Letter: Moral education needs more than religion

Sir: In the multi-creed school syllabus now proposed by the Government, children between five and 11 must be taught that Jesus Christ is the son of God, but that in the Islamic faith he is not the son of God, and that in Buddhism the god does not exist, while in other faiths there are many different gods. As well as leaving out Father Christmas, this hotchpotch of nonsense fails to allow for the difficulty of understanding even one of these faiths, and the impossibility of finding teachers who can explain them all.

Children are to be asked 'What is truth?' and to tell us what Utopia would be like. Recommended reading for beginners might include Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein and Aldous Huxley. The Conservative cabinet will no doubt supply model answers.

If the planners' purpose is to bewilder the children and destroy all faith in anything, this is an excellent scheme. Let it also be noted that where children spot a disagreement, the teacher will be expected to announce which belief is right, and that all the others are therefore wrong. If this 'religious education' becomes established in our schools, parents should at once exercise their freedom of choice by withdrawing their children from all such lessons.

Yours,

MAURICE HILL

Alicante, Spain