Very interesting article, and I must say that I agree with its sentiments. While I'm a strong supporter of the separation of church and state, you are absolutely right that people need to be educated in religion. In my opinion, this is for the same reasons that they need to be educated in English or history. No one should be forced to believe in any religion, but I think it's obvious that religion has played a major role in who we are as a species. To ignore it would be to ignore a major facet of our humanity. (And I'm an atheist)
Or at least educated in a religion that they claim to believe in. I'm amazed by all the people who thought Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. That was a joke in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I wonder if anybody thought Ceasar was the salad dressing dude.
A few days after 9/11, a turbaned Indian American man was shot and killed in Arizona by a bigot who believed the man’s dress marked him as a Muslim. But what killed Balbir Singh Sodhi (who was not a Muslim but a Sikh) was not so much bigotry as ignorance. from Article published Jan 16, 2005 U.S. a nation of faith filled with religious illiterates By STEPHEN PROTHERO Special to the Los Angeles Times I disagree, it was indeed ignorance, but you can be ignorant and not be a murderous bigot. Lots of uneducated folk are not bigots. This killer was a bigot who killed Mr. Sodhi out of a deep hatred of anyone who looked like that. The crusaders did the same in Jerusalem, they killed the Muslims and the Jews, and they killed the Christians too, just cuz they dressed funny.
Mass consumer culture is the heart of the problem depicted in this article. Pop religion is no less shallow than pop music. Unfortunately, many churches are immersed in the commercialism and materialism that permeates American society.
very good article. i definitely think comparative religious studies should be taught in the public school system - separation of church and state = smart; pretending church does not exist = stupid.