The Case for Teaching The Bible

[MidGe]

There should never be anywhere the "teaching" of the bible. What would be very useful would be courses on deconstructing the bible showing it for what it is. A cruel, and encouraging cruelty, piece of literature, a bit like "The Story of O" or the Marquis de Sade writings.

[Insp. Clue!So?]

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Using public tax money to teach about the contents of a religious book.

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The school is needed to educate children about important issues. I think it's important that school kids are familiar with this 'important' book.
At school I was taught about Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism - I enjoyed it and learned more about the world I was living in.

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No atheism?

[kurto]

If they forced kids to read it straight through cover to cover, I suspect most of them would be bored out of their skull.

[oe39]

seems like a waste of time... much more interesting stuff to read out there

[Alex-db]

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Using public tax money to teach about the contents of a religious book.

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The school is needed to educate children about important issues. I think it's important that school kids are familiar with this 'important' book.
At school I was taught about Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism - I enjoyed it and learned more about the world I was living in.

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No atheism?

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How would you study atheism? It would be as abstract as learning a-Aesopism.

Children study atheism by learning maths, physics, biology and chemistry, which were all in my timetable.

[Jiggymike]

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I'm sure the Bible COULD be taught in a secular manner where it's not preached or taught as the "one and only truth." However for many people this is too difficult and it will just break down into preaching/pushing the dogma within it. One of the best classes I took in college involved reading the Bible and then learning about how it was written and how the people's lives/cultures affected the manner in which it was written and what was said in it. However I would not expect this level of detail and maturity in a high school (or lower) class.

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This sounds like the best class ever.

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Can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not, I assure you it was pretty good. The teacher was also excellent, and made some good jokes (one about God "smoking up" was huge in college).

[Drew_aces15]

As a Christian, I am not sure I like the idea either. As evidenced here on these posts, many people will have an agenda when presenting the material (either to reinforce its contents or to discredit them). I agree, the State employing somone to discredit the Bible or teach it possibly incorrectly would do no good at all. But this raises another question: Why, when most people claim to want freedom of ideas and thoughts, do they then want to restrict ideas that differ from their own? Bible class in public school is rare now. It seems the majority of those in charge want to keep it that way, as opposed to what the original posts indicates about the nefarious "religious right" and it's mission to destroy the culture. It's virtually impossible to find curriculum that questions Darwinism and "goo-to-you" evolution - at least without accompanying ACLU lawsuits. Google what happened in Georgia and Pennsylvania lately. Teaching the Bible is best thing, I just happen to agree that perhaps the public school is not the best place for it - because I put no faith in those entrusted with the material to present it properly.

[Alex-db]

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because I put no faith in those entrusted with the material to present it properly.

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If the Bible were to be presented properly, is there an argument that there should be a minimum age before teaching children about stories of violence, rape etc?

[LCposter]

I'm glad to see my original post has sparked a healthy debate. A few points I'd like to address:

1. The writer for Time recommends that schools offering a Bible elective should require those students to also enroll in a comparative religion class about other religions. This is NOT how the cirriculum is set up for most of the schools offering this class.

2. For what subject matter is the Bible a good reference?

a. Science? The Genesis story of creation is in direct contradiction to the theory of evolution, one of the best established and most successful theories in the history of science. The Intelligent Design theory attempts to reconcile evolution with divine guidance. Any secular school which invokes mysticism to explain phenomena that, according to the vast majority of scientists, fit well within a scientific framework is doing their students a great disservice.

b. Law and/or morality? It's debatable to what extent (if any) public schools should teach morality, but if they did, the laws and morality of the Bible (especially Old Testament) again are in direct contradition to our current legal structure and generally accepted morality.

c. History? If the Bible is studied as history, and the facts can be independently verified from other credible sources, this may be a little more acceptable, but then why reference the Bible in the first place when most historians don't consider it a credible source? It seems like the implicit agenda would be "the Bible's account of such and such historical events seems accurate, therefore other things in the Bible are probably true as well"

d. Literature? How are we going to classify the Bible - Mythology? Nonfiction? Treating it as nonfiction would be horribly biased. I actaully think comparing the parables to other cultural fables and fairy tales, or comparing the Jesus story to other savior legends (Horus, Dionysus, Krishna, etc.) could be fascinating material, but I think many Christians would be up in arms at the prospect of the Bible being deconstructed as myth and allegory instead of literal truth.

e. Metaphysics (i.e. concepts that exist outside of objective experience)? Personally, I think it would be a mistake to delve into this matter before students have a good understanding of basic philosophy. In any case, if metaphysics could actually be taught at the high school level, then perhaps it could be ok to consult the Bible as one view concerning ideas such as free will, the soul, the afterlife, etc., but only if opposing viewpoints are presented. In any case, since by definition this is subjective matter, who do you trust to put together an "objective" survey of the differing ideologies? I certainly wouldn't trust a school board or most elected officials for that matter.

In summary, I don't see how a semester spent studying the Bible can be the best use of students' time when US students perform horribly compared to the rest of the world in basic subjects such as math and science.

[revots33]

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If the Bible were to be presented properly, is there an argument that there should be a minimum age before teaching children about stories of violence, rape etc?

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Yes I'd say a lot of the bible is definitely rated PG-13 at the very least, if not R.

As for teaching the bible in public schools, it's naive to think that this is anything other than an attempt to erode the separation of church and state.

I wonder what kind of classtime ratio they'll be offering between the Bible and every other religious text in existence? 99% Bible, .5% Quran, .5% everything else?

Let kids learn about the bible in church or Sunday School if their parents want to drag them there. It has no place in public schools.