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Topic :: Religion Education in Schools

There have been a lot of discussions on this over the past year. Creationism and Evolution have been fighting it out, making Darwin turn in his grave. It is a controversy that mostly exists in the United States.

The matter is fairly deep as it goes into religious beliefs which is a huge and separate topic but religious liberty is a major contradicting factor to any nation trying to impose the beliefs of one major religion to children. The way I see it, and please correct me if I am wrong, is that students are told that one god created and shaped our world and universe. Who’s to say which god that is though. Is it the father of Jesus Christ or Zeus the king of the ancient Greek gods? We could go even further into the prehistoric beliefs that Greeks or other very old civilisations had regarding god-like entities but it would be an extreme example. However, if you think about it, it’s merely a different religion, which is now extinct and thought of as false by the later religions. Shouldn’t all the major religions be included when talking about creationism? Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Chinese traditional religion, Buddhism, Scientology, among others, all have their own theory on the creation of our world. It should be taken into consideration that most of the religions are symbolic and cannot/should not be translated literally. The Christian god did not create the world in 7 days. This is meant to be a symbolic story/myth from which the believers are meant to realise a deeper meaning just like in other religions where the same idea exists. Examples are the Japanese, Chinese, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian creation myths, among others.

But it is when people start to take religion literally that it gets ugly. If you sit down and think about the contents of religious books (like the Bible) they sound a lot like they came out of a fiction novel and that is because there is a lot of symbolism and many allegories and analogies that can be found in them. A lot of people ignore these or simply decide to believe in the words they read and not their meaning which is what leads to problems.

I am by no means a religion expert. I have not studied religion deeply but I know enough things to support my own beliefs.

I don’t disagree with Creationism being taught in schools, however, it has to be taught right. It has to be taught as a religious theory and be explained that it is a symbolic story. I believe in freedom of speech as well as freedom of thought and liberty of religion and I am very tolerant of anyone who wants to believe in any of the religions but I draw the line to where it crosses my liberties and my freedom according to the laws (even though a lot of the laws still have religious elements in them but let’s not go there). Children should know the stories before they make up their minds like I had the opportunity to do. I have heard it all, from Christianity and Buddhism to Scientology and Kabbalah but the words of their teachings never touched me and I always saw right through them. I was never the kind of person who believed in a higher being.

Evolution should be taught in schools as well as it explains a lot about our place on this earth and how we came to be, where we came from and why we should take care of this planet and not abuse it because in the same way that it gave us life or allowed us to evolve on it, it can take it all away and leave us with nothing. Evolution is a scientific fact and something which can be proven. It is something which can help us study the human and other species on this earth and provide solutions to problems.

Long story short? Let the students decide for themselves what they want to believe. Be careful how you teach those things and do not take advantage of how children are naturally impressionable. Evolution is an undeniable scientific fact which students must be taught and Creationism is what humans used to believe before they were able to explain the world around them scientifically and spiritual explanations were the only ones available. As long as there is Religion Education in schools, Creationism should be taught but it only belongs in that class. Evolution belongs in biology or maybe even in history class.

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Topical Tuesday #3 :: The Environment
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Topical Tuesday #9 :: The Oscars
Topical Tuesday #5 :: My First Job
Topical Tuesday #6 :: The Greatest Superhero

Written by Colin Brooks on 11.09.07 at 4:50 pm.