Religion Should Be Included in Education
There is no other way around it when you ask the question: what do I want My kids to learn?
I have to admit that I learned alot from a pro-science religious school. I've noted my bs attraction to the priesthood when I was 13. I barely remember many classes at all though. I remember a few - disturbing - bible classes, a few math blaster classes where I got it. These were not the same classes! English is. History is though our preclusions of one ideal hold us back from a scientifically sound admission of what happened. People aren't that honest and we accept that.
Religion is what keeps most people safe at night. Whether they're actually safe is not supposed to be irrelevant even though it shows historical efficacy with placebo. It can still be taught as a concept of a major psychosocial acceptance of the unknown as unknowable. Its methods are so personal though as to make it unscrewable objectively without the peers reviewing it come under its dream spell. People fall in love with religions which is why no single belief system holds sway in any cohesive form what so ever.
I learned about my people, homo sapiens sapiens, by attending those religion classes. We are a superstitious animal because we have vast capacity for speculative thought. We remain extant as a species; despite all the possible dooms we've faced. All Natural! No artificial death!!!
It seems unlikely that an elementary education in the many religions of our species could attract many new adherents. Nor would it scare them away. It would educate us all in honesty. Something sorely, horrifically lacking in all cultures; religious in what extent is apparently outside the probability equation. Our species lies.
I have to admit that I learned alot from a pro-science religious school. I've noted my bs attraction to the priesthood when I was 13. I barely remember many classes at all though. I remember a few - disturbing - bible classes, a few math blaster classes where I got it. These were not the same classes! English is. History is though our preclusions of one ideal hold us back from a scientifically sound admission of what happened. People aren't that honest and we accept that.
Religion is what keeps most people safe at night. Whether they're actually safe is not supposed to be irrelevant even though it shows historical efficacy with placebo. It can still be taught as a concept of a major psychosocial acceptance of the unknown as unknowable. Its methods are so personal though as to make it unscrewable objectively without the peers reviewing it come under its dream spell. People fall in love with religions which is why no single belief system holds sway in any cohesive form what so ever.
I learned about my people, homo sapiens sapiens, by attending those religion classes. We are a superstitious animal because we have vast capacity for speculative thought. We remain extant as a species; despite all the possible dooms we've faced. All Natural! No artificial death!!!
It seems unlikely that an elementary education in the many religions of our species could attract many new adherents. Nor would it scare them away. It would educate us all in honesty. Something sorely, horrifically lacking in all cultures; religious in what extent is apparently outside the probability equation. Our species lies.
On the Bush link you emailed, one of a zillion things to pick up on is "incompetence." This is actually what amazed me above all, with his reelection - if in fact he was reelected, not reselected. But either way, it would appear that at the time of the last vote, about half the country wanted a president who was, at that point, already demonstrably incompetent in his execution of the war. I mean, even assuming you believed all/some of his stated reasons for going to war, it was bungled from a purely military and policing perspective.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to believe a thing to be deeply religious. That's a main point I develop in the book ms that now looks unlikely to be published. As it stands, belief and religion are practically synonyms, especially in the West.
It ain't necessarily so. And so there, Mr. Atheist, feel free to take a look at my most recent post. It does make use of the word "God" once, but go more for the feel of it, since I can't develop the idea of what I mean by that in a blog post.
Hi, Michael,
ReplyDeleteI agree. If everyone had a decent survey of teh beliefs of all major religions, they'd be far more likely to see where the religions & non-religious ethical systems have common ground and therefroe less likely to demonize other faiths (or non-faiths). As it is now, the Xian right gets away with their lies largely b/c they can twist the facts to make it seem like they're the only special ones and that their way is the only way.