Should Religion Be Taught in Public Schools?

druscilla; hearts.:

I don't belive that public schools should teach religion.

What about in Geography when you learn about what religions are practiced in various parts of the world, or when you study greek/roman mythology?

Kurtni Monroe:

druscilla; hearts.:

I don't belive that public schools should teach religion.

What about in Geography when you learn about what religions are practiced in various parts of the world, or when you study greek/roman mythology?

Mythology to me isn't the same as religion. And we only learned about it in the literary sense when we read "The Trojan War".
We also didn't learn about religions in Geography class.
I think that if religion's impact is mentioned in history class, that is a lot different than teaching religion.

druscilla; hearts.:

I think that if religion's impact is mentioned in history class, that is a lot different than teaching religion.

But that's still teaching religion. Teaching religion and preaching religion aren't the same thing, and I think teaching about it is important.

druscilla; hearts.:

Mythology to me isn't the same as religion

Why? :shifty

Kurtni Monroe:

druscilla; hearts.:

Mythology to me isn't the same as religion

Why? :shifty

Mythology was always taught to me as literature and that's what I consider it. Historically important literature.

^^Not to mention a lot of literature now is derived (Big word...please stop me if it's wrong.) or inspired by mythology even if we don't realize it. So even if it is religion...isn't it important to know where out literature comes from?

I think it might honestly be a good idea to teach religion in schools. But if your going to teach religion, you need to teach every religion. I believe that may be impossible though...so maybe they should leave it out.

You're supposed to learn about religion at least in history classes to grasp the context of some historical events. And the Bible and the Coran alongside with other religious text are studied in most comparative literature/lit. history courses.

I think what we really should question is what should we teach in schools in general.

The problem with teaching all religions in school is that schools in really small towns won't fucking do it.
The high school I went to, the Christian kids were excused from Biology the day we discussed evolution because it might bother them.

I don't think that teaching all religions even in big cities is possible.
I mean when teaching Christianity for example you can't just go ''so yeah Jesus Christ was this dude... lalalla and He did that and that and that...lalala'' we've taught Christianity. I've been taking religion classes for the past 8 years or so, lets say that the last 2 in high school were really serious classes and we still haven't covered half of it. It's just huge. You need to look into religious texts, dogma, customs, art, the history of the said religion, etc. It's huge.

druscilla; hearts.:

The problem with teaching all religions in school is that schools in really small towns won't fucking do it.
The high school I went to, the Christian kids were excused from Biology the day we discussed evolution because it might bother them.

Seriously? Well thats a liitle, uncalled for, don't you think? I mean when we talked about evelution our Science teacher was all, you can believe what you want, you don't HAVE to follow this. And one of the girls in my class, MAJOR christian was all, "I think evelution is a bunch of crap, god created everything, and blah blah blah" Me and my friends are all like, "Wow, your pretty stupid huh."

They should teach religion. They are incredibly interesting to learn about, and it'll give students a view into a different culture/belief system. It will also help in arguments/discussion boards (like this one) if they have at least a basic knowledge to go on. I'm not saying force religion on kids, absolutely not, but treat it the way you would treat algebra, or science: lay out the facts.

xpunkprincessx:

druscilla; hearts.:

The problem with teaching all religions in school is that schools in really small towns won't fucking do it.
The high school I went to, the Christian kids were excused from Biology the day we discussed evolution because it might bother them.

Seriously? Well thats a liitle, uncalled for, don't you think? I mean when we talked about evelution our Science teacher was all, you can believe what you want, you don't HAVE to follow this. And one of the girls in my class, MAJOR christian was all, "I think evelution is a bunch of crap, god created everything, and blah blah blah" Me and my friends are all like, "Wow, your pretty stupid huh."

That's stupid. Everyone has their own view of how the world was created, and really, we're probably never going to find out the truth.

^
Whats stupid, what she said, or what I said?

^The school letting Christian kids leave. It's not fair.I'm Christian. I woulsn't be able to leave when my class talks about evolution.

^
OH, yea, i know, pretty ridiculous.

And even if they don't see any truth or reason to evolution, it's nice to what other people think. I'm not religious and I understand the beliefs behind creationism, it's helpful. Everyone who posted in this thread probably has a fairly good understanding of both in order to decide between them.

^
Yea, you can't really debate unless you know enough about both sides. Otherwise, halfway through you could end up agreeing with the other person, and that would change everything.

I think they should provide a class that studies religion to people who want to learn about it. It shouldn't be a necessary thing but an elective.

Yea, so its your choice.

I think if all schools aren't willing to teach about all religions [or at least the 6 biggest ones] then there is no point of teaching it.
If you're sending your child to a Jewish school or a Christian school or all that jazz then fine, but at public schools where there are people from different religious backgrounds then that shouldn't be the case.
I personally think religion is a pointless subject anyway, but that's besides the point. If you're going to teach religion it shouldn't be just Christianity.

With letting the kids leave, I do agree that's a little uncalled for. Because if they don't believe evolution, then hearing about it for one lesson isn't gonna change their mind!

But I can understand it. It'd just be like letting Jewish people be excused from a cooking class if they are going to be using meat & dairy at the same time. You know? I can kinda see where they are coming from... But I still don't really agree with it.