Religion in Schools
All religions are equal
When I was in school religion was a commonplace. IIRC the Lord's Prayer was broadcast over the new-fangled PA every morning along with the ) Canada and God Save the Queen.
It did me no harm
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I've read that in places that actually have a state religion that the people are much less religious than places like the USA where a state religion is officially banned. Then religion just fades into the common cultural background and isn't something people think about
Daniel Dennett recommended teaching all the major religions to all students. Religion is, after all, a major component of every culture I can bring to mind. But that's an easy stance for an atheist to take. I think a lot of religious cultures would balk at the idea.
I looked at the Lord's Prayer the other day. Here it is:
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Hail Mary, full of grace.
Besides the references to the deity the wishes are pretty benign.
when I was in school everyone was either a protestant or a catholic. Nobody really cared. The main visible difference was the catholic kids crossed themselves when passing a church. Religion never mattered when we were choosing teams for a baseball game.
I conjecture that all religions, once the religious trappings are swept aside, give similar advice. This grows from my understanding that our moral code has a genetic base - we as homo sapiens are predisposed to see certain things as good or bad.
A certain segment of our morality is directed by social necessity. A society of cheaters wouldn't remain a society for long.
Though here's an example of beneficial cheating. Abbie Hoffmann published a book called Steal This Book. I saw a copy at a friend's house and stole it. It wasn't long before it was stolen from me. So if Abbie self published a thousand copies I bet he had a million readers.
But putting examples like that aside - I bet every society dislikes cheaters even if they disagree about what actually is cheating.
(And, shudder, the MAGA movement seems to love cheaters. We may get to see why societies of cheaters don't prosper.)
"Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Isn't bad advice for school kids to grow up with.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.