A Two-Tier system of Secular and Non-Secular Schools

[green]

The Catholic Church does teach creationism in Ireland as a matter of course. I'm only 22 and I remember being told in Religion class in primary and secondary(yes I went to a CBS) hearing the creationist filth. The only evolutionary education available to a student in Primary or Secondary is in the Leaving Cert Biology course which many people do not take.
I think it would be safe to say that using statistics for the number of Leaving Cert students that sat the exam in 2004 only 44% of them would have received any education in evolution. The remaining 56% would have had to make do with the Creationist tripe. Not to mention all those that did not sit their leaving cert.

Firstly, in which form were you taught creationism? In a vague, all-embracing "God made the world" way, or a more specific "God made the world and everything on it in seven days, without evolution which is a heretical Godless conspiracy"?

I also went to Catholic primary and secondary schools and, to the best of my memory, creationism - in any guise - was never mentioned. Why, then, do you assume that every Catholic student's experience corresponds exactly with your own?

I did not sit LC Biology. I was never taught evolution. I still believe it, and am (I feel) adequately equipped with the basics. Which of us is the exception, and which the rule?

What should be dropped from the present Junior Cert Science course to make room for evolution?

[Libero]

Catholicism is in the business of avoiding extremely important lessons in Biology for example in 2nd level schools here. In almost any European country the second level biology course teaches the absolute importance of the Female Orgasm for reproduction. Without the female orgasm reproduction is many times less likely to occur. If the Church was interest in teaching sex as reproduction awareness of the female orgasm would be an integral part of this education. It is not...

Do you have an evidence that the Catholic Church in Ireland had any role in removing this from the educational system? Is it in the British education system?

I lean towards jj. It is difficult to suppress something that you do not know exists.

And I don't think a lack of orgasms prevented good Irish Catholic women from breeding like rabbits back in the bad old days when the main difference between a golf ball and a clitoris was that Irishmen would spend at least two minutes searching for the golf ball.

That reminds me: it always amazes me when people talk of p0rn as a Bad Thing for women. If it wasn't for the knowledge that their male partners derived from skin flicks, the average woman's sex life would be a lot duller. Maybe they think their partners just invented all those tricks by themselves.

[cleareyed]

The proposal falls for quite different reasons: "our" children aren't "ours". They are their parents and the right of parents is paramount in irish law and I believe the constitution. It can only be set aside in extraordinary circumstances. Parents decide what is suitable for their children.
I do think that RC schools should be very clearly that: the amount of parents pupils and teachers who would be involved in such schools would plummet: strict RC schools would be impossible becasue of the lifestyle of students and parents is so at variance with church teaching.

[Ulysses]

I'm a secular humanist.

My child attends a non-religious school, and believes that evolution by natural selection was the driving force for the development of the human species.

And I think the thread originator is talking nonsense.