What is good for Religious Humanism?

Kristendomens ställning i skolan - P1-morgon - sr.se: "Det nya förslaget till kursplan i religionskunskap har väckt starka protester- eftersom texter om kristendomens betydelse tagits bort. Debatt mellan Jan Björklund, utbildningsminister (FP) och Lars Ohly (V) om kristendomen i skolan."

Jan Björklund has the feeling that there should be more stress on Christianity than on other religions because in our part of the world is immersed by Christianity and has been for a thousand years. Lars Ohly argues that we are entering a secular era and that our schools should be a protected area for children where they are equally inspired by all religions and also other life philosophies.

Religious Humanism is thought of as a relatively tradition-free religion based on science and humanism. As such, during the next 100 or 200 years, many will gradually reorient themselves to a materialistic God concept that is fully compatible with science as the importance of scientific results become more and more valued. God is Nature. The supernatural is replaced by yet unknown discoveries by science. It is important to realize that most people want to believe and that secularity might not be the answer for more than some 25% of the population. In this sense we are not globally entering a secular era. However, the state and the churches must be separated. In a multicultural environment religion is more private.

Teaching all religions equally must then be considered the best way. Because it will lead to an understanding of religion in terms of human psychology. Common denominators become evident and the subject Psychology of Religion is the forerunner to Religious Humanism. The Christian heritage is also learned from studies of literature and movie art and is reaching the students in other ways.

The take of Religious Humanism is to some extent dependent on if science will continue to be a guiding light, a beacon for society. Health care and social institutions have replaced Christianity to a large extent, at least in Sweden, and psychology is a popular subject even among priests these days.

One important subject in this respect is a product of science, namely, nuclear weapons. On the one hand we have entered a relatively more peaceful era with these weapons. On the other hand they have become a risk in terms of nuclear proliferation into unwanted hands. There are also other developments that can lead to negative feelings of science development.

On the positive side is continuous development of scientific results that hopefully will yield solutions to climate change, yield larger crops, improve health care, and solutions to other problems we face. It is therefore my hope that people more and more will regard Nature as our God, environmentalism might aid in this development, and that science will be the ritual by which we become closer to God.