You can put a pink ribbon on a pig but it remains a pig.
Another religious right method to put the bible back into the schools to poison the minds of young people.

How could this course have a semblance of the real truth about this man made book, the damage that has been done to societies because of the religions allegedly based on its fictiousness if theologians are involved?

Who are the two thirds that want the bible back in the schools? Could this possibly be a fictious number created in the twisted mind of another fundamentalist suffering from cognitive disssonance or over active imagination?

Who would be academically qualified enough to teach such a course in truth, as history really records, outside of Atheists, Agnostics or Free Thinkers?

ex-pentecostal preacher
Fred

Maybe you should also teach that women are inferior, daughters can be sold into slavery, children can be stoned to death if disobedient, you can give your virgin daughters to get humped instead of strangers,erm oh if a group of people decide to join you, you say you need their foreskins then after you get 200 foreskins, you kill them and their children keeping virgins to hump, erm what else, Cain being exiled and seeing a village and getting married, if there are no decent men around, get your daddy drunk on wine and hump him,what else....yes lets read the bible FROM THE BEGINNING and realise it load of SHITE!

Yes this book really teaches the 'good'. what about showing archealogical evidence as well such as how the hebrews and isreallite in the bible exagerated kingdoms and said that when the won they actually lost big time.


In fact it is all lies. So then why waste $$ on what is harmful to people's brains? Why not teach how to improve one's live by thinking positive. Or First Aid techniques? or Skills that can be used and be useful??

I'm extremely wary of the idea behind this textbook. Maybe it's meant to teach students solely about the place of the Bible in the world in a literary context. I suppose that's alright... But that having been said, I don't see what the problem is with the system that's in place now. In my high school literature classes, we started the year by glazing over early human texts from the Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and, yes, the Christians. We read a few stories from each, and the whole point was not to learn us some good ol' religious bigotry, but to say, "hey, these texts were created, and they had some entertaining stories about what gods and divine people supposedly did, and they are a part of literary history." That is my experience with religious texts in high school (thankfully, the only experience), and if this is the intent of the new Bible textbook, as the author claims, that's fine.

To me, the problem is that they want to devote an entire class--elective or otherwise--to ideas that are glossed over in a literary context at the beginning of other high school literature courses. I see no need to spend more time on things that are already covered pretty well. To me, dwelling on religious texts in high school is akin to teaching them as being a lot more than just a footnote in literature. Nevermind that you're opening a whole new can of worms by introducing this textbook and its course. To me, by introducing this textbook, you're opening the door to the possibility of insertion of more blatant religious propaganda in schools, violating the separation of church and state, and in the least, you're opening the door to students, faculty, and community members who would take the opportunity to proselytize to others.

Thus, I stand opposed.

I'm an atheist. As does anyone else who appreciates the so-called "freedom of religion" in this country, I don't care what people believe so long as they don't bug me about not believing in any religion or any god. Still, it's sad to see so many people waste their lives away dwelling on myths when they could be living in the here and now to make the world a better place.

The Bible, along with other religious texts, should be taught, if at all, as part of already existing curriculum for literature courses in which they are noted as a part of literary history. I feel that anything more is crossing the line.

"One can't teach that the Bible is objectively true, but one shouldn't teach that it's objectively false," he added."

The fact that the Koran is not being taught, and other religious books, shows bias...

The only way to teach this course, objectively, is through a "comparitive" religion course... I dare say, if the instructor did a decent job of recanting all of the historical gods, that the Significance of any "one", will become greatly diminished... except, for those who finally admit, they they are just choosing their flavor of god, per their druthers... kind of like going shopping for a new shirt...

I still hold that if this course is in theory supposed to be taught, in an academic environment, as it is in college... a secondary, and alternate class should be "offered" as an alternative, which is totally non-religious... and that would be "Philosophy"... A good dose of solid philosophy, will prepare those who aren't capable of critical analysis, to enter a classroom supporting a bible, with the ability to dissect it... Of course, the religious conservative right, would have a problem with this, as... philosophy is what killed religion thousands of years ago... and caused theology to be borne, as religion could not hold up "logically"... it was considered an irrational belief system, and still is... its why Aristotle and many others had to flee their homelands, to escape persecution... Our minds are naturally predisposed to create order out of confusion, religion is nothing but confusion when taking it to its theological roots, and is why any religious person pushing their belief as an "educated" person, will only sell it based on hope...

I comment from an Australian point of view.
In my view if we are to address the problem fully we must recognise religious faith for what it is and for its limitations in regards to academic education. It should be a Teacher's prime responsibility to teach only what is truthful. Children's education should be more important than dogmatic religious laws, creeds, theologies, and beliefs.
Instead of enriching the lives of children Christian schools do the opposite; these types of schools weakens a child's ability to think rationally. They are conditioned to believe that they are sinful depraved beings living in a state of sin without Jesus in their lives. This is a controlling spirit of fear because they are led to believe that without Jesus they will be punished in the everlasting eternal fires of Hell. It is this fear of Hell that keeps a child in bondage (subject to external control) to Christianity. Teaching children things like Adam and Eve and the original sin, and Noah's ark and the flood, Angels, Satan, Demons, and the eternal suffering in Hell for all non Christians must be looked upon with suspicion.
What has any of this ancient archaic petrified theology got to do with achieving academic qualifications? It is worse than teaching kids about Father Christmas or the tooth fairies down in the garden, all of this is only perpetrating a lie? The children are eventually told that Father Christmas and the fairies are a lie, but they are left to believe that the rest is truthful. Why teach these fantasies in the first place? Why not always teach truthfulness?
As there is no evidence for any of this stuff it should not be taught as truth. There is also no evidence for a God who probably does not exist much less communicate with people, therefore it becomes a handicap and a source of fear and hinders the advancement of honest education.
In order to highly educate youth we need to advance forward not go back to the unfounded beliefs of past primitive ancient mythology whose only means of communication was by word of mouth. We need to educate our children thoroughly with the very best that modern research has to offer devoid of any religious doctrine. All religious dogma should be left at the altar, and should only be kept for those who are gullible enough to warm the pews at a Sunday service.
Christian schools do not advocate or teach freedom of religions or freedom of speech. I feel sure that many people who prefer to send their children to Christian schools have not looked into all of the issues that are involved.
Schools need to teach critical thinking skills and to train upcoming scientists and engineers for the benefit of progress, and children should not have their young minds distorted by prepackaged dogma that prevails in many religious institutions today.
Many laws and regulations in our society are based on religious doctrine, which is defective. A society that obeys the law should do so out of respect and not out of fear. A law that’s based on religious doctrine is a law that is not shared by all people in our land and this law become repressive and becomes self defeating by undermining respect for the law in general.
I believe that governments have a duty to fulfill with the education of our young, and skillful education should remain in control of governmental organisation and not become diluted and polluted with religious belief systems. I also believe that Private Christian schools if they must exist should only be financed by private contributions and they should be held responsible for paying all taxes in line with any other private institution of business. Christian scripture teaching should also be abolished from state run government schools. Why should Christianity be shown favouritism over other religions in this regard?
Governments also have a duty to the people to maintain not only freedom of religion but freedom from religions also. The people who do not believe in a supernatural being should have exactly the same rights as those that do. After all there is not a single person on the face of this planet that has any knowledge that there is a God, so until such times as we know that a God exists then those who don't believe have a perfect right to do so. Governments should allow people to contribute further to the development of the human race by free thought and every person should have the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts, and to share in scientific advancements and all of its benefits.
I have seen present day government literature advocating the advancement of Christian religion, when the same government also say that in a democratic society we have freedom of religion, and freedom of speech. Why any government in the world today would want to advance any religion is beyond my comprehension. If the Christian coalition party ever came to power in this country then they would try to return to the period known as the dark ages. Abortion would be outlawed (paving the way for the return of the backyarder) the homosexuals life would become unbearable, all literature, television and the Internet would come under extreme censorship as they would try to enforce a theocratic government.
All that religions ever create is intolerance, bitterness, and hatred for each other, which eventually leads to wars, as history has recorded over and over again. If all belief systems cannot stand up to reasonable questioning then they should be abolished. Need I say more?