I see no problem with atheism being included in the material.
What is there to teach? No god, no heaven, no hell, just how we live this one life and hopefully leave it better for the next generation(s)
Class starts at 0800. Quiz at 0805. Then cookies. Yes, we brought cookies.
It is one thing to visualize a creator figure, like kicking a ball down the stairs to trigger the big bangs, or that the laws of science and math are like a mother nature or god controlling all things.
The idea that someone is manipulating life on earth or the universe, letting million die but favoring a few individuals, makes no logical sense. It might give one comfort to not feel alone but to pray and ask to win a football game while epidemics kill hundreds or an earthquake kills thousands and devastates a nation is not a nice "god" or one deserving of recognition.
Learning about god belongs in the church or home. Learning about religion in history and culture is teaching about the way people think and why they act, that belongs in a class room. It is understanding the psychology of the people at the time.
Why do people brutally massacre others for an empty promise of virgins and wine rather than act in peace and love of others that share the planet? For people like that, I wish there was a hell to relive every pain and suffering they inflicted on others over and over. Maybe to feel the pain of a suicide bomb in very slow motion.
What kind of god rewards brutality and allows innocents to suffer? Sorry, it makes no sense.
Children believe in fairy tales, but then they grow up and learn about people and the world. Fairy tales teach them to be cautions of stranger, to be good, to obey your parents. There are good and bad, there are morals, it gives hope of happy ending. So much easier than trying to teach a toddler about psychology, nature, law, life and death.
I agree. I cannot think of any time in history that it hasn't played some role or provided some clues whether it's the gossip of the times or defining who the movers and shakers were. It is a disservice to the public education system to remove it from the comparative religions section of social studies. We operate globally.
People that jump up and down about the pillars of Islam being taught remind me those folks that decided learning a foreign language is a bad thang. Well, here we are and it's 2016 and we don't have enough people that know Farsi or Arabic (and the dialects) or Russian or several other languages. That puts the US in a bad position of depending on someone else. It's literally setting kids up for failure.
Religion has been used and will continue to be used as a tool for ulterior motives. There is no denying it. It's used to hide behind individually as well. Sometimes it can hide mental illness.
I have lines drawn in the sand.
That said, I have spent the better part of a decade dealing with people that are in the middle of a crisis. So, no matter what I personally believe those situations aren't about me. It's not my job to walk in and tell an 80 year old woman facing mortality that she couldn't be more wrong. The dignity of being human. Do the least amount of harm.
We are in a situation where the majority of americans don't understand Islam or the reason people "over there" are so angry. We have even seen many muslims don't know their own faith and believe that america has to change to adapt to them, where the only freedom of religion is for muslims and no one else or even change politics to be compatible to Islam.
If people know a bit about what is and is not islam there will be less fear and more understanding when address philosophical differences. Right now everyone is scared of the PC police and saying something offensive.
It is not about teaching faith but teaching about how faith effects other aspects of history, politics, law, culture, literature, etc. Teaching a few points where there might be commonality to help communication or differences that need to be discussed frankly.
Right now it would seem that if you speak up or criticize there is a threat some radical will "kill you", so everyone has to say nothing.
We need frank exchange of ideas, fear and questions, without hate. Muslim have to question what others are doing in their name or making them feel like heretics for not sharing extreme views and practices.
The conversation cannot begin if we know nothing about the faiths we each share, or not. It is not teaching faith but having an intellectual discussion. We need to have a fundamental knowledge of the faith, the people it was addressed at, the time period it was written in and the way those people spoke to better understand the words they put so much meaning it.
If we can't speak to each other how do we find common ground for peace?
Learning about religion is not the same as teaching religion. I don't thing most people even understand that.
Religion can not be separated and put in a box on the shelf, it has to be included in understanding others. We should not be afraid of knowledge or free speech with others, not hate speech but frank open honest exchange.
Muslims need to do the same with their faith, question what they have been taught and how it fits in modern society and the US/west in particular. They need to disavow the hate and violence and speak of the inner peace they find in their faith and respect of other people they share this small planet with.
