Is Compulsory Religious Education Justified? A Dialogue

Abstract

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (RE) currently enjoys the status of a compulsory curriculum subject in state schools in England and Wales.¹ There is, at present, a broad consensus among policy-makers on two distinct justifications for compulsory RE: (i) that an understanding of religious individuals and communities better equips pupils for life in a multicultural society; and (ii) that the study of religion is morally educative. The authors of the present paper agree that neither of these justifications is adequate. In his contribution to a recent volume on the school curriculum², Hand sets out an alternative rationale for the study of religion in schools, which he calls the possibility-of-truth case (Hand, 2003). The following dialogue explores the adequacy of Hand's argument.