Comment of the Week: What do Kids Really Know About Religion?
What these Christians mean by "more religion" is "more religious faith and belief in god," but perhaps they would do better to focus on "more religion" in the sense of "more education and information about religious history and development." Shouldn't young Christians be informed about the basics of the history of their own religion, never mind other religions?
I used to teach comparative religions as part of a world history course, and I was repeatedly stunned at how little of religious tradition my high school students had learned.
And these were students who regularly claimed they failed to turn in their homework because they had midweek bible study after school for several hours, on more than one day, plus Sunday School AND Saturday Church activities.
In all that, they never heard about the Nicene Creed, the religious ferment of the Eastern Mediterranean around the historical origins of Christianity, or even the most basic descriptions of other religious beliefs.
So, sure, read the Bible, but in a comparative religions context, and give students a chance to understand what, away from school, they may learn only to recite meaninglessly.
[original post]
It's possible that students were just giving excuses for why they didn't do their homework, but in some areas such high levels of religiosity and attendance at religious classes is common so I can't discount the possibility that they were telling the truth. Whether they were paying much attention at those classes is another matter, of course, but even if they were paying attention what is the likelihood that they would have learned the things that a real class on religious history and comparative religions would expect?
Even the fact that someone might ask such questions should be enough to be disturbing to Christians, but for some it might actually be a badge of honor. Many Protestant Christian churches take "sola scriptura" (scripture alone) to extremes, even if it means ignoring and rejecting the vast majority of Christian history. It's said that those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it, so how much of the extremism among conservative and fundamentalist Christians today is due, at least in part, to their ignorance of the extremism of Christians in the past?
Comments
hi..
this has nothing to do with what you wrote but did you happen to see (somewhat obscure) article in cnn about the “sunday school for atheists” (actually more for children of atheists)? Just thought it might be an interesting topic for you to read about. thanks.
Regarding the article, I spent a couple decades in Sunday School, Sunday night services, and midweek classes, including some summers of “vacation Bible school”–and I was totally ignorant regarding the history of Christianity.
My friends at college all claimed to know things about the history of Christianity and the production of the Bible I had NEVER heard before. I thought they were wrong. I went to the library and buried myself in research books to “prove” I was right. What I found is that I was dead wrong–and they were right. I wasn’t reading atheist books or apologetics. I was reading _history_ text books that simply, and in a completely unbiased way, described how the Bible was produced and how Christianity evolved into what it is today.
Until that time, I never recognized that I had this sort of idea that it all just magically popped into existence “as is”–and my church, and everything they’d drilled into me as a child, was totally correct (as opposed to all other doctrines, which were wrong).
Not all Christians are so ignorant as I was. I understand that; but I find that a great many really are. To find a Christian who is familiar with the history of the development of current apologetics and doctrines, and the history of how the Bible came to be, is rare among the average lay-population. And most ex-Christian atheists I know converted in a similar fashion as I described above: They studied until they recognized how really wrong all the information upon which they based their faith actually was/is.
Regarding atheist Sunday School (posted above). I did read an article on this. It was posted to another forum. BAsed on the article, it sounds like courses in critical thinking–which I really, REALLY wish I’d gotten as a child (rather than brainwashing and rote memorization!). Still, while I think critical thinking skills are a tremendous asset to be developing in children of all ages who are able to reason, my one concern is that in all walks of life, it seems there is always that set of parents who expect their offspring to be carbon copies of themselves. I would hate to think that some parents might want the courses to be used to simply “sell” their children on their own ideologies (no matter how well-thought-out the parents may perceive them to be). As long as the parents will allow the kids to actually put their new critical thinking skills to use–by sometimes perhaps actually disagreeing with mom/dad–I think it’s a great idea.
No one suggested here that atheists be the only ones to inform children about these things.
“Sure they should be informed, but not by lying atheists pretending to be objective. ”
Actually, I read Tracieh’s comment, and I found this:
“I would hate to think that some parents might want the courses to be used to simply “sell” their children on their own ideologies (no matter how well-thought-out the parents may perceive them to be). ”
Now, unless you very very biased, you would consider that to mean teaching childeren how to reason, as a pose to telling them god dosn’t exist and evolution is true. If those are good ideas then the childeren would end up beleiving them after being taught how to reason properly.
Child of Thorns–that is exactly what I meant. You nailed it. As a parent–as a person–of course I’ll think my views are solid; but that doesn’t mean my kids will see it my way. I’ve seen extremely intelligent and reasonable people who disagree completely on religious, political, social, personal and family issues.
I’m baffled by where you pulled the following quote though. Where is this posted?
>“Sure they should be informed, but not by lying atheists pretending to be objective.”
Who said that? (Am I missing a comment?) Weirdly, in the comment link at the end of this article, I see a “5″ {comments)–but in this thread, above, when I open it up to read them, I just see four posts (not including this one I just added):
1. AW
2. tracieh
3. Eric
4. Child of Thorns
Is there another post on this thread I’m not seeing for some reason? I’ve never had this happen before.
???
OK–just for the record–after posting I still just see a five. So, the number of posts I see is now aligned with the number advertised on the link with the article. But still…where is that quote from? (Probably something really obvious that I’m overlooking–so I apologize in advance for my oblivion.)
tracieh,
There was an earlier post that appears to have been removed due to its offensive nature.
I actually thought of that–but not until a bit later. I think what made me think my system was screwy was the way the numbers weren’t showing up right on the site vs. what was posted. So, I thought it was a glitch. But I’m guessing it has a period of “adjustment” at the site before it catches up to deletions?
Thanks!
See this question on silly basic Christian belief on YouYube.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=FNGo3H7kx80
Children know little. They know false hope and the power of taboo.
I too came to my atheism thanks to study about the history of the biblical canon…
… oddly enough, it was teaching I received from my pastor in some adult bible studies…
… also, my bible had notes at the start of each book identifying the writer (or offering a few possibles) along with various possible times of the books writing…
… further questioning of my pastor along with more personal study led to the inevitable conclusion that the bible was a mishmash of human origin & compilation…
… it’s why I strongly encourage bible study & bible history study to christians…
I’m surprised at the number of children who have told my daughter she will go to hell if she doesn’t believe in god. But she is amazingly strong and calmly redirects the topic to something more fun. She’s even attended church/temple with a few of her friends to see what it is all about, then afterwards calmly states her non-religious beliefs respectfully and without prejudice. I may have a future diplomat on my hands. By the way, all this happened in grade school. The best is yet to come.
For Ruth’s childs sake, I hope she doesn’t learn to pretend to be stupid. Adolescence can be a killer.
When I was a kid, all of my christian friends went to church, Sunday school, and some even to “release time” on Wednesday afternoons (does that still go on?). My family never attended church, but my mother, who’d been brought up catholic, taught me about the christian bible and holidays. The funny thing? I used to have to explain christian holidays and such to those same friends because they didn’t have a clue. They hated church, lied in confession, even stole from the collection plate, and were proud of it. So much for learning “christian” values.