Religion vs Ethics

I've posted about this before but now something is finally happening - the St James Ethics Centre is running a pilot of their children's ethics classes.

However, there are some wowsers:

The pilot, developed by the St James Ethics Centre, is fully funded and was endorsed unanimously by the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations of NSW in July. But it must still be approved by the Minister for Education in consultation with a religious advisory panel.

''It doesn't have the support of the religious community, that's just a pragmatic reality,'' the acting chairman of the Inter-Church Commission on Religious Education in Schools, Reverend Mark Hillis, told the Herald. ''I don't see how having a small interest group coming into a school and ramping up things helps.''

Does the current scripture programme have the support of the atheist community? Better get rid of it then!

I notice that their argument is not that they're afraid that the religious kiddies will miss out, and that they need ethical instruction as much as the atheists. The only reasonable argument against ethics classes altogether would be if there weren't enough time. But that's precisely the point of this move, non-scripture kids are forced to waste time. The only way out of that is to make scripture classes meet at 2pm and let out the non-scripture kids early. Or for government schools to not assist parents to indoctrinate their children with their own supernatural beliefs (there's plenty of time for that on the weekend!).