Another attack on Colombia's secularity

juancegomez says on Jan 21, 2006, 18:37:

An attempt, time will tell what comes out of it.... I generally would agree with your sentiments, on a personal level, though I admit that part of your reaction does seem to be one of "shock", first and foremost.

For the sake of clearness, non-Spanish speaking readers might want to take note of the fact that "religion", as far as the article itself explains, does not necessarily mean "Catholic" religion.

In theory, students of other faiths (or non-faiths, though that is often not clear during childhood) would still be able to keep to their beliefs even while taking such classes (even if they are not equally indulged).

Btw, as far as I remember, "religion" or its equivalents were already an obligatory part of the curriculum in many Colombian schools when I graduated from high school (and that wasn't all that long ago)...so the change may not be as radical as it appears.

But if it is, I'll wait for what the Constitutional Court says about this.

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platano says on Jan 21, 2006, 19:13:

... I would not be opposed to this if it were approached academically in such a way that an appreciation of different philosophical approaches were offered (theism, atheism, agnosticism, nondualism, etc.) as well as an appreciation of comparative religions which included a study of primitive religions (animistic, pagan, wiccan, neo-pagan, earth-based traditions, etc.), as well as both eastern systems of belief (hinduism, buddhism, sikhism, taoism, shintoism, etc.) and western religious systems of belief (christianity, islam, judaism, zoroastrianism, etc.)

This would avoid promoting any one "belief system" and enable people to become more critical of all belief systems... perhaps resulting in an increase in secularity, perhaps resulting in an embrace of the sacred, but, whatever happened... an embrace of either the sacred or the profane, at least it would be a rationally informed decision.

In any event, in increasingly diverse and multicultural societies it cannot hurt to be more understanding of the differences which people have in the area of what Tillich called "ultimate concern".
plátano

plátano

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Sr Tertius says on Jan 31, 2006, 22:01:

Clarifications Some opinions about this same topic on parallel threads have gone a bit cuckoo. Let's calm down and look at the facts:

1. The decree, which was promised for last week, did not come out. No explanation so far. El Tiempo suggests that the government is conducting further consultations with religious leaders. Maybe.

2. There's a bit of confusion of what the Constitution and Law 115/94 say. In Colombia, there is no explicit separation of Church (whichever denomination) and State. The Concordato is still live and well. The Republic, however, is defined as secular, and not favorable of any particular religion. It is not a religious institution, but that doesn't mean that it cannot engage in religious education as long as no religious belief (including atheism, agnosticism, etc.) is favored. This is not my personal interpretation: These are the comments of the Constitutional Court on Law 115/94.

3. In fact, Law 115 FORCES educational institutions to provide some sort of religious education, which can be substituted by courses on ethics or civic education. The law, apparently, hasn't been enforced, but if the news reports are correct, the Catholic Church and the Uribe administration are wrong when they say that some schools are "getting away" with teaching ethics or civics. That is a lawful alternative, clearly stated in Law 115.

4. Now, here comes the kicker. If a school wants to provide explicitly religious education, ALL its students have the right to demand access to education on their particular faith. Again, if the news reports are correct, the Catholic Church and the Uribe administration are wrong when they pretend that classes would be oriented by the prevalent creed (which, of course, would unconstitutionally favor the Catholic Church). There is no majority rule here: all in bed, or all in the floor. So, if your kid is getting force-fed Catholic doctrine (as I was some time ago), just claim to be, say, Armenian orthodox, and DEMAND to have the proper religious authority teach your kid. And, please, tell us what happens.

Now, on the more "opinion" side, regardless of how legal this decree might be, I believe this clearly shows where the priorities of the Uribe administration lie, and they are clearly not aligned with mine.

An interesting opinion is that of Héctor Abad Faciolince:

http://semana.terra.com.co/opencms/opencms/Semana/articulo.html?id=92555

"When the finger points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger" (Chinese proverb)

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cali373 says on Feb 1, 2006, 06:03:

I thought Uribe was pro "separation of church and state"? At least that is what he said during his initial presidential campaign. In any case I believe that Catholicism has negatively affected Latin America more that it has done any good.

"For the sake of clearness, non-Spanish speaking readers might want to take note of the fact that "religion", as far as the article itself explains, does not necessarily mean "Catholic" religion."

In Colombia it does.

I would have to say that I would not mind this new curriculum if and only if it has an appreciation of diverse approaches teaching about manny organized religions from the East and West. But I doubt that. and maybe they should teach about the true history of the catholic church.

Smile if you are a thinker!

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juancegomez says on Feb 1, 2006, 07:51:

.... You are incorrect on that point, cali373.

Maybe in casual conversation you could be right, but that is not what this is about.

I am sticking to the issue that is being raised in the article and nothing more, which clearly and unequivocally states that in the law "religion" is not limited to meaning "Catholic Religion". That will depend on many of the factors outlined there.

In any event...

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