Faith schools are immoral, children should not be indoctrinated.

By "forced to praise a god" I mean being made to sing hymns etc, and I know it wasn't that bad, but I didn't even go to a faith school, that's just normal state school stuff, it seems to me that public schools (or if you're American, private schools) are worse for indoctrinating children as they have greater freedom within the curriculum. "It's wrong in the same way as forcing children to pretend that America is made out of chicken and giant ice-sickles. It can't be done (yet) and if it could, I wouldn't call it a moral infringement. "I would argue that that would be a moral infringement, of course it's wrong to teach children things that we know aren't true (unless it concerns major holidays or how good their drawings are). I would be outraged if my child was being taught that America is made of chicken and icicles, we just know it's not true. "It does not, and I never claimed that it does. I merely wish to explicate that religion is laced with moral teachings, and children who attend faith schools will receive a healthy dose of these morals. "Religion is also laced with prejudices, but that's another matter. My point here is that yes, religion is laced with moral teachings, as fanta is laced with vitamin c, but that doesn't make it the best way to learn morals, as drinking fanta isn't the best way to get vitamin c. The best way to get vitamin c is eating an orange directly, and I think that the best way to get morals is to be taught morals directly. I don't know about America, but in England children have compulsory PSHCE (physical, social, health and citizenship education) lessons, where children are taught and involved in discussions about what makes a good person, why do we have laws, sex education etc etc. I think this is a far more constructive way of building a better society, without involving religion in a direct way. Why use outdated scriptures as moral foundations (scriptures that advocate racism, sexism, homophobia and incest) when we can educate children instead. I disagree entirely with you, and I would look forward to a future debate on masturbating or abstinence. But that's for later. "This is, in my area, a silly exception. My mother is a science teacher at a Catholic school, and all of these are adamantly rejected. Anyone with half a brain between their ears can decode this, and anyone without can live in blissful ignorance. "Yes, anyone with half a brain can smell bulls**t here, the problem is that the children are being deprived of education in favour of religious doctrine, and are therefore often not educated enough to see the problems in their own beliefs. And the reason I use such extreme examples (usually only found amongst Jehovah's Witnesses and Plymouth Brethren) is that you can see the ridiculousness of teaching children fabricated pseudoscience, which to me is no different from teaching children that the existence of god is a fact. Although a person can lead a perfectly normal and happy life believing in a god, the existence of god is not a fact, and should be taught as a belief, not as fact. In conclusion:Faith schools are a way to gain morals. So are secular schools. Faith schools advocate the indoctrination of children. secular schools do not. Faith schools do not give children freedom of choice in religion. Secular schools do. Faith schools teach dogma as fact. Secular schools do not. Faith schools teach moral absolutes that are unquestionable because god said so. Secular schools teach relative morality and encourage discussion amongst students. I know which I think is the right way to educate children. (By analogy, I assume you mean the hypothetical scenario where everyone is successfully indoctrinated, I felt I had already addressed the point by saying that morals are not absolute and that you don't need religion to be good.