Traditional religious education in schools can no longer be justified. The statement by Green politician Hans-Christian Ströbele on Wednesday evening in Hanover was welcomed by the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD). “School is a state event, that’s where neutral information belongs,” said Hans-Christian Ströbele in the talk show “Tacheles”. He also spoke out against seeing a doctrine of religious truths as a suitable part of state education. “We can support Hans-Christian Ströbele’s statements,” said Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the HVD, yesterday. In principle, the HVD is in favor of ideologically shaped lessons of a voluntary nature at state-funded schools. However, these should not be a place for the dissemination of dogmatically fixed religious truths, especially when it comes to the teaching of ethical principles and the development of skills for reflecting on questions of meaning or related topics. Reflective and scientifically sound positions are just as indispensable in this area as in other subjects. “Religious education must not be about teaching proven falsehoods or unverifiable factual claims,” says Wolf. In this area, the churches, like all other religious communities, should not be allowed to exempt themselves from the obligation to adapt their content and views to the current state of research and discussion. In principle, ideologically positioned teaching that meets these requirements is feasible, Wolf continued, pointing out that the HVD in Berlin and Brandenburg itself runs the voluntary “Humanistic Life Skills” program, which competes successfully with corresponding voluntary programs offered by the churches. “The decisive factor must always be the extent to which the information provided is in line with scientific knowledge and is openly reflected upon philosophically. The aim of such offers is to support young people in their development as self-determined, responsible people by teaching them to find their own orientation and to form and express their own identity in a way that is linked to tolerance and empathy towards others. Respect must be shown to all people and all living beings. This is an indispensable requirement, also for religious world views.” On the occasion of Hans-Christians Ströbele’s statement, Frieder Otto Wolf also pleaded once again for the introduction of a generally binding subject “Ethics” in all federal states, as has existed in Berlin and Brandenburg for several years. Such an integrative compulsory subject to teach values is also part of the demands of the Coordinating Council of Secular Organizations (KORSO), which aims to represent the more than 25 million non-denominational and non-religious people with humanistic views on life in Germany.
Wolf’s plea continues: “People who value the right of self-determination of parents and their children, which is important to humanists, should therefore work politically and socially to establish attractive and viable alternatives to traditional religious education, in which pupils can think about themselves and the world and learn to reflect independently on values and ideas. As the successful development in Berlin and Brandenburg has shown, dogmatisms that are falsely articulated in terms of truth policy can be effectively prevented as elements of state-funded education.” Traditional dogmatic religious education as part of the compulsory school curriculum “can no longer be justified as part of the provision of neutral information to pupils, which is necessary for a sustainable and contemporary ethical standpoint, given the current state of knowledge,” Wolf concluded. Note: The recording of the TV show with Hans-Christian Ströbele was broadcast on Sunday, October 16, 2011, at 1 p.m. and midnight on Phoenix. “Tacheles” is sponsored by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the Hanover Regional Church and the Hanover Monastery Chamber.
