Religious parents: How would you feel about schools teaching your kids reason and critical thinking skills?

Question

Would it make you feel uneasy?

Answer 1

Reason is the death of faith, so they've got to be shaking in their boots!

Then again, as an atheist parent, it makes me feel very uneasy to know that Creationists are trying to wiggle their mythology into science class and force my child to be subjected to their nonsense.

Answer 2

Heck no, I just wish the educational system did focus on reasoning and critical thinking skills! Instead, in my experience at least, very few educators can give children the same opportunity they had (or wanted) to make up their own minds. Far too frequently, the educational system rewards acceptance and conformity over free thinking and challenging the status quo.

I spent over 21 years as a student in the public education system and I can count on one hand the number of teachers/professors that encouraged me to think about and question what they were teaching. The overwhelming majority had an unfortunate tendency to hand out rewards to students that accepted their teaching without question while handing out penalties to students that refused to accept something that didn't make sense to them!

What makes me uneasy is the thought of my son being punished for questioning the validity of a teacher's conclusion about unproven (or, more accurately, untestable) suppositions and hypotheses. What make me nervous is to see the product of a high school education in my own classes every day...if the public school system taught reason and critical thinking skills, more than just a handful of my own students should display those characteristics. Instead, far too many college students are looking for someone to tell them what they need to know and are quite unable to function when they are given an assignment that requires them to think beyond the limits of the textbook!

Answer 3

Why would it make someone uneasy if their child were learning how to reason and think critically? They are necessary skills, regardless of how religious you are. Not enough people learn these skills and their arguments always regress to name-calling.

Answer 4

Howdy, Icarus. Glad to see that I struck a chord here. Go for it.


starjumper claims to be a teacher and a christian, asd aske: "Why do some people believe that believing in the 'watchmaker' makes somebody incapable of reason and critical thinking? Is believing that someone designed your tv unreasonable?"

Well, starjumper, we might start with the fact that you... a TEACHER, fer crissake... cannot distinguish between human articacts and the product of self-organizing complex systems... convicts you... a TEACHER... of being utterly incapable of 'critical thinking'.


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Answer 5

I am a believer but I would not consider myself religious.
Yes critical thinking is a good way to help sort out different information and come to your own conclusion.

Answer 6

I believe that science is getting closer to proving the existence of God. There is a group of quantum physicist who are studying consciousness. Their theories state that consciousness must be included in the equation of reality. Quantum particules are truely random, and it is only when consciousness is added that we have order. Here is some reading material for you.

Would learning some critical thinking make you feel uneasy?

The Self-Aware Universe by Amit Goswami
Conscious Acts of Creation by William Tiller
Mind into Matter: A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit by Fred Alan Wolf

Answer 7

Why on earth would it make me feel uneasy, those are admirable qualities.

Answer 8

you want critical thinking skills????I think that philosophy should be by law taught through out the entire school career! that's what I think!

Answer 9

I am a teacher, and a christian. Why do some people believe that believing in the 'watchmaker' makes somebody incapable of reason and critical thinking? Is believing that someone designed your tv unreasonable? However, I tell my students that there is always TWO sides of an argument and that both should be taken into account before making a decision.

Answer 10

If it goes against God, I would not like it. Thankfully my kids go to a christian school and learn His word and truth there, so I am very blessed and thankful for that.