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God is being edited out of religious education lessons in schools for fear that His presence might bore children.
A study at Exeter University found that biblical accounts of the Good Samaritan, David and Goliath and Joseph were taught as ethical stories, with no reference to God, in increasingly secular classes on religion.
Teachers said that they were reluctant to introduce theology because they did not believe in God or feared that constant references to Him would put off children or be seen as indoctrination.
The study, which was commissioned by the Bible Society, incorporates three separate pieces of research into pupils’ and teachers’ attitudes to RE lessons.
More than 1,000 children in nine secondary schools in the South-West, the Midlands and the North-East of England were asked to name and describe a bible story and to state its meaning.
Only one in five children gave what researchers classed as a theological response that mentioned God. The vast majority gave secular, ethical answers.
One 14-year-old who chose the “feeding of the 5,000” said its message was “don’t take things for granted and share things”.
Another said that the story of David and Goliath meant that “even when the odds are stacked against you, you can still come out on top”, while a 15-year-old girl said that the Nativity signified “that the birth of a newborn baby is the best gift of all”. Despite such apparent lack of religious understanding, the number of teenagers who took a GCSE in RE last year rose seven per cent to 141,037, making it one of the fastest growing subjects.
Prof Terence Copley, who led the study, said that observations of RE lessons showed that stories such as Joseph were told without any of the 50 references to God that appear in the Hebrew Bible narrative.
Whole article here:
news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/20/ngod20.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/20/ixhome.html
A study at Exeter University found that biblical accounts of the Good Samaritan, David and Goliath and Joseph were taught as ethical stories, with no reference to God, in increasingly secular classes on religion.
Teachers said that they were reluctant to introduce theology because they did not believe in God or feared that constant references to Him would put off children or be seen as indoctrination.
The study, which was commissioned by the Bible Society, incorporates three separate pieces of research into pupils’ and teachers’ attitudes to RE lessons.
More than 1,000 children in nine secondary schools in the South-West, the Midlands and the North-East of England were asked to name and describe a bible story and to state its meaning.
Only one in five children gave what researchers classed as a theological response that mentioned God. The vast majority gave secular, ethical answers.
One 14-year-old who chose the “feeding of the 5,000” said its message was “don’t take things for granted and share things”.
Another said that the story of David and Goliath meant that “even when the odds are stacked against you, you can still come out on top”, while a 15-year-old girl said that the Nativity signified “that the birth of a newborn baby is the best gift of all”. Despite such apparent lack of religious understanding, the number of teenagers who took a GCSE in RE last year rose seven per cent to 141,037, making it one of the fastest growing subjects.
Prof Terence Copley, who led the study, said that observations of RE lessons showed that stories such as Joseph were told without any of the 50 references to God that appear in the Hebrew Bible narrative.
Whole article here:
news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/20/ngod20.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/20/ixhome.html
