This document discusses the definitions and relationships between education, religion, morality, secularism, and religious education. It provides definitions of these key terms from various sources. It also discusses different views on the connection between religion and morality as well as different approaches to religious education, including ways of understanding and commitment. The document concludes by discussing what can be learned from religion from a non-religious perspective based on the work of Alain de Botton.

1. Philippine Normal University
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Taft Avenue, Manila
2nd Semester, SY 2011-2012
ED 501: PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM, Saturdays, CTL2-203
Prof. Nicasio A. Manantan, Ph.D.
RELIGION, EDUCATION, & RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Reynante S. Tagum
M.A. in Education major in Guidance & Counseling
Education
• act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and
judgment, and generally preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.1
• an activity or endeavor in which the more mature of human society deal with the less mature in order to
achieve a greater maturity in them and contribute thereby to the improvement of human life.2
• is going to give us, not only commercial skills, industrial skills, it's also going to make us better people.3
Religion
• a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as
the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances,
and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. 4
• sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system—is commonly defined as belief concerning
the supernatural, sacred, or divine; and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals
associated with such belief. In its broadest sense some have defined it as the sum total of answers given
to explain humankind's relationship with the universe. 5
• towers above all of human history, a beacon that has lead nations to fight wars and create civilization,
make monumental works of art and structure and deeply moving pieces of musical system, and give
sanctity to life.6
Morals/Morality
• of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character. 7
• codes of conduct put forward by a society; some other group, such as a religion, or accepted by an
individual for her own behavior or normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified
conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons. 8
• universal ethical principle (justice, equality of human rights and respect for dignity of human beings as
individuals).
Secular/Secularism
• of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred;
temporal: secular interests. 9
• a view that religion and religious considerations should be ignored or excluded from social and political
matters.10
• an ethical system asserting that moral judgments should be made without reference to religious doctrine,
as reward or punishment in an afterlife. 11
Religious Education
• In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in England the
term religious instruction would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with religious education
referring to teaching about religions in general) and its varied aspects: its beliefs, doctrines, rituals,
customs, rites, and personal roles. In Western and secular culture, religious education implies a type of
education which largely separate from academia, and which (generally) regards religious belief as a
fundamental tenet and operating modality, as well as a prerequisite condition of attendance. 12
• The secular concept is substantially different from societies that adhere to religious law, wherein
"religious education" connotes the dominant academic study, and in typically religious terms, teaches
doctrines which define social customs as "laws" and the violations thereof as "crimes", or else
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2. misdemeanors requiring punitive correction. 13
• Religion and morality may be held to be connected in such a way that unless one is committed to a
religious point of view one cannot be truly a moral person. Nonetheless, agnostics and atheist live moral
lives.
• Religion and morals are connected only contingently (Moore, 1982), i.e., dependent, incidental, subject
to change, true only under certain conditions – not universally true.
• The education of a child was a matter of bringing out a divine pattern implicit in the child.
• Serving the same overall purpose of as the church to which s/he belonged.
• To initiate a pupil into mathematics, science and history is to bring him into contact with the Divine
Purpose as revealed in the world.
• Education is an essential part of religion. Religious education would be a special sort of education, like
moral education, aesthetic education, and mathematical education.
• Tradition, culture, and arts are part of our heritage and not to introduce a child to them and to the
religious tradition that sustains them is to deny him/her membership of his estate.
• If to be educated involves initiation into all the forms of knowledge, then religion is one of those forms,
'education' requires its inclusion as a matter of necessity.
• The way of understanding – giving of information and improvement of understanding. Takes religion
and its works as empirical matters and seeks to give an understanding of how they came to be as they
are. Comparative religious studies both on intellectual and social grounds.
• The way of commitment – religious education aimed at securing commitment runs very close to
indoctrination, the teaching of uncheckable propositions by authority.
• The teacher could try to developed in the child a religious consciousness, by getting him/her to
understand how life looked to, say the Hebrew prophets, to Jesus, to St. Francis, to Buddha or to
Mohammed. This would help to provide perspectives on the world which would be necessary before
anyone could really be in a position to choose to commit him/herself, or not to any particular religion.
• Ang lahat ng pag-aaral ay kailangan nakatuon sa ultimate purpose nito – ang makilala ang Diyos
(Molmisa, 2011)
Nonreligious/Secular View
• Naturalistic view - agnostic, atheist, freethinker, humanist, materialist, rationalist, skeptic, scientific.
What we can learn from religion? (Alain de Botton, Atheism 2.0)
• Ritualistic side of religion
• Moralistic side of religion
• Communal side of religion
• Rich culture and traditions
• Art (religious art) – architecture, painting, sculpture, music, etc..
• Oratory
Endnotes
1 Definition of Education. Available at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/education (accessed February 2012).
2 Andales, Elaine V. 2012. “Philosophy and Religion” (Reported in class ED 501).
3 de Botton, Alain. “Atheism 2.0”. Available at http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_atheism_2_0.html
(accessed February 2012).
4 Definition of Religion. Available at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion (accessed February 2012).
5 Definition of Religion. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/religion (accessed February 2012).
6 Stebben, Gregg. Everything You Need to Know About Religion. New York: Pocket Books, 1999.
7 Definition of Morals. Available at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/morals (access February 2012).
8 Definition of Morality. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/ (access February 2012).
9 Definition of Secular. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/secular (access February 2012).
10 & 11 Definition of Secularism. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/secularism (access February 2012).
12 & 13 Definition of Religious Education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_education (access February 2012).
Reference
Brubacher, John S. (1978). Modern Philosophies of Education. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Molmisa, Ronald. (2011). Pass or Fail. OMF Literature Inc. Mandaluyong City.
Moore, T.W. (1982) Philosophy of Education. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
Nonreligious World View. Available at http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org/nonreligiousworldview.html
(accessed February 2012).
0922-554-5115
reynantetagum@yahoo.com
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