should religion be taught in schools?

Question

when so much conflict around the world is a result of religious disagreements should we be teaching our kids religious studies? with so many religions around the world how can we teach religious education covering them all. surely its up to parents to look after childrens spiritual needs. i would rather my kids learn first aid or another language. we send our kids to school and hope that they teach them the correct way to do maths or english, we expect them to be accurate sciences, however society expects them (kids) to learn something that is basically a work of fiction with no hard evidence to support it. (bible koran etc...)

Answer 1

I think it ought to be taught,as in increasing the knowledge about the various religions and not as one to practise...It would definitely help to decrease all these confilicts we have due to misinterpretations and misunderstandings between various religions..Children should be taught to respect all the beliefs of other religions,even if they aren't what their own religion teach..It could help a lot in bringing a bit World Peace..

Answer 2

I think this is one thing the Christians and Atheists agree...No.
It is the duty of the parents to raise a child in faith, and which religion would you want the school to teach? Secular schools cannot teach religion, something they know nothing about. They would just screw up the kids more than they do already. That's why we have private, Christian schools. You can keep your child educated in the faith of choice that you believe is the correct way.
I do think schools should allow prayer at ball games, allow Christmas plays with the true Christmas story of Christ's birth, after school Bible study groups like Child Evangelism, Boy Scouts, etc. In the south, most people, the majority, do not oppose these things, but there's always 1 or 2 who raise a rukus and everyone's afraid to shut them up. So, little by little we've given up the rights of the majority to satisfy the one. When a Valdictorian can't speak from his/her heart about the true reason for their accomplishments and their deep belief in God, that's a sad day in America. I'm glad most of the ones in this situation either give their speech like they wrote it or choose to sit it out.
It's true the public shcool are a mess....mostly due to the deterioration of following and teaching ethics, morals, the ten commandments, lack of prayer and respect for authority, etc. I guess I attended the last of those schools in the 50's and early 60's. Our teachers prayed with us. The worst thing a kid got in trouble for was throwing a spit wad. We never heard of drugs (they were just getting going in the 60's and it was mom's valium) and if anyone knew you smoked, you were a "thug" and an outcast. There was always a nativity scene and a nativity play. And we had certain teachers who regularly quoted scriptures to prove their point. No one questioned if there was God, the creation, Jesus as the Son of God, or the Holy Bible. It was a way of life. Chaos was when a boy kept a girl out 10 min. more than curfew. With all that it was a better time when the kids had security at home and school. We've come a long way from the peace of those days in America. But the answer is not to teach religion in the public school system.

Answer 3

First, I would hope you would do more research for yourself before you ask such biased questions. I say this not to be rude but to illustrate the difference in your approach to the question and any truth that can be told to you. For example, there have been countless people who have sought to disprove the Bible and ended up converting to Christianity based on its truth and accuracy. Another example is the acceptance by many that scientific theories are indeed fact (eg. evolution, man-made global warming, homosexuality being okay) when in reality it is the current liberal agenda that wants to blind people to the real truth.

To answer your question, though, I believe religion should be taught as electives in school. By doing this, those parents who want to have their children receive a religious education can and those who don't can take other courses. Schools would not have to offer ever religion under the sun but only those which met a minimum demand since it is taught as an elective.

After much study in the subject, I have learned that our society is in the state it is largely due to the removal of religious education from the school curriculum. It actually was not so much religion but the removal of moral and ethics training and the removal of corporal punishment. We no longer teach children that there is a right and wrong, or the respect of elders, or the value of human life, or that actions bring consequences. This in turn has taught children that they can act however they want and it is accceptable. We have enforced this by punishing the teachers who attempt too maintain discipline when kids get out of line.

I understand this answer won't be chosen but I had to bring truth to the debate regardless of the difficulty in hearing it. I also had to shine light on a subject where much blindness is so pervasive.

Answer 4

I completed the latter part of my schooling in South Africa.
In fact, I first became aware of different colour skins in South Africa - I had never taken note of such a thing, before.

Oh! yes, getting back to the question. The religious guidance we received in the South African schools at the time, was laughable. No religious instruction exists in the schools, today.

But when I was in India for the first half of my schooling, I was taught tolerance for all religions. I attended an Islamic Boarding school, thereafter a Catholic School.
Both schools taught me to be tolerant of all religions.

We had a special subject called, MORAL SCIENCE and it borrowed stories from the three main religions of India, being Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. This was a study subject. Basically it was a bunch or stories one had to learn. Much like comprehension, you read the story, answered the questions and lastly, each story had a moral which you had to learn. This way you learnt the good of each religion and learnt to be tolerant of others and learnt that people of other faiths are no different to you; just different in the way they go about their business, the business of leading a God fearing life.

Answer 5

The aim of Religious Studies is to educate your children about others so that they know about them before they come across them when they are out at work.

It doesn't matter whether the children believe each of the religions they have been taught, it is to encourage them to accept people with their differences.

There is also the fact that ignorance breeds fear. One of the reasons people are so down on Islam is because they don't know anything about it other than the negative press they get from the fanatics. That lack of knowledge means that people are wary. If everyone knew each religion inside out and back to front the whole world would be a lot more tolerant.

Answer 6

No. I don't think that religion being taught in public schools would go over all that well.

My understanding is that religion is only studied in college and private schools. I do agree with you when you say that it's a parent's responsibility to teach their children spiritual values.

I only disagree with the last sentence in your question/details. I don't believe that all religion is fictitious though... Not everyone in our society expects or even wants the next generation to believe in God or in spiritual things.

Basically, my answer is NO.

Answer 7

I have always prided myself about being a 'tolerant' person and I believe that 'knowledge' about other religions, cultures etc. is a good thing because it can take away the 'fear of the unknown' (or to be 'blunt' - ignorance) which seems to plague our world. The problem with 'parents looking after childrens needs' as far as religion/beliefs is concerned is that the child is only told what the parents believe/want them to hear - if you have a 'fundamentalist'/'biased' parent, then the child is only taught/learning a very 'narrow' field of knowledge about the very diverse field/subject of religious beliefs in this world. Have we not learned our lesson, even yet, that ignorance IS NOT bliss????............surely a well informed, thought out, balanced, and non-biased curriculum would 'help' to eliminate ignorance, bias and intolerance(?). Those are my thoughts on the subject............

Answer 8

Yes. I think it should. That may surprise people who know me for the passionate atheist I am, but I do believe that religion can be studied comparatively, as a legitimate academic subject. Understanding the range of human beliefs and cultural constructs is important.

But it should be taught as an objective topic, not preached as 'truth', and it should be an option, not a fixed part of the curriculum, and one thing I do believe is that not one penny of state money should go to supporting 'faith' schools.

Answer 9

Although I am not religious myself and have not had my daughter baptized, I still feel it would be useful for her to have an understanding of religions around the world. I agree with you in that I too have a lot of doubts about the validity of what religions teach. But in a way that is not the point. If other people do believe in it then it is worth understanding (which is not the same as agreeing with it).

Answer 10

I definately think religious studies should be offered as an elective. There is so much we can benefit from studying various different religions, however if a student chooses not to take the class they should not be forced to. Its something that is necessary to know about. Think about how many wars and social conflicts have to do with religion. It's important that students are informed about this stuff without being blinded by prejudices. Even Athiests can benefit from religious studies. It's a form of physology really... for many people their religion provides the foundation for how they think.