Many Christians argue that creationism should be taught in school as an alternative to the
THEORY of evolution. They always like to put emphasis on the word “theory” when talking about evolution, which is a bit funny since they don’t do the same with the theory of gravity when talking about it nor the theory of electromagnetism when turning on their iPad. But I digress.
I don’t agree with the idea that we should teach creationism in our science classes until somebody comes up with actual scientific evidence for it which would then make it science. But I do think teaching the Christian bible along with other important religious texts in our history classes would be a great idea.
I was raised a Polish catholic. Being a Polish catholic came with the added bonus of a government mandated catholic education which taught you there was never any reason to question your holy book. What I always found a bit odd about this education is that it never concentrated on the history of where the books we were told we have no reason to question came from. We were studying ancient stories that came long before Jesus but we were never studying where the story of Jesus, and the entire basis of our faith, actually came from. Imagine my shock as someone who was raised in this environment when I finally decided to study the history of the bible on my own accord. I wish someone had told me sooner that the reason I was giving up my Sundays each week was because of books that were written 30 to 70 years after Jesus by anonymous authors based on second hand accounts from people that never actually witnessed Jesus alive.
And to make it worse after these stories were finally written throughout the centuries people picked and chose what they wanted to believe by editing the bible down. One of the versions that came out of this process which people today still actually believe was influenced by a guy that figured that instead of beheading his wives every time he wanted a new one it would be much easier to simply change the bible. Too bad he didn’t think of that a little sooner.
What really put the nail in the coffin was the fact that there were hundreds of Gods before Jesus that are in many ways the same as Jesus. As Gerald Massey originally wrote about and Bill Mahr pointed out in the movie Religulous one of them was the ancient Egyptian God Horus.
Like Jesus Horus was the son of God and was born on December 25th. He was born to a virgin mother, baptized in a river and was later killed by crucifixion. 3 days after the crucifixion? You guessed it! Resurrected. During his life it was taught that he was a miracle worker that healed the sick, cast out demons, and walked on water. And the most recent writings we have of him came 25 centuries before Jesus.
When I first studied this history I tried to justify it as much as I could but there are only so many justifications you can make before you sound like that poor homeless guy on the street corner screaming about the end of times.
Based on my experiences I think teaching the accurate history of the bible, which you will find most Christians don’t dispute, would be a important addition to the curriculum taught in our history classes. And I don’t want to make it sounds like I only want the bible to be covered, that is not the case. Other religious texts that have an important role in our society should also be taught.
I am also not calling for schools to teach that religion is wrong, people that know the history of any particular religion can make up their own minds in that regard. But everyone should have an opportunity to study this history and learn from it. The goal of teaching history is to have a society that understands important events that shaped the society we live in and I don’t think anyone can argue that various religious texts had and continue to have a huge influence on our world.
http://www.leftunderground.com/content/257-The-Bible-Should-Be-Taught-In-Schools
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