Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
I agree that the subject should be taught, but not at an early age. I'm not even sure high school would be the time for something so controversial. As a college level course, such a study of the foundations of religion, not any particular religion, should be, and I believe generally is, an elective course.

The problem with trying to teach these things at an earlier age is that in many cases the parents and churches are busy teaching (read brainwashing) their kids into their own particular brand of religion. Any kind of study which shows how religions develop and evolve would generally, I believe, raise serious questions which the parents, and especially the churches, don't want the kids to ask. You then wind up with the parents and churches fighting with the educators and the kids wind up suffering through a general lack of education. Not too different from what is happening in this country (USA) now.
I actually have taught selections from the Bible to high school freshmen and never received a single complaint or had a controversy over it. Perhaps I was lucky. I taught a unit on creation myths in my freshman English class. We studied Greek/Roman, Norse, Native American, Egyptian, Mesopotamian and then we read part of Genesis. I was careful to preface that reading with a disclaimer that I was not saying Genesis was a myth. We compared and contrasted. I told my students they could interpret the commonalities among the various creation stories as evidence of the truth of the Bible or they could interpret it as the Bible taking elements from older creation stories.
The Bible can be and should be discussed in public schools . . . as a cultural influence. It is impossible to understand our history, politics and literature without knowing anything about religion and the Bible. The key is to teach ABOUT the Bible and religion but NOT to prostheletize. The teacher must remain objective. How can one understand The Scarlet Letter or Dante's Inferno or the origins of the US and the Constitution without learning about the religious influences?