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Should religion be taught in schools?

Admin 9 June 19
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730 comments (76 - 100)

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4

No no no what do we have churches for they do not pay taxes why should they be allowed a public forum,or government sponsored indoctrination

KICKN Level 5 Nov 6, 2017
4

No- Separation of church and state. It also bothers me that churches and religious groups get "tax exempt" status, which is a real scam.

4

Absolutely not!!!!! We have put in our Constitution the right to have the church separated from the church. I am completely ok with a religious class only if all religions are studied.

4

Religion has everything to do with education, in a negative sense. Children need to be aware of all the historical events caused by religion, from slavery to witch burning to the slaughter of all the greatest scientific minds we had. Unfortunately, here in England, RE classes are nearly always taught be christians, who obviously cannot deliver unbiased lessons on all other religions. And what really makes me angry is schools which let in bible bashers to do "assemblies" (always christian) - you can imagine the uproar if Moslems came in to do an assembly! But I had a very good discussion with the kids after the assembly about David killing Goliath, and we decided that Goliath was misunderstood, vertically challened in a positive sends, probably had special educational needs, and that David should have been put in jail for killing him. RESULT!

4

I can see a place for the study of religion in public schools. It is an important phenomenon in history, domestic affairs, and international affairs. Clearly, there is no place for religious indoctrination in public schools.

4

Yes it should, but only with the direct goal of understanding the stances and positions that the religions hold in order to better educate about religion. It should never promote one religion over the other and never to taught with the goal of indoctrination. Easier said than done for most schools I would believe.

4

Absolutely not! It has no place in an intellectual environment. Education is very important & shouldn't be full of superstitious nonsense.

4

I have no problem religion being taught in school. As a teacher I have always argued that Religious education should be taught by someone who is non-biased towards religion, i.e an Atheist. I teach in the UK and most RE is taught by Christians in the schools I have worked in.

4

Religious traditions (all religious traditions) as an element of humanities or social studies coupled with a heavy emphasis on history - gives the students a better perspective of how toxic religions have been through history

4

There should be a class in religion. It needs to teach the origins of ALL religions including classical mythology. Christianity should not get any more exposure than Islam or Satanism or Christian Science. Give the history and important details like how many wars has that religion started.The conflicts between different religious groups. Explain about how that religions Scriptures came to be and about how unreliable the translation process can be.

4

Yes but in the mythology section. It's important to know where cultures spawn from.

4

I think there should be a mandatory World Religions class that treats all religions historically, meaning the facts behind why each one exists, when it started, by whom, from what other religion(s) did it plagiarize, etc. These facts have been very important to me in learning how and why humans have created these myths over time and this information also helps me in debating theists and deists. Not religion taught as fact, the facts about religions. All of them.

Very nice suggestion. We need to live as one

I agree. It is fascinating to note that the roots of monotheism, specifically christianity, go back 5000 years or more and shares eerie similarities with ancient Assyrian and other religions.

4

Not in public schools. As a historical and social construct, talking and/or teaching about what religion means is not taboo, but it should include the damage religion has done to individuals, communities, society and the world in general.

Teach religion the same way they teach world history

4

A non-partisan view of all religions should be taught in schools. Otherwise it's hard to understand history and literature.

4

Religions as a course... sure along with all mythologies. Keep in mind all paths not just christian. I doubt that this coul be done with out demonizing all but the local slant what ever thst might be.

4

Religions have all been created as control structures to gain power over others (some of them MUCH more than others). Teaching several of the major religions might allow students to see and understand this link. Thinking on this question from a curriculum standpoint, it is difficult to imagine how many class hours it would take simply to cover the myriad sects of Christianity, let alone the sub-groups of Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, the huge number of tribal belief systems...

Simple answer to the question though... yes.

4

Comparative religion, yes. Religious indoctrination, absolutely not. That should be treated as a criminal offense.

4

No. i hold true to the concept of, separation of church and state.

But the Church and State issue is about ideology, not knowledge.

4

as a piece of mediocre literature. Sure.

3

The Bible should be in the "Fiction" section of every school library.

BD66 Level 8 Jan 26, 2019
3
3

NO!

3

No. No publicly funded institution should support any religious crap.

3

Personally I THINK that they should teach right from wrong. Nobody should be influenced either way on religion.. It should be a choice.. Based on fact...an informed decision kinda thing

But right and wrong have nothing to do with religion.

And here we have to distinguish the difference between individual belief and the institution of religion. The personal belief system would not be the point of a class in Comparative Religion but rather the study of the philosophy and behaviors/rituals of each religion. A study of morality would be a separate issue...the ethics question. Not necessarily religious at all, as the person's comment above hints at.

3

Absolutely not!!!!

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