Religion in textbooks

[wspwll]

Christianity, like all other religions taught in school, always tends to give off the impression that all religion is false and only science is fact. this has been a huge struggle w/ me as i push my way through honors and AP global and world history. i find it really frustrating how teachers show students what "religion" is. especially when more than half of my social studies teachers are athiest, or rather go 2 church, but have more religion in them then God.

Is anyone else out there w/ me on this??

some feedback and encouragment wood b awesome!!

[Madame Captain]

Christianity, like all other religions taught in school, always tends to give off the impression that all religion is false and only science is fact. this has been a huge struggle w/ me as i push my way through honors and AP global and world history. i find it really frustrating how teachers show students what "religion" is. especially when more than half of my social studies teachers are athiest, or rather go 2 church, but have more religion in them then God.

Is anyone else out there w/ me on this??

some feedback and encouragment wood b awesome!![/b]

What? This made no sense. ;-; -lost-

[fjs93]

I know what you mean,but I don't have the problem.I'm homeschooled.

[St.Augustus]

I dont have that problem, it has happened before but not often. I live in the south so im sure that hs something to do with it. Even when i dual enrolled biology at the community college, shes an atheist but when she went over darwin she said she wasnt forcing this belief on anyone and that it was by no means pefect and had many flaws.

[rjh4509]

I know exactly what you mean! In 7th and 8th grade we had to work out of this textbook that was basically a vehicle for Muslim proselytizing. We learned about every single point of Muslim doctrine and the book heavily condemned the Catholic church as the ONLY aggressor in the Crusades and the committor of the most heinous acts in history. Many parents complained because the book really went overboard and one of the editors was a prominent Muslim theologian. They were told that Islam was taught in middle school and that Christianity and Judaism were taught in high school. Upon reaching AP World History however, I discovered that "Christianity" is code for only Catholicism and THAT is painted in an extremely negative light. All of its problems and corruption during the middle ages are highlighted and none of the Christian doctrine is taught - the opposite of the middle school textbook which taught both Muslim doctrine and history. Nothing about Jesus or where Christianity even came from. Just all of the sudden there's this Catholic church in Europe and they're extremely corrupt and this guy named Luther didn't like that so he made a new church. And yes we're taught about the many "religions" and educated in the beliefs and practices of all EXCEPT Christianity. In Biology they absolutely refuse to give any credence to Creationism and they try to completely avoid controversy by specifically saying "Evolution is a theory" but then teaching it as fact. And teaching that the Earth is billions of years old when in fact there is scientific basis that suggests otherwise (my sister wrote a wonderful paper in 8th grade about scientific evidence and research on the Young Earth theory - you've never heard of that, have you?). I have had the opportunity to have one science teacher that realizes that science is about investigation and discovery, not about cold hard fact. That science is in fact based on a certain amount of creativity and not all calculation. But yes, my school and district tend to take a very PC, anti-Christian standpoint and it bothers me. You aren't allowed to say or do anything that would potentially offend someone of any other religion or culture but white Christians automatically have no culture (I'll save that for another topic) and you can insult Christianity all you want. I know pretty much who every Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jew and atheist/agnostic is in my school but I don't know who the Christians are. It's very sad.

[xXjesusisanheroXx]

DUDE YOU ARE SO RIGHT

[ColdWarKids]

I've actually never noticed that. I haven't taken world cultures since 7th grade but if I remember correctly my teacher would present every religion equally. Just giving the facts about what they believe and not making it sound like any of them were incorrect, even though he was a devout Christian. I'm going to be taking it again this year with a different teacher so we'll see how that goes.

[ksmith1909]

I've actually never noticed that. I haven't taken world cultures since 7th grade but if I remember correctly my teacher would present every religion equally. Just giving the facts about what they believe and not making it sound like any of them were incorrect, even though he was a devout Christian. I'm going to be taking it again this year with a different teacher so we'll see how that goes.[/b]

Hooray for the normal teachers!

I've never had any problems with it.

[mintchocochip]

always tends to give off the impression that all religion is false[/b]

Well let me tell you this. I have not heard about Christianity once in school. I did not hear anything even in history class about how religions shaped the US or the present day, all I learned about was Islam. I'm not sure where the teacher was going with this, he taught us about the two types and how they're different, but he didn't tell us anything about what they believe, just how they dress and that the two types don't get along.

I think it's terrible that schools in general, not just textbooks, don't often touch on the subject of religion. I remember in 7th grade, the science teacher said that talking about religion was actually not disallowed in schools, just proselytizing. He never actually talked about creationism or other views on the creation of the planet though. It's rather sad that many schools only teach religious tolerance, if that, but nothing about the religions themselves. Religion has shaped society, history, and even science -- though you hardly ever hear about it in the classroom. I speak only from my experience in schools, but maybe others' experiences were different. We hear about the War in Iraq, but do not learn about the religious warfare. We hear about the pilgrims and the indians, but do not hear about what the pilgrims stood for. We know the bible is the world's best-selling book, but many children don't know the basic stories in it. We know Jesus died on a cross, but do not learn about how this event impacted the world. All of these matters can be approached in a secular fashion, but schools don't even try. The sad part is that religion is, in my opinion, an important part to learning about our world, because it is so influencial. Children should know about the religions that shape our world, and what they are about, even if they do not believe in those religions themselves.

always tends to give off the impression that ... only science is fact.[/b]

I agree. When I took biology at school it was very interesting because the teacher took FOREVER on the whole evolution unit, she drew it out soooo long, made us watch videos on it and multiple tests, etc. It also bothers me that science teachers tell you what a scientific theory is and then proceed to teach scientific theories like they are ultimate fact. Hyprocrisy. LOL

[Boogly]

Textbooks need to remain objective. Therefore, they must portray ALL religions as false/unproven, or portray the ALL as being true. You can't just portray Christianity as the One True Religion.