Should witch craft, faith healing, crop circles, chakra, crystal healing, and fortune telling be taught in science classes?

[Jon Miller]

I think this is a good idea, snoopy.

For one thing, the US is much much more multicultural than it ever was before. Before it was Catholic, Protestant, or 'don't care'. Now it is atheist, Catholic, Protestant, 'don't care', Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, etc.

There are a lot of Christians who should know more about Christianity, in addition to knowing more about Islam, Sikhism, and even atheism.

And honestly, after looking at the reddit atheism, there are a lot of atheists who should know more about Christianity, Islam, etc.

So it has positives for Christianity, not just negatives.

I think preferably it would be built around books like:

http://www.amazon.com/God-Not-One-Eight-Religions/dp/0061571288

with maybe some additions from more 'fundamentalist types' like Dawkins and Craig (although I think by it's nature it would tend towards being biased towards the agnosticism of Stephen Prothero, which isn't perfect but is probably the most neutral)

JM
(he also favors mandatory world religion classes)

[Jon Miller]

I would probably make it a freshman high school course?

Combine 'God is not one' with some book on atheism and fundamental Christianity.

I am actually not sure about atheism books. Most seem to be focused on convincing people...

http://atheism.about.com/od/bookreviews/tp/Top-Books-Explaining-Defending-Atheism.htm

doesn't have anything from hitchens or dawkins.

I am not sure about Craig either, although I think he is generally on the 'defense' and so more relevant. Maybe Reasonable Faith?

Of course, perhaps 'God is not one' would take the entire course and more 'sure of themselves/extreme' positions like Craig/Dawkins/Hitchens can be left as recommended reading and not dealt with by the class.

JM

[Sava]

Atheism pisses me off too. Those people are just as deluded as fundies. Only, they choose the other idiotic extreme.

[-Jrabbit]

I also think we should have a mandatory comparative religion class in high school.

That would be awesome, for a million reasons.

[rah]

My original comment questioned the usefulness of required courses in general. If you are not interested in explaining why you are generally in favor of forcing high school students to learn about things that do not interest them, the effectiveness of doing so be damned, then I don't see why you responded to my comment.

Just because a student is not interested in math is not a valid excuse for him not to learn it. Or do you think kids shouldn't have to take math, science, and reading?

[giblets]

Just because a student is not interested in math is not a valid excuse for him not to learn it. Or do you think kids shouldn't have to take math, science, and reading?

All of those terms are vague categories. High school students should be expected to study those things but they should have some flexibility in what they read, what subcategories of science they study, etc. And they should take social studies courses of their own choosing instead of having things like "World Religions" forced on them.

[Jon Miller]

Religion is quite vague too.

As is politics.

Both should be covered.

Knowing a bit about other religions/atheism is necessary to navigate the world now just like being able to count/add/subtract/read/write. It is no longer the case that you figure that pretty much everyone was raised as Christian or in a pseudo-Christian environment.

JM

[giblets]

Religion is quite vague too.

As is politics.

Both should be covered.

Knowing a bit about other religions/atheism is necessary to navigate the world now just like being able to count/add/subtract/read/write. It is no longer the case that you figure that pretty much everyone was raised as Christian or in a pseudo-Christian environment.

JM

I can't think of a situation where knowing about someone else's religious beliefs has helped me. I can find uses for reading, writing and math, however.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And they should take social studies courses of their own choosing instead of having things like "World Religions" forced on them.

So you want to start hiring sociologists, anthropologists, economists etc. to teach specialized social study courses? The beauty of World Religions course is that a World History teacher wouldn't have to stretch uber-far in understanding the curriculum.

[giblets]

Someone has to hire the anthropology and sociology majors.

[Imran Siddiqui]

There are always fast food restaurants around

[Imran Siddiqui]

Thinking back on World History and World Religion - it makes little sense really to even separate them. World History SHOULD encompass detailed discussion about the faith of the peoples they are studying. A lot of history is described through religious beliefs and differences.

In my high school is there was 1 year of world history required and 2 years of American history. Maybe we should have made it 2 years of world history and 2 of American history.

[giblets]

Thinking back on World History and World Religion - it makes little sense really to even separate them. World History SHOULD encompass detailed discussion about the faith of the peoples they are studying. A lot of history is described through religious beliefs and differences.

In my high school is there was 1 year of world history required and 2 years of American history. Maybe we should have made it 2 years of world history and 2 of American history.

The core requirements always seem to increase rather than decrease.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I got no issues with that. High school should be teaching kids some minimums and then in college they can explore.

[giblets]

I got no issues with that. High school should be teaching kids some minimums and then in college they can explore.

And if they're not middle class kids who will presumably go to college...?