Recently in an assembly in my school about the Easter holidays we where given leaflets from this evangelical organization. It told us we should believe in the Christian God or we would fail to rule ourselves and die. Do you think this acceptable in schools? Should Religious schools be allowed? And how should religion be taught in schools?
Christian God or we would fail to rule ourselves and die.
I hate it when they are so sudden in stating this. They dont mean physical death people. Dont get paranoid. Ive got alot of these from people who think Im atheist but Im not(Im actually a devout Christian ) By die they mean a spiritual death, it means that you are not in acknowledgement with a higher being or GOD. Someone who is spiritually dead is ,simply put, a person who doesnt belive in a GOD.
(lol who am I kidding, their parents will decide for em).
Actually, most of my family are atheists but I chose to be a Christian.
Considering that I once threw a Bible at the local vicar when he started handing them out in my school and babbling on about heathen children but I took Religious Education as a GCSE choice... I have mixed views on this. If religious beliefs are presented in a non-biased "this is what we believe because X" way then it's fine - only when it's presented in a "this is absolutely the unquestionable truth - question it and god kills a kitten and sends you to hell" way is there a problem with it.
It told us we should believe in the Christian God or we would fail to rule ourselves and die.
This is of course intolerable and should not be allowed in school. They can make proselytism elsewhere (although I don't like that in general). Recently, two men rang at every door in our apartment and distributed leaflets for some kind of conference or discussion round/lecture concerning jesus; they gave me their flyer and didn't try to persuade or intimidate me, simply said I can look at it, read it and make up my mind, good day, bye. This would be the only tolerable way to do it: inform people of events and happenings, let them the choice to go there or not.
In my opinion religion should not be taught in school, or at least in a completely separate course, every other matter should be completely secular. I don't have a problem with religious teachers, as long as they are able to separate education from faith.
I hate it when they are so sudden in stating this. "SNIP" Someone who is spiritually dead is ,simply put, a person who doesnt believe in a GOD.
Oh, I'm less worried then.
Actually, most of my family are atheists but I chose to be a Christian.
Where I live it's usually you are born into Christianity. Your Family most likely will be christian and the first school you go to will be religious and have obligatory monday religious gatherings or make you go to mass depending on how far your school was from one of the local churches
If they teach religions in school, they should tell you about all major religions. That's how they do it in Sweden. In High School, we had religion class, and we were taught a little bit about the beliefs of all major religions, with no emphasis on any specific one. That way, no one is discriminated for having a different religion, and it doesn't encourage you to pick one over the other unless you actually feel it makes more sense. But then again, atheism is very common over here, so it's not like there's any pressure from the church, parents or other to actually teach Christianity over the other religions. The only person in my class who actually believed in God, AFAIK, was Muslim anyway.
Though, I'm guessing that in the USA, there might be at least a few Christians who wouldn't like that their religions would be taught as an equal to, say, Hinduism.
Oh, and of course we were simply told that this was what the different religions believed, and we were never actually told any of it was true. Very non-biased. No kitten killing involved.
I believe that there should be a religious studies course in the way Avorne presented it, and ofocurse the curriculum would include multiple religions both ancient and modern.
As for the religious schools, I don't have a problem with them so long as they're private. Taxpayer money should not fund religion in schools unless you happen to be one of the unlucky few that lives under a theocracy.
I believe that there should be a religious studies course in the way Avorne presented it, and ofocurse the curriculum would include multiple religions both ancient and modern.
Yeah, ideally they'd start with the old religions and document the evolution and adaptation of religion over the years, presenting their beliefs and their impact on history without bias. Depending on the length of the course there'd be an equal amount of time spent on each of the religions too.
In my school we do Religious education where we learn about other religions which I think helps since we live in a diverse society and over the next few years apparently we start doing philosophy which I'm looking forwards to. But we don't get told that religion is right it's just "they believe" etc. And we only do modern religions. I think that telling kids that a religion is right is wrong since they should be allowed to decide for themselves. And for this reason faith schools shouldn't be allowed since they can do whatever they want for religious education and have their own inspectors from the church or synagogue etc and their religion influences other lessons like science. Like in this documentary on faith schools there was a Christian one where in science the did Noah's ark
Not only teaching what Islam is, but clarifying the differences between radical and moderate Islam. I'm of the opinion that ignorance begets prejudice, prejudice begets hate, and hate begets fear. It's a process that will eventually destroy both sides.
Are schools even allowed to do that? Isn't there some kind of law against it? If not there should be. You can't just force a religon on someone. They should be willing to listen, and if they're not then they're not. It should be their choice.
where i live, there is a law against teaching religion in school, and you can get arrested for trying to tell a class about a religion. it is all part of this thing where sense we have freedom of religion, if you tried to teach it, that wouldn't be freedom of religion. it would force the kids to believe what the teacher says.
religious schools are all right, as long as they get actual teaching in and you would go to that school because you chose to, not because you got assigned that school due to school districts.
the pamphlets they handed out should not be in public schools, and is against the law ins some places.
Are schools even allowed to do that? Isn't there some kind of law against it? If not there should be.
There is. In the United States. School prayers and scripture readings were declared unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause in: School District of Abington Township v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963)
Unfortunately religion still carries a quite a lot of political weight in schools, hence the reason that many school systems banned Harry Potter when it was first released. It's also the same reason that many high school biology teachers avoid the subject of human evolution. (See: Scopes Monkey Trial)
