festivals had their origins in Pagan holy days - Halloween in modern times is simply a remade Samhain for instance.[/QUOTE] Even Easter and Christmas are pretty much christianised pagan traditions.
[quote] PUBLISHED: 22:12, 14 April 2012 | UPDATED: 23:19, 14 April 2012[/quote] Little late with this one OP
makes sense, we're surrounded by pagan stuff here in cornwall ([I]represent[/I])
[QUOTE=Kljunas;43546754]Even Easter and Christmas are pretty much christianised pagan traditions.[/QUOTE] That is to say, the Winter and Spring solstices.
To be honest I wonder how they will pull this off. Most pagan religions were written about many centuries after they died out, and any writing that does exist tends to be heavily distorted due to it being written by somebody who was biased towards it. We know very little about ancient religions. The modern day pagan religions (especially those of the druids) have literally nothing to do with ancient pre-christian religions and are the creation of bored intellectuals in the last 300 years. Especially gets annoying when people associate stonehenge with the druids, despite the fact stonehenge was abandoned a thousand years before the first druids even arrived here.
Comparative religion should regard all religions..
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43546950]To be honest I wonder how they will pull this off. Most pagan religions were written about many centuries after they died out, and any writing that does exist tends to be heavily distorted due to it being written by somebody who was biased towards it. We know very little about ancient religions. The modern day pagan religions (especially those of the druids) have literally nothing to do with ancient pre-christian religions and are the creation of bored intellectuals in the last 300 years. Especially gets annoying when people associate stonehenge with the druids, despite the fact stonehenge was abandoned a thousand years before the first druids even arrived here.[/QUOTE] The education is probably not gonna go in depth with the pagan religions, say Christianity is a topic, Islam another, Ethics & Morals is another topic, Paganism will probably be another one and it will just deal with pagan religions on a pretty basic level.
Pagan religion still exist at this day and from what I've noticed, not many people do not know the many pagan religions out there such as Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Voodoo, and other religions that not gain much attention at all.
[QUOTE=darkedone02;43546990]Pagan religion still exist at this day and from what I've noticed, not many people do not know the many pagan religions out there such as Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Voodoo, and other religions that not gain much attention at all.[/QUOTE] Most of them tend to be fads, with the exception of Zoroastrianism or Voodoo, which have long histories among certain populations and are still going strong(ish) in their home areas (Persia and Jamaica). Stuff like Wicca and Druidism is like watching a bunch of confused people cobble together an assortment of weird beliefs and look embarrassing in the process. It's nearly as bad as watching white people practice Buddhism.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43547038]It's nearly as bad as watching white people practice Buddhism. [/QUOTE] you do realize that pretty much anyone can look awkward and stupid while trying to get into buddhism, right it's like saying [QUOTE]It's nearly as bad as watching black people practice Hinduism.[/QUOTE]
Pagans? Didn't we kill those?
[QUOTE=Aphtonites;43547078]you do realize that pretty much anyone can look awkward and stupid while trying to get into buddhism, right[/QUOTE] It's particularly cringeworthy when it happens to be a (relatively) wealthy white person who is "spiritual" but not "religious". This phrase usually translates into "I'm scared of dying but can't be arsed going to church or a mosque and I don't want to give up my material possessions or do a lot of boring reading and philosophy."
Its time to get drunk on wine, have a orgy and sacrifice a lamb to Dionysus.
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;43546688]:v:[/QUOTE] There are plenty of classes on the Abrahamic religions in college, high schools should just give a brief overview over everything so they can see what interests them if they want to study any of it. [editline]1[/editline] Really, high schools should do that with everything anyway, but they quite handedly fail at that too. Look at the hate-maths culture that's now everywhere. There are many different forms of math and we teach it to kids in the most horrid forms in high schools. I absolutely love math and I'm studying data analytics, but high school bored me to death.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43547132]It's particularly cringeworthy when it happens to be a (relatively) wealthy white person who is "spiritual" but not "religious". This phrase usually translates into "I'm scared of dying but can't be arsed going to church or a mosque and I don't want to give up my material possessions or do a lot of boring reading and philosophy."[/QUOTE] Rich spiritual types who support the Dalai Llama are the worst.
[QUOTE=darkedone02;43546990]Pagan religion still exist at this day and from what I've noticed, not many people do not know the many pagan religions out there such as Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Voodoo, and other religions that not gain much attention at all.[/QUOTE] It doesn't "still exist" in the sense that it has survived, it has been recreated by hippies (when it comes to European/western paganism at least). Wicca is a modern invention.
-snip- fucking ninjas
my gods are pleased
[QUOTE=TCB;43546782]makes sense, we're surrounded by pagan stuff here in cornwall ([I]represent[/I])[/QUOTE] damn cornish always getting their scones the wrong way up
The Allfather smiles upon us. I wish we could have this Sweden, while I understand the big focus on Islam and Christianity, there are plenty of other religions and beliefs/myths that are very interesting and should be included in this course. I got to read surprisingly little about the Norse paganism and Vikings overall in school (considering Christianity in Sweden was greatly affected by Norse customs and traditions and still today there are many and apparent traces from it), both when it comes to history and religion courses.
[QUOTE=darkedone02;43546990]Pagan religion still exist at this day and from what I've noticed, not many people do not know the many pagan religions out there such as Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Voodoo, and other religions that not gain much attention at all.[/QUOTE] They unfortunately have a stigma in developing countries. Fictional media often portrays those movements as dark/evil cults.
[QUOTE=darkedone02;43546990]Pagan religion still exist at this day and from what I've noticed, not many people do not know the many pagan religions out there such as Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Voodoo, and other religions that not gain much attention at all.[/QUOTE] I got a friend who's grandma does voodoo. Scary shit, man.
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