Should Religion Be Taught in Public Schools?

I don't think they should, that is what specific schools are for. If you want to learn about religions, go to a religious school, i'm pagan but i really hate hearing that kind of stuff during school. What about you guys?

^ I think it's a good idea.
But, I think they should teach world religions. Because, I know a lot of people who aren't religious, but love to learn about religions. So, if they do want to teach religion in a public school, then go for world religions! It's really interesting to learn about what people believe and why! :)

Well i don't mean like that they shouldn't teach OTHER religions and how they practice and what they believe in, i mean like teachers stating their ideals, and not really showing any others. I don't really mean i'm against haveing the knowledge of it, but more teaching it.

Sorry i was specific enough

Well... it really depends.

If they were taught about all religions, but it wasn't biased and provided the teacher didn't try to make any covert to believing or convert to a different faith... it may be okay. I'm not sure. I'm still iffy on this though.

^
Yea, as long as they don't push it on you.
The school i go to, our science teacher tried to push his religion on us. It pissed me off.

I think they should. I think everyone should know the facts about all religions. The reason why there is a lot of conflict when it comes to religion is because there are a lot of misunderstandings, if people knew about the basic facts I think the average Joe would understand his world a lot more.

I think that it should be open as an elective. More like a religious studies class so that students who do want to learn about other faiths and religions can take it if they would like to, and other students don't have to worry about it being pushed onto them.

Here you have to declare your faith and then you go to classes about your faith. You can declare yourself angnostic/atheist and then you don't have to go. My religion teacher is the coolest teacher in the school, and I love her the most, she's open minded and really nice. The classes also include lessons on other religions/denominations.
I don't see why we wouldn't have them.

^ That's a really good idea, I think. Maybe more schools should do that!
Where are you from?

At my school, it wasn't just 'Religion', they opened it up to be Religious, Ethical and Philosophical Education. We learnt the basics about the main religions in the first few weeks (a week a religion) and spent most of the year debating big moral issues.

I loved it. It was one class a week but was just a refreshing change from the usual grind.

ChemicallyImbalanced:

I think that it should be open as an elective. More like a religious studies class so that students who do want to learn about other faiths and religions can take it if they would like to, and other students don't have to worry about it being pushed onto them.

I couldn't have said it better myself!
I hate it when people try to push their religion on others. It's like, those people have a brain. Let them decide for themselves!

Well, just normal religion is alright.
We studied religion, but it was all forms of it, mostly just so we'd understand what it was all about.
There was no "you must believe in God" or anything like that.
We read about them all, and we wrote papers and discussed the.

That's actually pretty good though, because religion is something you should know a little about.

My old school was a Christian school, but no one forced this religion on any one else. When we had assemblies we never prayed or anything and our Religious Education classes were all right, though we all agreed that learning about Hinduism was a lot better than learning about Christianity (At the time, and I think it's still the case now, Christianity is a subject that you have to learn, no matter how boring it maybe).
Learning about another religion opened my eyes more to the whole world of differnt religions, so that I took the time to learn a wee bit about them; though Hinduism still has a special place, it's teaching are just so cool.

Yea, giving a class for religion is a good idea. I wish my school had that, it would probably make alot of tension around the school ease up. Because most of the teachers do push their religion on us, and it really bothers some of us.

I think you should teach religion in public schools because sometimes if you don't know enough about somthing you can become ignorant and be totally not conversant. The more you learn the better.

I don't think that it should be compulsory to be taught though.

It depends on your definition of "teach". Teach, as in apply the concepts? Absolutely not. Teach as in educate on other cultures, of course. There is no need to go way in depth about the beliefs of other faiths or read their religious texts, but teaching about how religion affects people differently around the world is vital to being a culturally educated person.

^^
Yea, thats what i was trying to say, except you said it more intelligently than i did :)

Kurtni Monroe:

It depends on your definition of "teach". Teach, as in apply the concepts? Absolutely not. Teach as in educate on other cultures, of course. There is no need to go way in depth about the beliefs of other faiths or read their religious texts, but teaching about how religion affects people differently around the world is vital to being a culturally educated person.

I think the law is that a public teacher can say something like "Lutherans believe that if you do not believe in Jesus Christ then you go to Hell." They can't say something like "If you don't believe in Jesus Christ you'll go to hell". I think that is how it goes. Like Teachers are kind of suppose to be like a journalist. They shouldn't be biases towards one side. Like they can be Christian or Jewish, but they can't have it affect their ability to properly teach students. >_<

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