Families who don't believe in God are being failed by Scotland's education system, it was claimed yesterday.
The Humanist Society of Scotland (HSS) warned that both lessons and events such as assemblies in non-denominational schools were largely directed at those who had a Christian faith.
This Saturday, the society will launch an education campaign, founded on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which calls for the humanist view to be more widely recognised.
The HSS will publish new curriculum material for religious and moral education lessons as well as advice to schools and parents about balancing Christian assemblies and visits from ministers with secular alternatives.
Bob McKay, education officer with the HSS, said: "The convention affirms the right of all children to an education that respects both their own cultural values and those of others.
"In Scotland, all parents have the right to raise their children in the religion of their choice, and send them to school in the expectation that their faith will be respected - which is as it should be.
"But no provision of any kind is made for the one in three Scots who have no religious belief. At present, all they can do is ask that their children be withdrawn or excluded from religious activities, which is quite simply inadequate and unfair."
Mr McKay said the HSS wanted equal respect for convictions of humanists and a recognition of the legitimacy of their ethical stance.
Novelist Christopher Brookmyre yesterday lent his support to the campaign, but courted controversy by referring to the Holy Trinity.
"Children necessarily must invest the sincerest trust in what their teachers tell them. Thus the same institution that tells them one plus one equals two should not then be telling them that three persons add up to one God," he said.
Michael McGrath, director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, said: "Children in all schools in Scotland are taught to respect the beliefs, cultures and traditions of all the great world faiths. They also learn to respect all people, whether they subscribe to a religious tradition or not.
"It is unfortunate that some representatives of other - non-religious - stances seek to define their own views by disparaging the religious beliefs of others, such as the Mystery of the Trinity. It is also insulting to people of faith to see religion characterised as a form of imprisonment' from which children must be set free. This kind of language hardly helps to build a more tolerant and respectful society."
Morag Mylne, convener of the Church of Scotland's church and society council, added: "There appears to be a blurring between religious and moral education and religious observance. It is not the case that other belief systems that don't hold with the Christian faith are currently ignored."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article