Re: Teaching (Was: Re: Final Textbook Insert)

Arthur V. Chadwick (chadwicka@swac.edu)
Wed, 26 Nov 1997 13:40:58 -0800

At 12:49 PM 11/26/97 -0500, George wrote:
> I'm sure some Christians would be upset about their children
>learning about other faiths, or other Christian traditions, though I
>can't see how any plausible legal challenge could be raised against it
>(which doesn't mean no one would try!) Greek & Roman mythology used to
>be a fairly standard topic.
> As I noted, anti-evolutionist religious beliefs would also be
>presented in such a class. There would undoubedtly be some who would
>object to that too.
> Among other things, it might be enlightening for fundamentalist
>Christians to realize that, on this topic, they are in basic agreement
>with the great majority of Muslims, over against Christians who accept
>evolution.
> There would have to be some choices made of what religions to
>include because you can't do everything. E.g., inclusion of Zoroastrian
>beliefs (which BTW had some influence on the Judaeo-tradition via the
>Persian period) would be reasonable if there were any significant
>Zoroastrian presence in the community, but otherwise you'd probably give
>the time to something else.

Why even present Christianity, anyway. After all they are the majority
belief system in this country (or at least a close second to materialistic
paganism), and we don't want a public school system inculcating religious
beliefs to our children. In addition, Christianity is so pluralistic in
its posturing on origins that I am sure if you presented every possible
belief on origins, you would have covered the spectrum I hear presented on
this forum in the name of Christianity anyway. Thus you could avoid all
the possible problems of teaching a class on origins (religion) in the
public sector.
Art
http://chadwicka.swau.edu