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“Atheism is not a religion”: that’s the view expressed by Oona Stannard, director of the Catholic Education Service in the UK, in dismissing a recent declaration of the Institute of Public Policy Research on the need to insert the study of atheism in religious education in schools. “By studying religious education (RE) says Stannard students become aware of the fact that not everyone has a religious belief. However, to teach atheism, humanism or agnosticism as part of the school curriculum is quite a different matter. To suggest that these subjects ought to be studied as part of the religious education syllabus at school means misunderstanding what is meant by RE. There exist other more suitable subjects for studying atheism, for example ‘citizenship’ or ‘personal education’. To maintain that atheism is a religion is misguided. Atheism is not a question that can be compared with a religion or studied in the times set aside for the study of RE”. Even the suggestion of changing the name of the subject (from “religious education” to “religious, philosophic and ethical education”), says the head of the Institute, “does not help”: “Philosophy and ethics concludes Stannard are not the same as religious education”.
