RE: [asa] Teaching religion in state schools

Randy-

I really found that an interesting read. I have a BA in Biblical Studies
from a Bible college and am currently attending Missouri State University
working on my Master's in Religious Studies. And it is true...American
citizens tend to be very unknowledgeable about religions and religious ideas
in general.

I was talking to my sister on the phone a few weeks ago, and she is
interested in going to church for the first time in quite awhile. While on
the phone, we got into a discussion about the differences between
Pentecostal, Evangelical, and mainline Protestant churches. What really
stuck out in my mind at the time was when she called the different
denominations, different "religions". I gently corrected her on
that...because I believe it is an important distinction. That was an
instance where it really hit home how uneducated people are about even their
own Christian heritage.

My ultimate goal is to pursue a doctorate in Church History or History of
Christianity, and then teach at a state university...I've really come to
believe that religion makes the world go round and a person can't understand
history or current events without understanding the religious beliefs that
shape them.

Anyway, thanks for sharing that.

Travis

>From: "Randy Isaac" <randyisaac@comcast.net>
>To: <asa@calvin.edu>
>Subject: [asa] Teaching religion in state schools
>Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 20:40:53 -0500
>
>Today's Boston Globe ran a story about a book by BU prof Stephen Prothero
>called "Religious Illiteracy"
>http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/03/04/holy_book_learning/?page=1
>
>He shows how little Americans know about the Bible and Christian faith and
>argues that the school system should teach religion, in a non-devotional
>sense. The article ends with this paragraph:
>
>"And it's not only church-state watchdogs and atheists who are skeptical
>about whether teachers can pull off the non-devotional tightrope walk. "My
>own sense," says Mark Noll, an acclaimed historian at Notre Dame who is an
>evangelical Christian, "is that the Bible is a pretty explosive book. If
>students read it carefully, they'd be changed in a way that public schools
>couldn't handle -- and appropriately so."
>
>
>We seem to have both low scientific literacy and low religious literacy in
>this country, if his statistics are right. No wonder we're having trouble
>communication the integration of the two.
>
>In the same issue (it's rare enough for the Globe to have one good article,
>but two in one day??) Jeff Jacoby argues for the separation of school and
>state.
>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/03/04/a_call_for_separation_of_school_and_state/
>Now that would put science education in an very different situation! No
>more court cases. But the battles wouldn't cease, I'm sure.
>
>
>And completing an even more rare hat trick, the Globe ran this piece on the
>new book "The Human Touch" by Michael Frayn.
>http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/03/04/complex_reflections_on_cosmos_and_consciousness/?page=1
>You may recall his play "Copenhagen." One paragraph in this article is:
>
>"All this said, there are moments when the artist breaks free. We get a
>lovely claim for fiction rather than fact as our paradigm. Would Darwin's
>evolution have produced its revolution in our sense of the world, without
>Genesis to precede it? And, this amiably shrewd unbeliever writes: "We have
>to know that God made man before we can understand that man made God.""
>
>
>Randy
>
>
>

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Received on Mon Mar 5 02:30:16 2007