By MARTIN BECKFORD AND TOBY YOUNG - TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
Updated: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:46:00 UTC

Thanks to Ryedo for the link

Richard Dawkins interested in setting up 'atheist free school'

Original link by Martin Beckford

Richard Dawkins has said he is interested in setting up an atheist “free school” under the Government’s plan to encourage independent education establishments.

Richard Dawkins said he would want pupils to be taught to be skeptical and to appreciate the value of evidence rather than receive 'indoctrination' about atheism Photo: EPA

The author of The God Delusion, who has previously described religious education provided by faith schools as a form of child abuse, said he would want pupils to be taught to be skeptical and to appreciate the value of evidence rather than receive “indoctrination” about atheism.

He also said that his “free-thinking school” would provide lessons about the gods of ancient Greece and Norse legend, and would treat the Bible as a work of literature rather than a basis for morality.

The former Oxford University professor and evolutionary biologist, now a bestselling author who has called for the Pope to be arrested for “crimes against humanity” during his visit to Britain, made his comments during a webchat with users of Mumsnet.

Prof Dawkins was asked to set up a “secular school” or an “atheist free school” as an antidote to faith schools by women who believe they are divisive and anti-scientific.

Under plans disclosed by the Coalition last week, parents, charities and voluntary groups will be able to set up “free schools” funded by public money but independent from state control.

He replied: “Thank you for suggesting that I should start an atheist free school. I like the idea very much, although I would prefer to call it a free-thinking free school.
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Richard Dawkins's atheist free school

Original Link by Toby Young

Richard Dawkins wants to open an 'atheist free school' (Photo: AFP)

I was delighted to read in this morning’s paper that Richard Dawkins is interested in setting up a free school. Naturally, I don’t share his antipathy towards taxpayer-funded faith schools, most of which achieve much better results than secular state school, but his rationalist approach to education is an almost perfect fit with the ethos of the school my group is hoping to start.

“I would never want to indoctrinate children in atheism, any more than in religion,” he told Mumsnet yesterday. “Instead, children should be taught to ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded.”

What Professor Dawkins doesn’t realise is the reason this approach is so badly needed in the state education sector is not to protect children from religious indoctrination, but from the far more rigid secular ideology that pervades the majority of comprehensive schools. Anthropogenic Global Warming, for instance, is almost universally upheld as an article of faith in the state education sector. If children are taught “to ask for evidence”, as opposed to uncritically accept whatever politically correct snake oil their teachers are pedalling, the theory will quickly be revealed as a controversial scientific hypothesis rather than something that’s unambiguously true.

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TAGGED: EDUCATION, RICHARD DAWKINS