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Permalink Reply by Jtrottier on December 1, 2010 at 2:41am

The history of how world religions were formed? That is about all I can think that schools should/could teach. Though I would expect it to be a short class or a very small piece of it. as there is little real historical evidence for what people believe. At the same time, giving a rundown of major religions and how they were formed in, what evidence they have, in public high schools would incite some interesting things from fundies of all types. They probably wouldn't like it, as higher education produces more atheists that just about anything else. Regardless of when in the life it was taught the more important thing is to how it is taught.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on December 1, 2010 at 3:57am

I think it is important to teach kids religion as history. We need to give children the information they need to make their own decisions in life.

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Permalink Reply by Julien on January 28, 2011 at 3:54am

Yes. Teach them religion as history, but don't avoid the part about all the deaths and suffering religion has caused.

 

But, in a lot of countries they don't even teach the alternative, evolution; so, it will be a long time until religion will be taught just as history.

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Permalink Reply by Loop Johnny on December 1, 2010 at 4:27am

It is a reason why the Bible is not thought in History classes. It is not facts. I oppose the 'religion education' object, which is being thought in my country in school as a separate subject( like civic education, etc. ).

At history it should be thought what the impact of religion was on the society and things like that, and take all religions as a whole ( not even a true religion ).

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Permalink Reply by Isaac on January 6, 2011 at 3:43am

Daniel Dennett had an interesting lecture and he touched on this subject. I agree with him, so I'll post a link to his lecture.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_s_response_to_rick_warren.html

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Permalink Reply by Kelin420 on January 6, 2011 at 5:15am

Way back in High School- we had a "Comparative Mythology" class- Greek, Roman, Babylonian, Norse, and a few Chinese and SE Pacific mythologies where on the curriculum. Me and a few others also brought up the mythologies that are still called religion. Of course the religious people in class didn't like it- because the one THEY believe is the REAL religion- not like those false ones. That's why nobody believes in them anymore.

 

Religion needs to be as far from school and children as possible.

 

If you let one religion in school- you would have to have them ALL in school. Just reading off the names of every one of them would take the whole day. The walls would be covered in various religious posters, beliefs, and commandments. No time to learn anything but fairy tales all day.

 

Religious Education is an oxymoron.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Radu Andreiu on January 28, 2011 at 4:18am

I got through 12 years of religious preaching in my school system and I can tell you it shows how stupid people are. Not only that most people agree with religious preaching in schools, even though my country is officially secular, but the stupid things I heard in those religion classes are beyond my willingness to accept this situation. From unscientific claims to flat-out anti-scientific ones, I had to endure teachers saying that the Earth is thousands of years old and that scientists are worshiping the Devil and that's why they come up with these "atheistic" claims. I bet that without the religion class I would have come to the realization that there probably is no god much sooner, but I wouldn't have really understood how religion can warp the minds of people. I grew up in a pretty non-religious family, but my religion teachers had me convinced for some time that all their non-sense was true. That's why I oppose childhood indoctrination so much, because the minds of children are so easy to manipulate that I get scared even thinking of children being raised by fundamentalists.

 

The study of the religious phenomena would be awesome, if done properly, but preaching in schools is a disaster for the students' minds. I have overcome my beliefs, but most people don't. According to a 2002 census, only about 0.15% of the population declared themselves atheists, agnostics, non-religious, or didn't specify a religion. The rest of them are all religious people and that's scary. I suspect that the number has risen with the much less religious new generations, but I don't expect it to be a remarkable rise. Anyway, I thank Saint Internet for saving my mind, because the school system wouldn't have.

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Permalink Reply by Julien on January 28, 2011 at 1:57pm

Great post, Radu. I feel sorry for the kids that still have to go through all that. I remember the priest that taught religion in my class telling me that I'm going to die alone like a stray dog because I was laughing at what he was saying, and I wasn't actually an atheist back then. Others were laughing too, for various reasons - it was a fun and relaxing hour if you forget about all the bullshit that is force-fed to you.

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Permalink Reply by 3equ3cp1fsw0n on January 28, 2011 at 2:28pm

Anyway, I thank Saint Internet for saving my mind, because the school system wouldn't have.

 

What I would have given to have Saint Internet around when I went through my crisis of faith.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Raymond on January 28, 2011 at 11:29am

I remember saying the lord's prayer growing up going to a public school in Canada.  But somewhere in my logical thinking brain I didn't believe this invisible god existed.  They finally got rid of prayer in the public schools where I live. I know because I taught in the school system for 38 years.  I remember kids having to go into the hall because they couldn't say the daily prayer, and I wanted to go myself.  It would look kind of weird watching the teacher go out in the hall during prayer.  If I did, I know about 90% of the kids would have just caused some kind of ruckus in the classroom.  LOL !  Go for it! I don't want to mock prayer just because it doesn't have any effect! Yeah, right! Anyway, at university, I took religious studies as a minor, while majoring in Sociology.  It's after taking the religious courses that I really became an out of closet atheist.  So, as the saying goes, if you want to make an atheist, have him/her read and study the bible.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on January 28, 2011 at 12:06pm

Religion is a part of human history. I think it hould be taught as such. So that in the future people can see and avoid the mistakes of the past.

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Permalink Reply by Violet Chartreuse on January 28, 2011 at 1:46pm

 I agree with the notion that it should be taught from a historical perspective as part of mythology.

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