richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

340 THE GOD DELUSION
religion is something for her to choose - or reject - when she
becomes old enough to do so.
A good case can indeed be made for the educational benefits of
teaching comparative religion. Certainly my own doubts were first
aroused, at the age of about nine, by the lesson (which came not
from school but from my parents) that the Christian religion in
which I was brought up was only one of many mutually incompatible
belief-systems. Religious apologists themselves realize this
and it often frightens them. After that nativity play story in the
Independent, not a single letter to the Editor complained of
the religious labelling of the four-year-olds. The only negative letter
came from 'The Campaign for Real Education', whose spokesman,
Nick Seaton, said multi-faith religious education was extremely
dangerous because 'Children these days are taught that all religions
are of equal worth, which means that their own has no special
value.' Yes indeed; that is exactly what it means. Well might this
spokesman worry. On another occasion, the same individual said,
'To present all faiths as equally valid is wrong. Everybody is entitled
to think their faith is superior to others, be they Hindus, Jews,
Muslims or Christians - otherwise what's the point in having
faith?' 151
What indeed? And what transparent nonsense this is! These
faiths are mutually incompatible. Otherwise what is the point of
thinking your faith superior? Most of them, therefore, cannot be
'superior to others'. Let children learn about different faiths, let
them notice their incompatibility, and let them draw their own conclusions
about the consequences of that incompatibility. As for
whether any are 'valid', let them make up their own minds when
they are old enough to do so.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AS A PART OF
LITERARY CULTURE
I must admit that even I am a little taken aback at the biblical
ignorance commonly displayed by people educated in more recent