But, culturally, that makes no sense to me BAA; no-one could expose their children to all cultures in depth and none of us would want to (we all have values that we wish to pass to our children, you as much as me). And that, I think, is a real weakness in secularism; it seeks a "culture-free" environment which can never exist (it itself is a culture, it's like thinking there is an accent-free way of speaking English), and it rarely seems to be able to engage with faith cultures on an equal footing.born-again-atheist wrote:*sigh* I've already explained. A child must be equally exposed to all religions. The deeper you invest your child in one religion, the deeper you invest the child in every single other religion. If you aren't willing to do that, then don't try and force your child to believe what you do.
I don't know what the answer is, but I think secularists, if they wish to influence the religious, need to work out a way of engaging with other cultures (such as mine) without always approaching it with a "your culture has no place in society" attitude. Some secularists will try to say "religion is OK so long as it is private", but then when you scratch below the surface of that view you often find that actually they are not happy with private religion in the context of bringing up children.
Having said all that, I think in practice things still work. We all have our freedoms; you are free to tell me that you don't like the way I bring up children and I'm free to thank you for your comments but then tell you that I'm responsible for bringing up my children and so will make the choices I think are best. That may sound dismissive, but actually it allows dialogue without actually trying to forcibly or legally stamp out certain cultures (which is bound to end up in a very bad place).
Anyway, interesting stuff. As I get older I do find the whole cultural aspect to society increasingly interesting (and complex).
