What would happen if there was a junior school subject that teaches the main aspects of each major religion?

Question

Would children be more likely to see that each culture has their own beliefs and that there is just as much evidence to prove the validity of these beliefs as there is to prove their own?

Answer 1

I took classes like that in middle school, high school and college. It's essentially what lead me to believe that religion was nothing more than a primitive superstition that has held over into modern times.

All religions are different, incompatable. That means either one of them is right or none of them are. They can't all be right. Heaven and nirvana are completely different concepts.

So if one religion is right and all others are wrong then why was it not obvious to everyone in the class as we studied them? Surely a religion that contained divine truth should be better than the ones that are false.

The only reasonable answer is that all religions are false. We live in the real world where there is no magic, no miracles, no spirits and no gods.

Answer 2

I took just such a course in college as a required part of a degree in social sciences (filled the sociology part of the degree) and found it fantastic and highly enlightening. I suggested it to all my friends and would have taken it as an elective even if it hadn't been required. It opened my eyes to the actual FACTUAL basis behind other religions including my own at the time. I found myself to be much more tolerant of others and open minded since the myths had all been debunked by this knowledge. It's always best to teach tolerance by teaching facts. I sum it up this way when I talk to kids whenever they ask about what a religion really means. Ask someone who IS of that faith. Don't ask your personal religious leader. While they may have a learned knowledge they still have a preference or bias or they wouldn't be a religious leader. "Don't ask a fish what it is like to be a turtle, he can only tell you what a turtle IS. If you want to know what it is LIKE, then ask the turtle instead." It gets laughs a lot of times, especially if I use amusing animals but I also see a real light go on in their eyes. So learn from an objective teacher who has no particular slant, and then go find your turtle if you want to know more.

Answer 3

Well if it is taught right and not someone trying to push their's beliefs on you. That the teacher let you check out for your self and also I would make sure that the teacher is really up on her religion before I let my child take that class.
I had a religion course in high school and the teacher taught from the Living Bible translations and I didn't do too good in it because I had been used to the King James Bible. So I think that people should teach the kids about all of the religions and give students a change to let people know about their s religions and their culture. Because hey there is alots of kids out there that have never heard of the word religion and never been to a religious service in their life. good luck

Answer 4

I wouldn't trust many teachers to teach this class fairly. Even fewer could teach it knowledgeably. All too many teachers would push their own predjudices even while pretending to be neutral or believing they are being neutral. Others would go further and bash Christianity. Other religions might get bashed too, but probably not as often. Some teachers might promote a religion, but the number of teachers that did that would likely be smaller than the number of bashers.

Finally, I doubt very many teachers in junior high school know enough about religion to be qualified to teach the class. It has been my experience that many otherwise intelligent and well educated people are abysmally ignorant about the Bible. The same could be said for the texts of other religions.

Answer 5

Greetings,

All it would prove is that the atheist forces are winning. By marginalizing religion in general (no matter what religion it is), it can have an effect of trivializing or insulting the different cultures and their belief system. Why is it that the political correctness freaks, Liberals, atheists, gays/lesbians always trying to push tradition down the toilet?? I mean, let the Italian people keep their culture, let the Greeks,Chinese, Indians, Irish, French, etc keep their culture.....why is it that the liberal political correctness freaks and extremists insist on dumping their ways and bring everyone together in acceptance of the whole liberal extremist views of "no one can discriminate....no one can have their own thoughts, you all have to think the liberal way, otherwise you are 'whatever-phobic/racist /evil/intolerant/undemocratic'??? "....meanwhile these same people shove their "political correctness religion" on the masses through the courts without letting the public vote on these issues. Fascism indeed.

The religion of "political correctness" is the new religion of this millennium.....please listen to this speaker...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c

It's about 48 minutes long but he does an amazing job at explaining why our society is so screwed up. The logic is undeniable. Watch and realize!

Good day,
TCL

P.s - I noticed someone just gave me a thumbs down as I edited this answer. Gosh, I wonder if they actually saw that whole 48 minute video in the time (3 minutes) it took me to edit this. What's the point in writing these answers and giving some proof when people don't even take the time to evaluate a person's answer in a fair way. Some people are just too liberal. : ) It further proves my point. Liberals think they're always right and conservatives should just shut up because a one-sided debate is the only kind of real debate for a liberal extremist.

Answer 6

It's a good idea to want to promote acceptance of all religions, but there'd be some problems to deal with. Would we all be in favor of extending school hours to fit that curriculum in? Or do we remove some important classes? One solution could be to make it an elective. What if the teacher practices a religion you don't care for? Tough to believe that no teachers would be tempted to show bias towards their own particular religion. I'm sure many parents would be quick to doubt a teacher who believed differently than them as well. It would be a lot more complicated than it first sounds. It seems more reasonable to encourage parents to teach their children acceptance of all religions at home, rather than putting the burden on the already overloaded school system.

Answer 7

well i am getting sick of taking all these silly "required classes" and all these silly ge classes

but i know what youre getting at

i dont think it should be its own exclusive required class., but surely integrated into the history classes. i mean when you learn about the middle east in a history class, islam is part of studying the history and culture. so i mean when you study pilgrims and stuff, you need to study christianity to understand why they left and why they came.. and everything that happened after. i mean to understand a lot of stuff that happens historically, you need to understand what tehir beliefs are. so i agree with you to the extent of putting it into a history class.

but i mean on the other hand you have all the crazies that work in schools. not all, of course. but i had a lot of crazy teachers... lol i mean it just made me mad that in elementary/middle/high school i had to learn the 5 pillars of islam and all this stuff, but they wouldnt talk about christianity when it related to other history because that would be "promoting religion" or whateebr.

i dont know.. like making me memorize the 5 pillars of islam wasnt promoting religion.

i think its all or nothing lol. so i say this: studying just religions is a stupid idea. but so is just studying history without religion. you need both to understand them completely..

Answer 8

I think that'd be great. It's not an endorsement of religion to learn about the types of social systems that exist in our world.

The first, most obvious benefit would be to increase tolerance. I learned about Islam and ancient Muslim cultures in history. It taught me most of the things that happen in modern Muslim countries (like practices toward women) aren't things that were done in Muslim countries 1000 years ago. It didn't make me a Muslim or inclined to be one, but at least I learned Muslims aren't unshaven baby-eating terrorists who wrap their women in mattresses and strap bombs to their chests and explode with such little provocation you wonder where they're all coming from. :P

Also, I think people would find it easier to understand and relate to each other if they understood each other's beliefs. Maybe there'd be less fighting on R&S. Maybe if they saw all the options they'd understand they didn't HAVE to be Christian, or anything at all if they don't want to. (I know lots of people who look at religion in terms of Christian/not or in shades of denomination, and plenty of others who think it's only a matter of Christianity, Judaism, Atheism, Islam, and maybe Buddhism and Hinduism, as if there were NO other option.)

Answer 9

I think that children would come to the conclusion that all religions are made by man. I am not saying that God is not real...but that the practices of man are there primarily to fulfill their own agendas.

Answer 10

I think at the most it might teach a little tolerance for other cultures and religions. That seems to be what we are the most short on.