Not atheistic in the sense that they are teaching students that gods don't exist, or any other positions regarding the existence or non-existence of gods. All they're saying is the school takes no position one way or the other on questions of religion. That seems fair.
This cannot be done!
If God exists and you ignore Him then you are tacitly teaching either that He doesn't really exist or something even worse than atheism.
No, it isn't!
Whether God exists is the central question of ALL learning! Attempting to teach ANYTHING while ignoring a God that exists is akin to teaching painting while ignoring color.
Your "neutral" stance attempts to presume the answer to the question of God's existence without actually answering it. It is the quintessential eating your cake and having it too.
In other words a so called "neutral" stance looks exactly like what schools would look like if everyone was an atheist and the question of God's existence never came up. It is an atheistic system, by default, which is the reason why atheists are in favor of it.
Yes there is. A student can think of 2+2=4 as theistically as they want.
But they will not do so in an atheistic school system! They won't and the atheists know they won't! If you think atheists are neutral about the existence of God, you're wrong.
Not everyone is limited to such black/white thinking.
Right and wrong thinking. Only those who haven't recovered from their public school education think in shades of gray. The rejection of absolutes is a terrific example of just the thing I'm talking about. You cannot ignore the existence of God, which presupposes that there is no absolute truths and expect anything other than to graduate a bunch of kids that, at the very least question, if not outright reject the morals that hold civilized society together.
Ah yes... Public schools are a liberal plot. :chuckle:
If you think otherwise then you're just naive. It is the tenth plank in the Communist Manifesto and has always been a desire of the government (all governments) to control the education of its citizens. If you control the education system you control the population. Marx understood this well.
The public school system is the most Marxist thing about this nation and we have progressively (I use that term intentionally) become more and more liberal ever since their inception to the point where we now have what is effectively a fascist form of government.
Of course you don't know this because you were educated in a government school, which is precisely the problem with government schools! It is far too much power to put into the hands of the government. The society is overthrown without even understanding what is happening.
Not only that but public schools, by there very nature are socialistic. Kids that stand out are made fun of. The kids who finish their work first are told to go help the slower students. If part of the class misbehaves the entire class is punished as often as not. Its all about group think. Kids are pressured from a hundred different directions to not stand, to think as a member of the group and not as an individual. The kids are taught to follow the rules for the sake of following the rules, not because the rules make any sense. In fact, the less sense a rule makes the more strictly it is enforced. The result is a generation of citizens that do not think for themselves, believes it is their duty to be their brother's keeper and to comply with whatever those in authority say the rules are.
This is anything but "neutral" and it is the natural and unavoidable result of a school system that ignores the existence of God and therefore the basis and the very source of right and wrong. In a world where there is no ABSOLUTE right and wrong, there is no such thing as human RIGHTS. Your RIGHT to free speech is an issue of right and wrong. Your RIGHT to freedom of religion is a matter of right and wrong. Your RIGHT to a fair trial is a matter of right and wrong. All of your RIGHTS are a matter of morality. If you think that you can maintain a moral society by attempting to educate children while ignoring God then you deserve the totalitarian government that you'll end up producing and even supporting.
Resting in Him,
Clete