Don't you think it would be a good idea to have mandatory comparative religion classes in high school?

Question

And don't you think it would be a good idea to have them in colleges and universities, as well? After all, they would give students a great deal of insight into why other groups think the way they do and would also probably foster a higher level of religious tolerance.

It wouldn't violate the separation of church and state, because the intention of the class would be to educate students about various world religions, not to indoctrinate them.

Answer 1

Providing that also Atheism is included, yes

Answer 2

That would be great at the college level, but I think that parents would be a tough obstacle in High School. Many parents don't want their children to have the freedom to choose their own religion.

And who gets on the list? Would you cover Paganism? Druidry? What about Satanism? Or voodoo? Mormonism? Jehovah's Witness? Western Ceremonial Occultism? Thelema? Surely you will offend someone!!!

Answer 3

Not mandatory, but classes available if they wanted to take them. Just as soon as you say Mandatory, people from all sides will be crying that other religions are being Forced onto them. You'd have a high drop out rate among mainstream religions who view Paganism as Evil. Besides, most in mainstream religions who have never had contact with Paganism before, don't want any contact with it. They are perfectly happy wearing their blinders. *smile*

Answer 4

No doubt that is a good idea. No matter these are selective / optional or which level will be available ~ students interested in the field will take the classes.
But the material of study should not be limited to a particular scholars. The material should itself be a comparative one.

Answer 5

Again, nice idea, not mandatory though, and what do you do about those schools who start off teaching comparative religion but which turns pretty quickly into a "... and this is why it's obvious why Islam/Buddhism/Wicca etc is a false religion." Could end up making things worse, and how could it be regulated to avoid that?

Answer 6

No, why? I honestly do no longer think of that awareness the religions might decrease down on discrimination. particularly to the alternative, i think of it might make discrimination lots extra justifiable while human beings learn the nonsense of what some human beings actual have self belief. i can assure you, I used to have an open strategies approximately faith till I minored in it in college. are you able to think of coaching approximately Wicca and Scientology? you think of coaching approximately Gerald Gardner and Xenu might shrink the quantity of ridicule going approximately concerning adherents to those faiths? faith, as a concern no longer based in any form of fact, is of no value to a pupil, and as such has no place in public education. it particularly is a waste of time and an exercising in legitimizing absurdity. i may well be vehemently adversarial to this way of project. i think, while speaking approximately center jap or Indian historical past, there is a few room of very purpose talk concerning the religions and their powerful tenets in the context of a few thing else (motivation for the conquering and re-conquering of the Indian subcontinent, as an occasion), yet there's no reason to commit an entire direction or perhaps an entire classification era to it.

Answer 7

High school as mandatory classes - absolutely NO. There are already such classes at the university and college levels that can be taken as elective classes. I took several philosophy classes in college out of curiousity but they should never be made mandatory.

Answer 8

Colleges are fine. I don't have a problem with high schools including them in a sociology or history class covering basic beliefs with and about how they have effected history.

High school is having enough problems getting kids to read and have basic math, science, history and geography abilities. An in depth course on religion is far less important.

Answer 9

EVERYONE would have to come to agreement on what "religion" would intell.

Anamist, Islam, Judism, Budism, Athesm, Satanism, Christianity, Hundiusm, Wicci, Communism, Socialism, Evelution, etc. then there are branches to all of these.

That could take a lifetime. With all these, where would you start? Start with the one who started it...is the person that started these a person that you want to follow?

Answer 10

NO. I think it would be a good idea to only teach what is necessary in school about the existance of other religions as a teacher can not know about all of them, nor cover all of them correctly. That should be left to the churches.

Answer 11

I believe that general culture courses would be useful. Religion would be covered under that curriculum. We are very uninformed regarding other cultures, including their religions. I believe education would go a long way toward promoting tolerance.