One News Ltd columnist, supposedly on holidays but apparently not far from the internet, is outraged that a school history curriculum could decline to evangelise for Christianity, leaving children “ignorant of the faith that bred their most crucial freedoms”.
Begging the question – precisely which of our “crucial freedoms” were bred by Christianity?
Seriously, which? I’m genuinely curious.
UPDATE: While we’re talking about the boons granted by religion: Hospital saves woman’s life; is told by Catholic leadership not to do it again.
Moved On 
The freedom to molest altar boys without having to face consequences?
For many xtians, The freedom to do great harm to others, and avoid punishment by saying a few magic words.
The freedom to avoid the effort of seeking better understanding of the world.
The freedom to avoid right action, dismissing the misery of others with the magic phrase “deus vult”.
For many, the freedom to ignore or even abuse earth’s resource limits, as bringing on armageddon is seen as a necessary preliminary step to the desired climax of the universe.
The freedom to feel infinitely superior to those of different persuasions and lifestyles.
Frankly I find the whole issue a bit silly. Sure, it would be nice to teach students about later days and collapse of the Roman Empire and the ribirth of Europe through the dark ages, but (at the risk of continuing the old glib anti-gothic/pro-classic prejudice) there’s nothing wrong with glossing over it a bit until you feel like starting on the middle ages (in my school, that was the Battle of Hastings). To be honest I don’t really like the way we spend so much time on Greece and Rome and so little on the Arab, Medieval and Early Modern worlds which were much more important in shaping our modern society.
You do need religion for the middle ages, rennaissance, and enlightenment, but it seems like this syllabus is more focussed on modernity, when nationalism became a more geopolitically important ideology than religion. Since we more or less picked up again with the age of exploration, frankly religion does well out of not being mentioned given the sort of things Conquistadors got up to.
As an Atheist, I’m pretty much in favour of teaching about religion due to its importance in historical events (and the feeling that my “side” gets it right). Of course, I was also a smart kid and I get that quite a few students might not be able to learn everything I’d want in the syllabus over their 3 years.
Oh, and also
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Coward.
broggly,
Starting the middle ages at hastings? the english freedoms after that, particularly Henry I’s charter of liberties that was dusted off and tweaked into Magna Carta, was largely a revival of traditional obligations of germanic chiefs to their electors/tribe. (Thanks Tacitus)
But Roman history is /awfully/ relevant in an age of increasing political power of mystery cults (crystal powers or christs, no real difference in the dain bramage caused) after a period of enlightenment.
If you want to understand freedoms, and loss of freedoms, and even appreciate the middle ages and arabic influences, then just give everyone a copy of Gibbon. (Hey, reading Gibbon might even teach them English, and how to hold a complex, subclaused, thought in their heads for more than 10 secs.