Amid the Church of Zion controversy, educators say students should be taught about different faiths
Schools are being urged to make more effort to encourage analytical thinking among their students after hundreds of teenagers were found to have joined the controversial Church of Zion.
The sect is said to encourage its followers to take hydrogen peroxide in order to boost their health.
Educators criticised many schools for holding a narrow-minded view of religious education by educating students only about the religion they believed in.
'Religious education should no longer be about indoctrination or about claiming that all religions but yours are false,' said Chan Shun-hing, assistant professor at the department of religion and philosophy of Hong Kong Baptist University. 'To avoid a repeat of the Zion incident, students should be taught to compare the strengths and weaknesses of different religions with a critical mind.
'In the 21st century, there is an urgent need for dialogue between different religions to allow for diverse communities and to prevent further terrorist attacks,' he said.
Many of the largest school-sponsoring bodies in Hong Kong are religious groups.
