Abstract:
The Brazilian Constitution says that Religious Education (RE) should be a curricular
component in the public basic education schools, but it also points out that the
enrollment should be optional. The offering of RE is not understood in a unified way.
To some, the obligation to offer RE in public schools and the fact that professors of
any religious background can teach this discipline is inconvenient and transforms the
public school space into a mere space of religious catechism and proselytism, used
by Catholics or by any influential religious confession. And the consequence of it
being mandatory is a loss for students with atheist, agnostic perspectives or
perspectives of any religious denomination with less power in the social-political
sphere, and to the constitutional principle of secularism. The present paper has the
objective of analyzing the possible legal effects of the judgement of the
constitutionality of Religious Education in Brazilian public schools by the Federal
Supreme Court, and facing the controversy of the theme, we will study [Religious
Education] from its beginning until today, verifying if the way it is implemented in
Brazil has or does not have the power to indoctrinate, catechise or serve as a form of
domination, or if the teaching is given based on ethical and moral principles, that can
and should be part of all and any religion, in respect to the legitimate right of the
individual to have access to the teaching of religion and of ethics.
