Atheists and theists, this is good one to answer. What do you think of all this who-ha?

Question

Honest answers please.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-student13dec13,1,6680122.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Lion of Judah:
The whole who-ha, the atheists and theists perspective. Sorry but I am not taking any sides on this issue. Just posting the news.

Stay tuned for your local weather on Yahoo!Answers.

Answer 1

This seems to be a constitutional violation. The establishment clause doesn't just apply to being in favor of a religion, it means stay out of religion entirely. His comments didn't seem to be coming from a scholarly perspective, just an angry one. This guy should be fired.

Answer 2

When you dig into this story a little, you discover the crux of the issue is that the teacher (correctly) denied that America is "founded on Christian principles", so while I expect the suit to go forward, it will ultimately be thrown out. There ARE indeed a lot of Christians (many of them nice people) in the US, but our Constitution is not based on Christian principles. Think about it, if it was, then greed, avarice & gluttony would be illegal (and the "Free Market" principles that America IS founded on would collapse!)

Where Christians get confused is that most of the Founding Fathers were Deists who fled Britain's "Church of England" rules that made the King (in daily operations) more powrful than God. Their specific intent was to seperate theology from government, a simple point apparently lost on the parents of this poor child.

Answer 3

I once had a similar experience with a teacher who bashed the Bible and flatly told the class he would not allow any discussion about it. I feel guilty to this day that I did not stand up to the teacher. This was an English class and he had no business discussing religion at all. Regardless of one's religious views, Christianity did have an enormous influence on the development of western Europe and America and should be taught as history in a neutral venue.

Answer 4

From what I understand other students have been coming out in support of the teacher so i think there is another side to it.

I completely agree that religion isn't the basis of morality. I don't why they put that in as a supposed insult. It's actually insulting to all atheists that they did that.

Answer 5

I consider myself a theist, but I went to Catholic school all the way through high school and, to be honest, the teachers there were more respectful towards other religions than most non-Christians I have met. I personally feel that people should believe what they want to believe and stop trying to convert people to whatever religion or non-religion they happen to follow. Religion should be a personal thing (and that applies to everyone shoving their beliefs down my throat!).

Answer 6

I think what he said is highly inappropriate if taken at face value. While I may agree with what he says - there is no need to push your beliefs onto others.

I also think that the parents reaction is equally inappropriate as they are teaching their children it is OK to try to stamp out any views that may be opposite to your own

However there may be an issue with context. Did he say these things in order to be deliberately provocative, the class was for college admission and he may have been saying these things in order to provoke debate?

Answer 7

I would say the teacher was out of line, but there are two sides of the coin. Students are being prepped in church to bring up religion in school as much as possible. Should they not be expelled for doing this too?

Answer 8

I agree with the lawsuit. A teacher is to teach curriculum and not impose their beliefs on their students. In this day and age with so much being said about not having Halloween parties for fear of offending Christians, not having Easter and Christmas parties for fear of offending non-Christians. This teacher knew better than to say the things he did and should not be teaching if he can't do his job correctly and leave his personal religious beliefs out of his classroom.

Answer 9

It sounds like the Atheist teacher was inappropriate with his comments. And I'm an Atheist.

For balance, I would add that I know for certain, from my own experience in Public Schools, that this same situation happens where teachers bash non-Christians. It doesn't make it right, however, to sink to their level.

Answer 10

The teacher is using the wrong forum to express his religious beliefs.

I tend to agree with him to a smaller degree, but I think he can teach the books instead of creating his own Y!A R&S forum in the classroom.