Just one final post about the recent introduction of a trial Ethics class for non-SRE students …
A friend sent me a link to the following article, written by Neil Ormerod of Australian Catholic University, which looks at the Ethics class trial in NSW public schools from the perspective of comparing the relative merits of religious versus secular ethics. This is a point missed by most people, and by some intentionally: Ethics is not inherently, nor necessarily, secular (i.e. non-religious).
Ethics is the study of “the principles of conduct”, “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation”. Everyone has an ethic that they follow, that governs their behaviour, if only unconsciously or unreflectively. One’s ethic deals with the basis or foundation for our rules of life.
It’s the question of this foundation that is so troubling, in regards to the trial being conducted in NSW public schools. The class teaches a non-religious or secular Ethics, whereas Special Religious Education (SRE) teaches a religious Ethics. The following article makes a very good case for the superior value of religious Ethics over secular Ethics.
