Religion being taught in School would be a good thing

ty for sharing no comment at this time Carol is gone for the evening and I am filling in so she doesnt get too far behind on her emails

I can agree to this

What a concept...a non-sectarian religion class in our schools. Indeed it would be a good thing if we learned more about the religions of the world however, I doubt that we, as a people, have minds open enough to treat it as a learning experience and not a religious debate.

One of my junior high history classes included a unit on comparitive religions. The teacher was fair and objective and the class was able to deal with it in the proper context. It was expected, accepted and without controversy.

I don't think the same would hold true today. I think a lot of people would struggle with schools presenting Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism on equal footing.

PS. The Texas legislature recently mandated that schools offer a "Bible as Literature" course if enough students request it. This is going to cost the taxpayers millions.

You can't teach the Bible and religion in a setting like that without it becoming comparative religion studies and I think that's a wonderful thing. If you just get religion in your own church then you only get one side of the story. Religion is very important to so many people, and it is so tangled up in history, culture and politics, that it should be a part of education.

Thanks all for your comments

This is interesting. Richard, do you have an online source that shows all the parallels i.e. Epic of Gilgamesh and the story of Noah, etc?

No Julia I just know these things.

For example, the Virgin birth of the main character between God and a Virgin, walking on water, the law being handed down from a mountain on two tablets to a dude with a name that started with 'M', was the Egyptian religion.

And I simply read the Epic of Gilgamish many years ago, and even tho this epic journey of Gilgamish is much more than the flood, the flood part, as I remember is pretty much the same as Noah.

And I took a class in astrology in the middle seventies and know more about that than I'd care to talk about.

And as the topic of teaching religion has come up recently I thought I'd mention my thinking that it would be a good idea to cover it all in a class in school.

I thought I'd look in Google and I found the following -

Julia I did a search - Christianity comparison to Egyptian religion - and got almost 2 million hits on Google.

The Flood part of Gilgamesh is as follows: remember, I said it was about the same -

In reality, it was Utnapishtim's flood, told in the 11th tablet. The council of the gods decided to flood the whole earth to destroy mankind. But Ea, the god who made man, warned Utnapishtim, from Shuruppak, a city on the banks of the Euphrates, and told him to build an enormous boat:

'O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubartutu:
Tear down the house and build a boat!
Abandon wealth and seek living beings!
Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings!
Make all living beings go up into the boat.
The boat which you are to build,
its dimensions must measure equal to each other:
its length must correspond to its width.''The gods were frightened by the flood,
and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu.
The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall.
Ishtar shrieked like a woman in childbirth,
the sweet-voiced Mistress of the Gods wailed:

"The olden days have alas turned to clay,
because I said evil things in the Assembly of the Gods!
How could I say evil things in the Assembly of the Gods,
ordering a catastrophe to destroy my people!!
No sooner have I given birth to my dear people
than they fill the sea like so many fish!"
The gods—those of the Anunnaki—were weeping with her,
the gods humbly sat weeping, sobbing with grief(?),
their lips burning, parched with thirst.

However, the flood was relatively short:
'Six days and seven nights
came the wind and flood, the storm flattening the land.
When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding,
the flood was a war—struggling with itself like a woman
writhing (in labor).

Then the ark lodged on Mt Nisir (or Nimush), almost 500 km (300 miles) from Mt Ararat. Utnapishtim sent out a dove then a swallow, but neither could find land, so returned. Then he sent out a raven, which didn't return. So he released the animals and sacrificed a sheep. This was not too soon, because the poor gods were starving:
'The gods smelled the savor,the gods smelled the sweet savor,
and collected like flies over a (sheep) sacrifice.'
Then Enlil saw the ark and was enraged that some humans had survived. But Ea sternly rebuked Enlil for overkill in bringing the flood. Whereupon Enlil granted immortality to Utnapishtim and his wife, and sent them to live far away, at the Mouth of the Rivers.

Here is where Gilgamesh found him, and heard the remarkable story. First Utnapishtim tested Gilgamesh's worthiness for immortality by challenging him to stay awake for 7 nights. But Gilgamesh was too exhausted and quickly fell asleep. Utnapishtim asked his wife to bake a loaf of bread and place it by Gilgamesh every day he slept. When Gilgamesh awoke, he thought he had just been asleep for a moment. But Utnapishtim showed Gilgamesh the loaves at different stages of aging, showing that he had been asleep for days.

Gilgamesh once more lamented about his inevitable death, and Utnapishtim took pity on him. So he revealed where he could find a plant of immortality. This was a thorny plant in the domain of Apsu, the god of the subterranean sweet water. Gilgamesh opened a conduit to the Apsu, tied heavy stones to his ankle, sunk deep down, and grabbed the plant. Although the plant pricked him, he cut off the stones, and rose.
Unfortunately, on the return journey, Gilgamesh stopped at a cool spring to bathe, and a snake carried off the plant. Gilgamesh wept bitterly, because he could not return to the underground waters.

But who would teach such courses? And how do we avoid differences in interpretation or application of religious viewpoints which so often lead to difficulties among people?

While I certainly agree that there are many parallels between religions such as those you pointed out, some view any efforts at drawing such parallels as profanations. For example, the idea of the virgin birth of a savior existed long before the Bible was written. I have seen Christians go into fits and starts when people point this out. Ditto for the parallel between Gilgamesh and Noah.

So, how do we insure that religious matters are taught without causing any one or any group from going into hostilities??

Training of the teachers, and followup and accountability and as you know it can't be managed if it can't be measured. That I also know, because it would need to be measured by results, which are a tangible thing, is not going to be easy at all.