A Philosophical Objection to Faith Schools

Abstract

This paper is a re-examination of the argument that faith schools ought to be abolished on the grounds that they are indoctrinatory. The premises of this argument are (1) that faith schools teach for belief in religious propositions, (2) that no religious proposition is known to be true, and (3) that teaching for belief in not-known-to-be-true propositions is indoctrinatory. I argue that the first two premises are true, but the third, as it stands, is false. However, the flaws in the third premise are relatively minor and the argument against faith schools can be reformulated to take account of them.