A poll by YouGov(educational data starts on page 15) shows that Religious Education (RE) is seen as either ‘not very important’ or ‘not important at all’ by 58% of British people.
In the UK, RE is a mandatory subject and it’s clear most people see it as increasingly irrelevant. Most of us who suffered through these lessons know they’re not really about educating someone about religion, they’re stealth christianity lessons. I can’t recall one RE lesson as child where we discussed any other religion or the basis for religion at all.
I personally wouldn’t mind RE if it were not just christian indoctrination under the guise of education. If pupils were taught about a wide range of religions and non-religions and non-theistic religions. At least it would be interesting then.
Let’s call it “The Evolution of Religions” and see how that turns out. People’s heads would explode in the US.
It actually is taught in the US in world history classes but could be a whole optional class in itself.
I promise you that was not taught in deep south GA in the 90s. We did read excerpts from the bible in literature, not critically, mind you.
That was 30 years ago and times have thankfully changed