Religion is US schools

VERY well put, SDS!

 

i could see a history of religion class happening. it has been a big part of history. but i dont think its the states responsiblity to have any influence in a persons beliefs. the knowledge abut every religion is out there. and i had no problem, as a child, as a teenager, and as an adult, accessing any of it. this was all before windows 95 and AOL and DSL.

 

no need to have a seperate 'religious history' class.... just teach that in the normal history classes...

However, i'm all for teaching religion in schools, as long as ALL religions are taught (or at least the major ones), and none of them are held up as the truth path, etc. (do you know what I mean?)

Teach them all as a way of teaching tollerance. for example, by showing what islam is really all about, expain what the koran says, and why it says it, etc.. will promote tollerance and remove a lot of the fear that people have...

 

As a taoist, I can't disagree more with the original post. Christianity, Judism and the rest all define their "maker". Their "religions" are designed to explain things to fit their ideals, and to control others.
I know that when my 4 year old daughter is taught to say, "one nation, under God", the meaning is we are a nation subordanant to the God of the old testiment. A God created to protect people from their own ignorance, but often used to justify brutality (the book of Joshua).
Aitheism isn't taught in schools you nuckle head.
I never heard anyone ever say, there is no God or possibility of God in school. Science explains what we've come to learn from pure nature without the interferance of religions OR aitheism. But it always leaves the door open for what can lie beyond what we know or we believe to know.

 

The World of Dan and CosmicKatie thanks for your enthusiasm about my comments and congratulations you're now honorary members of SES = Students for an Educational Society!


I'm not totally kidding, that is, as I explain in my other thread there needs to be a real organized effort to counter the wrong arguments promoted by religion that mislead so many people. This really is an important matter.

(I don't consider myself an atheist by the way. The universe is pretty remarkable we lack a whole lot of answers. I think we'd all like to have those answers. That makes for some common ground with people who are religious if they'll just keep an open mind and think a little.)

So the particular argument I gave I hope you will remember and use time and again whenever people suggest that god caused this or that. I also have a lot more arguments on various topics if anyone needs them. Tools to be used.

 

ya know small brown i disagree with athiesm but the atheists i have met i have more in common with then religious people. i myself am not religious. I do not think religion should be in schools maybe to learn of the different types of religions since we live in such a diverse world with many beliefs. i think kids need to learn more about critical thinking and real world things and also have more art classes, field trips and healthy food for lunches and be taught about politics so thye can decide about voting when they reach 18 and school should not be treated as a prison with cops and fences around the school atleast thats how mine was not very inviting. well ive gone off on a tangent i hope i answered the question. There are just so many things to improve in schools. i like some private schools that treat the child as a spirit and works with skills rather than knowing the facts. what do you think is more important?

 

I'm still waiting for Epiphany to reply to this...

 

If they want their kids to learn religion, why don't they send their kids to catholic school. you don't have to be catholic to go to a catholic school. why don't they just send their kids to a catholic school and stop bitching and moaning about no prayer in school. they're lazy bastards.

 

You cant choose one religion which every child in one entire school has to go by dont you see any problem at all in that? It will mean more bullying for the children of other religions as if you dont fit in in schools you get bullied I know that I am in a school!

 

LOL> Ted Bundy never killed anyone. God intervened and killed those women.

 

how can you teach a history class without teaching religion? Christianity in particular is essential to western history. I'm sure the same can be said of over religions for other parts of the world. Any study of history that removes religion is half assed at best and a down right crock of shit at worst.


How can you not teach about christianity for the roman empire? The gods for greeks/romans? Of protestantism/catholicism for europe/america? etc etc etc. Religion is one of the most essential concepts of history. Any real study of history needs this. Its not sufficient to say "There's a religion called christianity and they believe in a guy called "god." You need to understand the religion to understand the history and why things happened.

If we cant teach kids to think for themselves and decide what religion or lack of religion is best for them, then we are failing miserably at educating our students. Anyone who is worried about kids being brainwashed by religion should worry about the state of our educational system.

 

That's not the Issue here.

I don't think anyone has a problem with history lessions going onto religon, explaining what aincent man believed and why, etc.. That's all good stuff..

What we don't want is for our kids to go to school where all they taught is one religion, as if it's the only religion, and it's the way they have to live their life... do you see what I mean?

 

School in Amerika is shitty all around and it oughtta be shut down. School in Amerika is state-sponsored propaganda designed so that children will believe in nothing other than the continued supremacy of the United States at the cost of war, poverty, and death for those not fortunate enought to be among the wealthy. Kids oughtta quit school as soon as they get up the nerve.

 

so who created god? you'll say he always exsisted, so why cant things like atoms n' such always exsist. time is very much a human concept based on the decay of organic creatures and the rotation of the earth.

pure stupidity is the way you try to explain things that are hard to grasp by saying its a result of some magical, all knowing yet intangible, unseen being.

 

Who created God?
Who created the God that created God?
Who created the God that created the God that created God?

Infinity and beyond

The idea that particles expanded to create the internal complexities of a human body sounds about as rational as a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

When scientists can successfully disprove the existence of God, get back to me.

 

Someone understands

 

^^so belief in an all powerful god is a reasonible alternative to taking a class in biology and learning something new?

 

The problem is, many teachers can't handle teaching about various religious beliefs without imposing their own beliefs into it. Many teachers, even very good ones, have a slight slant one way or another in their teaching towards their views. If your teacher was a fundementalist Christian(or any religion really), then him or her teaching religions with the intent of having the student look at it with an open mind is kind of invalidated. Also, by the time students get to high school, or even middle school, most people have a pretty firm set of values in place. Religion is such a touchy subject that there will always be a group of people that will be against it being displayed in one light vs. another.

I don't know about anywhere else, but my school has ALWAYS had a big Christian influence by the hardcore Baptist population. It's slowly changing, but as a Jewish girl growing up here, it was always a problem. Religion should be a private matter and something you explore on your own, not something forced to be explored through a school. That's what religious schools and homeschool is for.

And on evolution vs creationism- why don't we just ban biology then? The difference between evolution and creationism, and the reason why I put my stock in evolution, is because evolution crosses all boundries of culture, religion, and education. Creationism is different in each and every religion. In fact, the Judeo-Christian version of it isn't even the oldest belief. So wouldn't it make more sense to teach Hindu Creationist beliefs seeing as how it's older? No, of course not, because then the Christians would be up in arms over it. Evolution is something everyone can agree on rather than a plethoria of different creationist beliefs.

 

Teaching the history of religion in conjunction with our history would be ok if it were possible to do it right. But you would have to show the ugly side too, which would piss off to many people.

 

Why can't they present evolution and the evidence to support it and then present intelligent design and the evidence to support it and then let the students decide for themselves. They could have the students write an essay citing only scientific evidence to support their individual beliefs. ie they couldn't cop out and just say creationism is so because the Bible says its so. They would have to cite scientific evidence alone. One of the major problems with our schools is that they teach kids to mindlessly regurgitate what they are taught when the should be teaching kids to(gasp!) think for themselves. What a radical concept!