Well, given that I’m an editor, this is pretty awkward. And it won’t let me change it.
Remember I’m on Android and this is really small.
At least I didn’t miss the “L” in “PUBLIC.”
the argument that teachers couldn’t do the curriculum justice, since they aren’t familiar with the details of the subject is kind of a slap in the face to teachers, isn’t it? They aren’t political science PhDs and might not have military experience, but they teach about wars from the Revolutionary on up the WW’s don’t they?100%
Science vs ID is just rehashing the old arguments in there most recent version. What I see coming, or the guy in the lecture did anyway, is the psychology of religionGotcha. I was assuming the podcaster meant "another Scopes trial" re another round on Creationism/Evolution, but you are talling about something far scarier
That’s one of the very few (only?) benefit of using all capital letters- it kinda hides typos.
I didn’t even notice the mistake until you pointed it out (of course, now I can’t stop looking at it.)
Using a phone for this is torture. I use a phone to post on weekends once in a while, but most of the time I think about it then decide it’s too much hassle.
You responded:
Many are liars. The rest have been lied to and are simply passing on what they honestly believe to be true.If you are talking about religious dogma, of course that's the case.
But this is what I’d said:
This type of bullshit has been reinforced by the shitty “God’s Not Dead” franchise, which hystronically and insanely misstate the 1962 and 1963 Supreme Court rulings on school prayer, First Amendment rights, and the role of the ACLU.God, these liars piss me off
The directors, producers and screenwriters of these films (which include the idiot Lee Stroebel*) <b> are indeed lying to the public.</b> (And making a huge profit.)
Because a 30-second Google search on “School Prayer, US” or “First Amendment” or “American Civil Liberties Union” would clarify that their storylines are the opposite of truth.
And this makes me really, really angry.
I realize that every movie — every work of entertainment — contains artistic license for the sake of drama, and also that every piece of entertainment and news is “biased,” because all human beings are biased.
But the “God is Dead” movies don’t just contain artistic license or bias. Their entire premises are 100% false, and this matters — a lot. Because, like SO many liars in “Christian news media,” they manipulate reality to feed into the fake narrative that Evangelical Christians are “persecuted” and “under seige” here in America … and therefore, Trump & Pence’s “religious liberty” laws are needed to protect them. (Laws which would allow them to trample on the rights of the rest of us.)
To be clear, a lot of Christian journalists have called out the films’ bullshit. But they are singing to the choir.
(I realize most folks here don’t know the plots of the films. In short, they all revolve around secular, liberal, atheist government and school systems doing horrible things to innocent American Christians and they are super offensive.)
- I wrote about the lying Lee Stroebel here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exchristian/comments/buwloa/hail_stroebel_full_of_shit/
Imagine if I had misspelled “PUBLIC.” You REALLY could not stop looking at it!!
Amazingly, I have not had access to a laptop in 3 years. I somehow write all day, every day, and create graphics on my phone…I don’t know how I do it, either!!
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@Lausten
@Write4u
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@3point14rat wrote
》How about, instead of teaching religion in school, we teach the psychology of belief. If people understand that we can induce ‘spiritual’ (religious) experiences ....《Because, that is about religious psychology, and the neurology of the brain, which is WAY more complex than what I'm talking about.
And, teaching that would be 10,000x MORE controversial than what I’m talking about.
Folks, here’s the problem with this whole discussion (here and in general): Y’all are thinking something way above & past what’s necessary.
Let me explain. But first, two qualifiers:
- I realize that people can and do "push back" on virtually every subject taught in public schools, and they would do so even more re. religion
- I realize most kids don't listen and retain, but that is true of every topic
When I say that public high school students should be required to learn world religions, I don’t mean a whole course. I mean, a unit. Or a week? Yes! Even 5 hours!
And I don’t mean “Comparative Theology,” or “Philosophy of Religion.” They don’t need to be able to articulate the Calvinist doctrine of Unconditional Election. And, they don’t need to be taught that THEIR religion is bad or wrong.
A really scary percentage of Americans, Christian or not, think things like:
︎Hannukah is “Jewish Christmas”
︎Atheists worship Satan
︎Christianity is the oldest world religion, and/or has outlived all the rest
︎Jesus, Mohammad and Buddha all taught that loving one another is the most important thing
︎Rules against murder, theft etc are unique to Christianity
So many Americans – even secular Americans – are so Christiancentric, they either assume everyone believes exactly what they do, OR that Christianity is utterly unique. The lack of awareness of BASIC religious history and demographics leads to extremes on both sides.
Do you really think it would be completely impossible for school districts to show stuff like this?
About 1/3 of people in the world are Christians
Hinduism and Buddhism existed 1,000s of years before Christianity
Honestly – only EXTREME EXTREMISTS would object to facts like these.
And many Americans DON’T know this stuff.
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@Lausten
@Write4u
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@thatoneguy
LOL, I made this graphic in my phone recently to explain something on Quora. And even THIS is more complex than I mean.
I realize Christians have fought for 2,000 years over who the “true” Christians are.
But that’s theology. A lot of Americans don’t even comprehend the most BASIC development of Christianity.
As for history … It is historical fact that the Crusades were a series of wars sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church from the 1000s to the 1400s to recover land from Islamic rule.
I’m not saying to teach that the Catholics were right or wrong. If we are that terrified of conflict, then let’s stop teaching kids the world is round, because there ARE flat-earthers!!
As for teaching basic doctrines, these could be taught the way philosophy is taught: “According to Aristotle…” … “During the Enlightement…”
Is that forcing philosophy on kids? Can’t a curriculum say, “According to Luther…”
Here’s the thing, fellow atheists (and my OP was to us): We may not like, agree or be interested in religion. Some of us may oppose religion, period.
But the FACT is, religion has been one of the biggest influences, across history and culture, of humankind. We remain ignorant at our peril.