Humanism, non-religious worldviews and the future of Religious Education

Abstract

This article considers whether non-religious worldviews ought to be included in the curriculum content of religious education (RE). While the immediate context is that of the campaigns of the Religious Education Council for England and Wales (REC) and the British Humanist Association (BHA) to extend the content of RE to include non-religious worldviews, the arguments reviewed have a wider application to RE elsewhere. A short account is provided of the 2013 REC Framework and of current legislation governing RE. The main part of the article is devoted to the evaluation of a number of publicly expressed recent arguments advanced by humanists in favour of including non-religious worldviews in the RE curriculum. Critical attention is also given to two further considerations, that of the principle of inclusion and that of the aim of RE to challenge religious bigotry and intolerance. It is concluded that the case for the inclusion of non-religious worldviews in the content of RE is unconvincing on educational grounds and unnecessary given the secular nature of the school curriculum.

Keywords:

• Humanism
• inclusion
• non-religious worldviews
• RE Council Framework
• secular education

Notes

1. The observation that words do not have a determinate reference in all cases does not detract from the legitimacy of their use or their use as descriptive terms; see Barnes 2014, 205–210.

2. All unattributed references are to Thompson’s email, ‘Will you sign a letter opposing Humanism being excluded from the new GCSE Religious Studies?’ sent on 23 October, 2014, to RE teachers: a copy is in the possession of the author.

3. I shall argue that humanist answers to ‘questions of meaning and purpose' are already included in the curriculum of schools.

4. None of the Annual Reports by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief specifically commended the teaching of non-religious worldviews in British RE; the reports are available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomReligion/Pages/Annual.aspx (accessed 6 November, 2014). Furthermore, the 2008 Report that deals exclusively with the UK also does not recommend the teaching of non-religious worldviews in RE; see http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/105/17/PDF/G0810517.pdf?OpenElement (accessed 17 November, 2014).

5. https://humanism.org.uk/humanism/humanism-today/non-religious-beliefs/ (accessed 17 November, 2014).

6. Of the seven campaigns currently pursued by the British Humanist Society, four express direct opposition in their summaries to religion and its role in society; see https://humanism.org.uk/campaigns/ (accessed 17 November, 2014).