RE seemed to go through a phase - still lurking in a few schools? - when teachers were embarrassed to talk about God. So you could see a whole series of lessons on a particular religion about the life of the founder, dietary rules, clothing, places of worship, pilgrimage... and nothing at all about God. It reminds me of a ditty attributed to Oscar Wilde:
How odd of God
To choose the Jews,
But not as odd
As those who choose
The Jewish God
But not the Jews.
We could say:
It's odd RE
That is God-free
Let's make a fuss!
For shouldn't we
Say more of 'S/He'
And less of us?
Perhaps God is gradually re-appearing in RE, now teachers feel that they'll not be mistaken for evangelists simply by introducing God-talk into the classroom. But what sort of talk? Some school students dogmatically claim 'I don't believe in God'. Of course, they have a right to atheism or agnosticism, as does their RE teacher. But shouldn't we be showing them that talk of 'belief in' implies that God is a thing, or implies that God's existence depends on my approval (belief). In other words, the language we use can reduce or distort what we're trying to discuss. Let's get away from this whole sterile debate about 'belief in' God and instead in RE try to help our students to explore:
- How different religions and individuals experience what they call God
- What it means to take the reality of God seriously
- Why some people decide that God is not real, and what experiences have led them to take this view
- Why religious people want to do God's will and what they think it is
- The dangers of speaking in God's name to justify actions e.g. violence, discrimination.
Taking talk about God to this sort of level is much more productive than getting hung up on why we should/should not 'believe in' God, for it takes the matter to the deeper level of experience, of what shapes us, whether we are theists or atheists. Reflection on experience is always better than a rather superficial debate about 'beliefs' that's doomed to end in a draw.
Terence Copley - February 2007
