Atheism should be taught in Educate Together primary schools, a leading member of the 
schools body has said.
Fionnuala Ward, Primary Education Officer for the non-denominational patronage body said that those describing themselves as having no religion were the second biggest “religious” group in the last Census.
The Central Statistics Office figures showed that there were 186,318 people who identified themselves as having no religion although it wasn’t clear what exactly this means.
Writing in InTouch, the monthly newsletter of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) Ms Ward said: “Given the fact that religion and religious institutions play such a pivotal role in the education of tens of thousands of Irish school children, it is surely time that atheism, which reflects the beliefs of a significant proportion of the population and which is more properly defined as the belief in the non-existence of God, be acknowledged and explored.”
She said that teachers in Educate Together schools had been “addressing this issue for some time now”.
However, she acknowledged that presenting atheism to children posed “certain challenges”.
While religious festivals presented the chance to teach children through art-work, atheism provided few such opportunities.
“A banner announcing, Nietzsche-like, that ‘God is dead’ would be considered inappropriate, at best,” she said.
Atheism, she argued, was the “most humble of belief systems”. Atheists did not believe, for example, that human beings were important enough to “warrant the attention of a Divine Provider”.
“We are all, according to atheistic beliefs, scraps of energy, randomly generated,” Ms Ward added.
She writes that Educate Together schools used the theory of evolution to address the issue. However she acknowledged that “a large proportion, if not majority of religious people have, likewise, embraced science and see no contradiction between their own beliefs and the acceptance of its precepts”.
She suggested that the most effective way to address atheism was to “confront the issue of morality”.
She suggested that questions like “Are humans intrinsically capable of formulating a moral code? Can this be achieved outside of a religious context?” could be effective ways of addressing the issue.
“The more direct approach is also an option, as happened in one Educate Together school which organised a 6th class debate around the topic ‘Is there a God?’,” she added.
