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A new member. A Catholic school teacher.
February 21, 2014 at 2:13 pm
Hello there. I am from North East England and am actually taking quite a risk in posting on this forum but I am determined to speak to like minded people as regards my current developing stance on philosophy and personal enlightenment.
I am a Catholic teacher in a Catholic school, but I have very recently questioned my beliefs with increasing fervour.
Reading Hitchens, Dawkins, Russell, Kant and Schopenhauer I have come to the conclusion that my own belief system has long been without vigour for quite some time. I have been going through the motions. Proselytising to the children as a mouthpiece for the church, rather than being allowed to educate with the trust of personal responsibility.
I am looking to leave my position within the next few months, but it is increasingly important to me that I remove myself in order that my hypocrisy not damage both my personal sense, my professional sense and my personal philosophy.
However, being as I am a relatively senior member of the school, it will be very difficult to move out of the Catholic system without something looking quite odd. It also means my options are immediately lessened.
But my family need a room over their heads and an income coming in.
Thanks for listening and I am welcome to all opinions.
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RE: A new member. A Catholic school teacher.
February 21, 2014 at 2:24 pm
I'm sure there are many people in religiously based professions trapped like you.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: A new member. A Catholic school teacher.
February 21, 2014 at 2:27 pm
It's an odd situation. You feel as though you are betraying many people. Not least yourself.
Even though my faith has waned, my love for my colleagues remains the same and it feels very difficult to consider that they may see my motivations as a sleight.
Very odd.
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RE: A new member. A Catholic school teacher.
February 21, 2014 at 2:31 pm
Stop waisting time and get off this forum and find a job!!!! Just kidding!!!!!! Haahha!! Welcome u came to the right place...
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RE: A new member. A Catholic school teacher.
February 21, 2014 at 2:34 pm
Welcome!
Is it at all possible to still teach at the school but not proselytize? I mean if you teach English for example, it might be possible to remain there. Science, however, maybe not...
I do understand the personal reasons, though. I couldn't imagine working in a place that offended my sense of personal integrity. Tough spot.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
PM me your email address to join the Slack chat! I'll give you a taco(or five) if you join! --->There's an app and everything!<---
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RE: A new member. A Catholic school teacher.
February 21, 2014 at 2:41 pm
(This post was last modified: February 21, 2014 at 2:42 pm by Simon Moon.)
Welcome aboard!
You are indeed in a tough position.
You may want to contact
The Clergy Project. It is a nonprofit (non-Prophet
) organization designed to help people in exactly your situation.
http://www.clergyproject.org/
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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RE: A new member. A Catholic school teacher.
February 21, 2014 at 2:45 pm
As one who was formerly on the "inside" looking "out", I can certainly relate to your dilemma. I don't have any advice for you because I don't know your personal situation, and even if I did, I don't know if the advice I would give would be helpful. All I can tell you is to be true to your inner self. If that negatively affects how people view you, that's their problem, not yours. Keep your chin up.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
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