By ISABEL BERWICK - FINANCIAL TIMES
Added: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:12:50 UTC

A programme called Faith School Menace? (More 4 Wednesday) and presented by Richard Dawkins, Britain’s most famous atheist, is perhaps doomed to lack surprise or mystique. Its conclusion is right there in the title. And yet, there are some startling moments in Dawkins’ film about the boom in faith-linked state schools in the UK – not least a scene where he stands in a pulpit and tells us that he loves to read the Bible. “You can’t appreciate Shakespeare unless you are steeped in the Bible.”

Dawkins believes that evensong, cricket, weddings, christenings – the patterns of life – need to be placed in the context of understanding Christianity, as well as the other major religions in modern Britain. “It may surprise you but I am in favour of religious literacy,” he said.

To declare an interest: I am an occasional churchgoer, and have two children at a C of E primary school. I was pleased that Dawkins, in his pulpit, touched on these deeper cultural reasons why many parents, agnostics and atheists included, like faith schools. Children who are kept away from Britain’s religious heritage risk missing out on a rich inheritance of art, law and literature too.

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TAGGED: EDUCATION, RELIGION, TV