Is Religion allowed in School?

I think you may have missed Kendra's comment:

The answer is not to have public schools.

no religion should not be allowed to be taught in schools.religion is the cause of 90% of the violence in the world and as far as im concerned religion sucks and if there is a god so does he.

Yup Che, there is a god, or Goddess rather, and she doesn't just suck, she swallows.

LOL

Religion should be taught at an early age to children, if for no other reason than to teach people how to be tolerant of others. As the last couple of posts show, some could use a dose of tolerance.

btw, do teens have access to the same forums as the main grid? Just wondering.

Christianity is not a Race, its a Cult

It's not a cult if Christ is God.

Religion and school just dont belong together, period amen end of subject. This is not, despite protestation from the right, a christian country, its a secular state. We are guarenteed freedom of religion and the only way to ensure that is to remove competing religions from our public buildings and schools. My point stop the arguments and go enjoy the freedom of thought and creativity in SL

hmmmm, instead of "religion" let's use a word that's not so - divisive.

Some people see the word "religion" and automatically think "church". OP is NOT saying "let's start having church in school," he is saying - "let's tell children ABOUT other religions in the world." I see nothing wrong with that. I'm pretty sure that won't cause any cataclysmic events for people to be more aware of the differences and similarities of other religions.

The US Constitution (to paraphrase) says there will be no official US religion. You can be whatever religion you want to be here. It does not say that you can't tell people about other belief systems.

JMHO

OK, on a serious note... teaching religion in a comparitive basis, to help foster understanding and tolerance is a good idea.

Howwever using an educational system to push ANY religious idealogy on someone is wrong. Education should produce an individual capable of making informed choices, not one whose choices have been made for them.

And the goddess comment was a joke Kevn, i suggest you try to relocate your sense of humour.
Ok it was a crude play on words, but double entendres amuse me, so there!!!

Hair Eris! Praise Connie!

Which is why Kevn is saying religions, not "X" religion. I knew of very few other religions when I was growing up. I was raised Lutheran - in the midst of a lot of Southern Baptists, Presbyterians and the like. I was told a couple of times I was going to Hell because I was not Baptist. There's tolerance for ya, huh?

Children really have no say in where they go to worship (or not), so your education argument is invalid. Children go where their parents tell them to go - later in life they may change their minds, if they are given the information.

I haven't read the whole thread, sorry. But I wanted to point out my experiences with religion in school.

When I was in elementary school, we had Bible school once a week. This was in the late 60's, before they stopped it. It was confusing because we went to a Baptist Church and the teacher was from a different religion and I remember her saying something about having to be baptized as a baby or you could go to hell. I don't remember specifically but I do remember getting into a debate with her at the tender age of 7 and being terrified that we had the wrong religion.

Later, in High School, I was recruited into something called the Church of Bible Understanding. they had members having Bible Studies in the cafeteria at lunch and in the hallways before and after class. They focused on misfits, kids who weren't popular and susceptible to their happy shiny Jesus Freaks attitude. They had me handing out tracts in the mall in the evening and working as a telemarketer for their Christian Brother's Carpet Cleaning company on the weekends. When my French class was interfering with my free time, they convinced me to quit. They also wanted me to join them after High School to live in one of their communes, so I abandon my plans to go to college.

This was a cult working under the guise of religion in school. When I finally broke free in my Senior year and I looked around at what I had given up, the realization was devastating. If the school hadn't let them operate on school property.

If we open up the schools to religion, we have to include all of them like the Moonies. Do we really want this? Religion is something best monitored by the parents, not teachers.

You say comparative as if there would be unbias representation of every religion. This won't happen due to the inherent feelings involved in religion. For instance, would Wicca be properly represented?

It's too sticky of an issue.

People are really missing the OP's point. It is NOT to have bible study or convert anyone to Moonies. What I believe he is saying is we should make children more AWARE of other religions and belief systems. Ignorance may be bliss for some, it can also be a breeding ground for hatred for others.

It is wrong for a teacher to tell a child he/she would go to hell for any reason, and that teacher would be fired for such a thing if I made the rules back then. That teacher was preaching her personal religion, and that would be unacceptable. She could say 'Catholics believe people who aren't baptized Catholic will go to hell' and that would be acceptable, as it isn't a moral statement, but rather a statement of fact concerning the teachings of a religion.

The fact you joined a religious club and later felt you were taken advantage of has nothing to do with teaching religion, in fact, had you had all the information concerning religions, you might have not been so easily duped. Many young people are drawn into cults just because they lack the basic knowledge of all major religions, imho.

I'm not advocating teaching a religion to kids as if it's the only religion, I'm talking about teaching children the basic tenets of all major religions, and letting them further explore at their leisure.

When I went to High School, religion was allowed in schools in some ways. Students could organize clubs that are religion specific. The school can in no way stop the students from practicing a religion, but they also couldn't advocate one primary religion. Teachers can teach about a religion, but they can't practice it while in school. In English, we read excerpts from our textbooks that were chapters from the Bible. We weren't forced to pray, or have faith, in the Christian religion. Only to learn about it.

I'm talking about grade school, from the time the child is old enough to study concepts.

My point was that once you open the door, the interpretation is left up to certain people. It's too hard of a subject to use in a control situation.

We already deal with concepts at that age.

If a parent is concerned, I would think it would push that parent to get involved more in the process of educating their child. If the parent thinks teaching their child about the basic tenant of other religions is a threat to their own religion, then they can homeschool or find a private school. Many already do this, but not because religion is taught, but because freedom FROM religion has such a grip, it's almost to the point of pushing anti-religion.

I like the Wiccans.

They make awesome herbal teas and really know how to put folks at ease - very nonjudgemental folk in every case I've ever met.

I wish they went door to door.

They go to some religion classes to teach their beliefs by practicing the rituals for the students. It was very interesting, except for the part were the female dances over the men with a sharp knife. That part was just a bit much for even me. But I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn about them. It gives me insight into their point of view, and makes me more tolerant of them. They are just people with different beliefs, but still people. It's easier to accept others if we understand their beliefs.

You know, Kevn, it really does depend on locality. I suppose that if you were living in some regions of the United States, or perhaps in certain European countries, your statement - "freedom FROM religion has such a grip, it's almost to the point of pushing anti-religion" - might make some sense. But in many - if not most - areas of the United States, for example, religion so dominates and is often so repressive on certain subjects that your statement has a sad and disturbing irony.

For example, in most places in Appalachia, the Midwest, the South, and in certain places in the Rockies and the Great Plains, and in scattered rural areas all over the U.S. - you cannot teach subjects like evolution, geology, physics, ancient world civilizations, literature, philosophy, etc., without fear of reprisal from the local religious establishments. That reprisal can be mild, moderate, or extreme - but it is always in the minds of educators and professionals on the public and higher education levels, and it that shapes their work every day.

In business, government, and the technical fields, the sometimes-repressive influence of the predominant religion is also a daily factor - a condition that has been documented thoroughly in thousands of political, economic, sociological, and psychological studies over the last thirty years.

It's worth noting that this sort of oppression occurs in America where ever a religious creed dominates - whether it's evangelical Christianity in the South and Appalachia, Catholicism in Boston, Mormonism in Utah, or Islam in areas of Detroit. The same hold true in other nations.

The drumbeat of those who hold that religion is oppressed in America is silly and often cynically hypocritical. What's really happening is that after thousands of years of intellectual repression, certain societies have taken steps to create a freer intellectual atmosphere, certain powerful elements within those societies don't like it, and those that enjoy these comparatively-new freedoms are often overly-defensive in their fears that such conditions will be transitory, and disappear from the human experience once again.

However, I'm in agreement with, Kevn. If religion can be taught in public and higher education institutions without the fear of consequences - and in the exact same manner as philosophy or ethics - if Christianity can be taught from the same balanced perspective as Shintoism in a high school in rural Mississippi or Dearborn, Michigan - if all religions can be taught as examples of human institutions and the development of human ethics without bias or appeal to dogma, and if the proper academic distinctions can be made between the natural world and supernatural causation theories - and if the dominant religion can be prevented from influencing the classroom or the atmosphere of learning therein - then perhaps such an approach might do us a great service.

I'm not holding my breath. But I shall try to keep an open mind.

Open approach - Vote for vouchers.

If you don't like what's being taught in public schools, and don't have the money for a private school, throw your support behind a system that removes control of what is taught to children from the state and hands it back to parents. This would do the best job of protecting freedom of religion, but you run the risk that your next door neighbor is using tax dollars to send his kids to madrassas.

Covert approach - deny that your beliefs are a religion.

What tends to set off the warning bells in people is the whole "God" thing. But if you strip any reference to God or the spiritual nature of man from your teachings, you can get away with just about anything. Be careful with this, though! It is much more effective if you truly do not have any belief in God. ID proponents created an uproar because they are not good liars.

Meanwhile, other faiths and practices continue to gain access to schools simply because their beliefs deny man's spiritual nature. How many of you were subjected to counseling or referrals to psychiatrists by people paid to be in your schools? How many of you were taught Darwinism not from the basis of a testable scientific theory but as absolute dogmatic truth? Or had political speakers laying out their positions in front of a captive audience?

Would it be ok to teach false religions in schools?



Little Johnny: My book of the week says the devil exists, but Katie's book says no?

Teacher: We are learning about the beliefs of others, Johnny.

Little Johnny: So does he exist or don't he?

Teacher: That isn't the point, we are learning what each has to say.

Little Jonny: Well they can't all be right, can they? It's a yes or no.

Teacher: Maybe you are being too literal in your interpretation, child.

Little Johnny: What's to interpret? Devil, or no devil.

Teacher: Perhaps each is correct in it's own way.

Little Johnny: When you grade my test, I want the same benefit of doubt please!



*little Johnny leans over to girl next to him*

"Wow, look at all this stuff in these books. It reads like Neil Gaiman, doesn't it?"