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Georgia public schools to offer Bible elective

Dannichu said:
I don't think the fact it's Bible-based is saying that the Bible is worth more than other religions; they've just found it more contexually relevant. Like how in cooking class you learn to make predominantly Western dishes and in PE you play sports that are typically played in your country.
Plus, I imagine more people are qualified to teach Judeo-Christianity than, say, Shinto, which would make finding people to teach the massive spectrum of religions that there are rather hard.

I think it's pretty cool, and you have the oppurtunity to study other religions/ancient mythologies at university/college.
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i studied classical history/mythology in high school this is a pretty common subject... usually comes as a part of Latin/Ancient Greek
 
they don't have KCV where you live? (Klassieke Culturele Vorming) is what we call it
 
In Religious Education we studied Sikhism without ever needing a Sikh teacher.
 
In a freshman class we learned about Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity (primarily), and Islam from the same teacher.
He was not biased towards one religion a single bit.
 
Do you (addressed to no one in particular), then, think it's better in a religion class to focus on one religion like Christianity because it is arguably more relevant in Western society, or to study many different religions to gain a wider perspective?
 
From an academic standpoint, it'd be best to learn about Christianity.

But from an educational standpoint, it'd be best to learn about many religions.

[/twocents]
 
Academic, pertaining to schools, grades and curriculum.

Education, pertaining to gathering knowledge and knowing things.
 
the wider perspective is better but it depends on how much time the school curriculum allows for study. therefore you need to devote terms to each separate religion and choose a few to study in-depth because otherwise you will only cover every one of them superficially and never get anywhere. it is better to study a couple in-depth to gain greater insight into how the religion works.

christianity is a particularly relevant one in western society (I did that one) and then we did ethics and the senses and we could choose between buddhism and islam for the fourth one in high school. our class voted majority Buddhism so we did that. it was very interesting as both the teacher and the class were new to the subject. i think our teacher very much enjoyed the buddhism thing despite being a catholic from heritage. my school was officially roman catholic so that made kind of sense. they were very open about practicing any sort of religion though.

as for me, I think Christianity should be taught as it still lingers for a majority of the people around Europe and the US (if only to be in the hole of the lion), and then I think Islam is becoming more important and I think some basics of Judaism should also be taught. considering Judeochristian values are still rampant it is good to know what we are up against.

but I think this will pretty much differ per school (in the netherlands we have schools that are public and ones that are religious, all funded by the state). as I went to a roman catholic one the catholic viewpoint was the obvious choice. however there are many protestant denominations which have different views on christianity of course. therefore i think there should be a general bible viewpoint that does not take bias towards either.

of course i will put my children on a public school to gain the wider viewpoint.
 
I don't like the idea of a Bible-only religious class. First of all, what about the separation of church and state? While the teachers might not be preaching Christianity, they are only using the Bible as a resource, which might make the class biased. Besides, this is in Georgia, which is predominately Christian. Also, what about other religious books, like the Qur'an and the Torah? I think that this elective should study other religious texts, and provide a nonbiased teaching environment.
 
Doctor Jimmy said:
I don't like the idea of a Bible-only religious class. First of all, what about the separation of church and state?
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It's being studied in an academic way. Sure, it's Georgia, so there's probably bias, but hey. I studied Christianity, Judaism and Islam briefly in my history class, to understand how they influenced civilization. As long as the teacher is not saying "THIS IS THE ONLY RIGHT RELIGION GO BE CHRISTAIN NAO" it should be cool.
 
Doctor Jimmy said:
they are only using the Bible as a resource
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I would like to think that this is not the case, although, I don't know the particulars of the curriculum. There are many resources one can use to learn about the Bible from a secular perspective other than the Bible itself. Also I think that perhaps learning about some of the Bible's influences (i.e. similar stories to stories in the Bible that were around long before the Bible existed) would be useful.
 
We have "In God We Trust" on our money and "one nation, under God" in our pledge.
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Ah, yes, I simply scribble out the god bit on the money with pen, and being a Satanist, replace it with 'Satan'
And I REFUSE to do the pledge!

Also, about the Bible class, I think that is OK, but they should be required to make classes for the other religions too.

I don't care what religion you are, believe what you like, and don't be mean to people just because of their beliefs.

hurr hurr gooday~
 
Mirry said:
Do you (addressed to no one in particular), then, think it's better in a religion class to focus on one religion like Christianity because it is arguably more relevant in Western society, or to study many different religions to gain a wider perspective?
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The class is studying how religion affects Western civilization, in which case the Bible is more relevant.
If they are just studying the religion in general, yes, it would be better to learn all the major religions of the world. Just, in this case, the Bible is much more relevant as it had significant effects on the politics of the Middle Ages.

Ice tiger said:
Ah, yes, I simply scribble out the god bit on the money with pen, and being a Satanist, replace it with 'Satan'
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Satanism does not mean you worship Satan. It can but does not always.
 
All we have to do is stand up; our school doesn't require us to say the pledge.
I won't stand if there's no teachers in the class, though.
 
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