Religion in Schools?

Freedom of speech has a necessary counterpart - freedom of listening. Without the freedom to listen or not to listen to the speaker, free speech is meaningless. As a corollary, therefore, people have the right to ignore the speech of anyone they wish. To force someone to listen to you is indoctrination, regardless of whether you speak truth or falsity.

"Education" is a form of speech. Compulsory education means forcing people to listen to this speech. Thus, the freedom of listening is violated, and freedom of speech is rendered meaningless, and democracy is rendered meaningless.
 
Funny, I was curious as to the breakdown of world religions by population. I haven't found a nice chart yet, but according to:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/

Christianity is followed by 33% of the world's population.
Islam is followed by 21%.
Hinduism is followed by 17%

That covers 71% of the world's population. Amazing, especially considering that China has about 1/5 (20%) of the population. So these three religions account for the mystical thoughts of 91% of all non-Chinese people on the earth.
(Jews are only 0.2% of the total pop)

But reading something about India let me know how dangerous it is to mix religion and government.
 
Except for the last statement I sort of agree with you. It really is brainwashing, but then again everything is really brainwashing. You were brainwashed so you now just assume that it's right to wear a shirt and pants in public. You were brainwashed to be awake when it's light and asleep when it's dark.

Truth and facts? What is a truth? What is a fact? There is no such thing as an absolute fact or truth. We could have been put here 2 minutes ago by a giant cockroach and it could have given us our memories. Math was invented by humans, as was English. History is hard to know exactly since it was a long time ago. I'd like you to name me a few facts and truths that you know and would like taught in classrooms. But I have found that in social studies classes they bias the class so much. We learn only the American side of everything. I asked why Hitler really killed them all, did he really just get up one day and say "The Jews are to blame for our loss in WWI, let's kill them all". (Not to mention the disabled, gypsies, etc.). When I even dared mention that he might have had a reason and he might not have been a totally evil to the core person my teacher just told me to shut up that he was just an evil guy. Then there was the list of good things and bad things in US History. There were no blacks in the class and I put the KKK on the good list. It was sort of a joke but I said it controlled the population and it generally killed the poor people so people were overall richer. I was not serious and I made sure there was no one black in the room that would be offended, yet the teacher got angry for even suggesting they be a good thing. They were pure evil and that was final in the school system. But since good and evil is an opinion, and I had backup support for my statement, what was wrong? Who are they to decide that racism is wrong? I don't believe this but why do they get to tell us that whites and blacks are equal? That is not a fact, but an opinion. Yet when anyone tries to challenge it they stiffle the free speech and voicing of opinion. If they want to teach something, it should be open to questioning or it has the same validity as religion. If they get to make opinionated statements, and not allow people to comment on them, why don't they just say God did it?
 
Nooooooooo! History ain't no stinkin' knowledge. It's an opiniated examination of the past, said opinions dependant upon the examiner's gender, ethnic background, race may sometimes play a major part, all sorts of factors (including education--if someone has been primarily educated in say a Catholic university or a Jewish university or an Islamic university one generally interprets history in the light of that religious background) in the examiner's background.

One could also argue that science is not knowledge. To me science is the careful, methodical art of SEEKING KNOWLEDGE, not knowledge itself. And, when one is a scientist one is obligated to divorce one's self from one's gender, ethnic and racial background, etc., etc.

Like, what the Hades do we REALLY know? Nada, zero, zilch, etc., etc.
 
which religion (if not all) are u talking about that should be taught in school?
If religion was taught in school u do know that people are going to get offended when some other people starts joking about other people's opinion.

Over the centuries many wars were fought because the difference in religion. If religion was taught in school, then there would be many fights. Even though some people can accepted other people belief there are still many other who are narrow minded.

That is if you were talking about teaching all religion, not just Christianity b/c that would be narrow-minded
 
Everyone in a society MUST have access to learning how to read, how to communicate in the language of that society, how to do basic math, the list of necessary skills should probably be longer but you get my point.

There is the problem in public education of having to educate a mass of students with wildly varying skills and abilities (not to mention possible behavioral disorders which can disrupt a classroom)--unfortunately we have dealt with this problem by trying to create factory-like schools designed to mass-produce an "educated" product--but the factory environment is not conducive to learning--in fact I consider it to be hostile to learning.

And, I think that the problem is very interesting to ponder and to consider ways to resolve. Perhaps the most important aspect of it could be to make damned sure that women are well-educated because if the hand that rocks the cradle is a wise hand--kiRAB will be better off for it.

When the status of women is elevated in a society--that society rises also. Praise be to the Goddess!--just to inject a tad bit of religion into this demned religious thread.
 
Religion causes people to think in different ways, and human nature is to change things and make them run according to beliefs. This happens especially in schools, and I don't think it's wrong, but I also don't think it's right. It's Just natural.
 
I picked no. Religon should not be taught in schools, but I believe this only under the context of there being too large a variety of religons to be able to teach them all. Different courses on different religons could be offered at one's choice. It should not be forced. Religon is a choice, a very personal choice made by one person and that one person alone. You can't shove it down someone's throat even if you believe in it.
 
we had an optional religion course in college, no credit was given. KiRAB don't pay attention in core classes as it is, why would they pay attention to someone forcing something they don't understand down their throats. (I was gonna say fictional character, but I don't want to light any forest fires, I do live in the wooRAB)
 
Therefore you are aganist offering religious studies courses that cover a large amount of religions?

Religion is a threat, as are all beliefs that demand allegience, but one cannot enact safeguarRAB without knowing thy enemy. The more we know about religion the more we properly gauge the "threat." Ignorance is the tool of fundementalism, students should learn as much about all form of religion.
 
I believe that religion could be taught in schools, but only as an elective. There could be something like a general religion course, or take up a semseter course or year long course about a specific religion. But only as an elective and give all religions fairly, not just the "major" religions of the world.
 
I don't get where you're getting rasing the status of women in society but I agree with the rest of the post. We have one system with very little help for people with different strengths and weaknesses.
 
I think that students in public schools, which SHOULD BE secular, ought to be taught ABOUT religion. They, most assuredly, should not be taught religion, or taught to follow the precepts of a particular religion--most especially in the United States, inasmuch as our nation was formed on the principles of separation of church and state.
 
Most all definitions of science that I have found say it is knowledge.

possession of knowledge
knowledge attained through study or practice
a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study
knowledge as obtained and tested throught scientific method
knowledge concerned with the physical world

History is a science.

Historical data is that which has been recorded as representing happenings in the past. Some "historians" will embellish the truth, present one side of a multi-faceted record or otherwise distort the truth. True history cannot be denied. The number of deaths in a given battle is not subject to manipulation and can be verified only by the recorRAB of the time. The reasoning of the generals is (subject to interpretation and therefore debatable).

eg. The exact number of US soldiers that died in Vietnam is known. Whether the fighting was justified or not is subject to opinion. Historians have been known to impart bias into history books, taking away from its characterization as a science.
 
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