findfirefox said:
Ignorant people piss me off. Its time to move past "god", or at least time to make some major changes to the evil book that is the bible.
Madam_Z- The only way its ever going to be fine is if there's some massive revelation that the bible is just a book, and that's all.
I think most people who are diverse in their reading accept that the bible
is just a book. It is history, fiction, philosophy, and propaganda all in one. And like the major books of the other religions, if taken for some of the wisdoms that it offers, it can have great personal value. It's all in how it is used. The word of God? Hardly. More the word of man attributed to God. There was a survey done amongst the religious community in recent years as to what words they actually felt were attributable to the prophet Jesus seeing as God has spoken to so few. It came down to two words, and hardly memorable.
An evil book? Books aren't evil. It is how the book is used. I will agree that while the bible has positive values, it is also a book that has been, and is still used by misguided people in the name of God and their questionable religious agendas to create and commit great acts of evil in the world. If God existsand I'll be daringly non-progressiive
sans agenda in writing that, I accept that something quite spectacular happened that I can't explainhe is probably hiding in shame at the lunacy that mindless men attribute to him. I'll accept a Creator, and science, and both together, before I will accept formailized religion.
As an educator, I have become more committed to the separation of church and state based on the ignorance and intolerance that I see driving some of the religious agendas. Religion does not belong in public education. Schools are sometimes the last hope for more open-minded and diverse thinking. Every religion has value and none should predominate over another. Yet we have the Christian right once again feeling that they should take precedence. Leave the educating of religion to the religious communities, not the public schools.
As far as the failing of American education, I find that my day is less about teaching, and more about mindless administrative paperwork, red tape, meeting government and state demands, and having to do remedial and reparative work with a confused student population that is the product of incompetent parenting and dysfunctinal homes. George Bush and No Child Left Behind, and its lack of funding, have not helped in raising the level of American education. No wonder Fundamentalism is gaining a foothold.