I Read Job in Public High School

Junior year of high school in the literature class our reading included Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Mark Twain, and the Book of Job. Not a problem.  We analyzed the style and purpose of the authors and the impact of their writing. Excellent.

Reading the Bible as a work of literature is appropriate.  Teaching religion for the purpose of proselytizing or even advocating that the student be religious is not.

Texas legislators were correctly concerned about a proposed Bible class becoming a religious class, not a literature class.

Panel tones down bill for Bible classes

AUSTIN -- A bill that would have required Texas public schools to offer classes teaching the Bible as a textbook was amended by a House panel that agreed offering the classes should be optional.

The House Public Education Committee passed the modified bill on Thursday, drawing praise from critics who feared mandatory Bible courses would be more religious than academic...

...The original bill by state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, would have required schools to offer Bible courses as an elective.  Chisum’s bill called for history and literature courses on the Old and New Testaments...

The state already allows districts to offer Bible courses as electives, but only 25 high schools do so.

Frankly, any class on religion should be a comparative study and should provide the views of atheists and agnostics.

Comments

[Aaron]

Teaching bible courses in high school is the best way to prepare young people to be competitive in the global economy. Definitely.

[Anon]

Paul - did you know that once in America history that people that wanted to be lawyers had to first go to seminary to learn the Bible? The reason for this was because our countries laws and principals were based on it and inorder to fully understand the law you had to understand its origin.

The bible was taught in public schools for many years and a great nation developed. Is it possible that it could be greater if we returned to our humble roots?

[Jess Wundrun]

Dear Anon,

You've had six years to give biblical government a try.

It is a colossal failure. You have made a spurious correlation. Put another way-the Roman Empire was great until it embraced your bible. No thanks.

[Anon]

Dear Jess,

Exactly what harm have you had to endure because of biblical principals?

[Jess Wundrun]

George Bush and the entire crew of Machiavelli Mayberry's brought to us courtesy of the fundamentalist voter. For a start.

[Anon]

Just what I thought...broad generalizations with no substance or basis in reality. At least biblical principals have given us freedom of speech that allows you to make them. The intolerance of those hating the bible would undoubedly take that away from us.

[Jess Wundrun]

"At least biblical principals have given us freedom of speech that allows you to make them."

That's not a broad generalization with no substance or basis in reality? Wow.

Plus, you've taken my phrase 'biblical government' aka the current theocrats in office and turned it into 'biblical principles' which I did not say. It would be nice if bible thumpers stopped thumpin and started reading, wuddenit? But if you are going to bring back biblical principles, why not start with stoning to death adulterers? It would wipe out the majority of the GOP entrants in the 2008 primaries!!

The founding fathers who gave us the first amendment did not derive it from the bible. In fact, that's a really strange idea given that freedom of religion (meaning the right to NOT believe in the Christian bible, Jewish Torah and Islamic Koran) are coupled with the right of free speech to say so in the first amendment. Why do you think they put speech and religion together? Hmmm?

[Anon]

Jess - you appear to me to be a young person that wants to fight for what he thinks is right. That's great and I wish that more people would do the same. However, you also appear to me as a good example of why our schools need to return to teaching biblical principals and history in our schools. You obviously do not know them or the founding and history of our nation.

I hope that you look into it and once you learn these things that you have the same zeal to fight for what is true and right. I'm pretty sure that teaching the bible in schools was the premise of this post, not President Bush.

PS- This is the 400 anniversary of the English landing on Virginia Beach whereat they dedicated this country to God and the Christian Faith.

[Jess Wundrun]

Thomas Jefferson, on thread topic:

"A professorship of theology should have no place in our institution [the University of Virginia]"

Your assumptions about me are wrong. And you are the one who raises points but fails to defend them.

[Anon]

Jefferson certainly is a good example of this countries Christian foundation. The declaration of independance and the doctrine of manifest destiny are two good examples.

I do not know of anywhere that Jefferson opposed children to learn biblical principals.

[Paul]

Jess, you are making a valiant effort to explain things to Anon, but I am afraid it is to no avail.

By coincidence there were two signiifcant scientific revealations this week. One is the petrified rain forest found in an Illinois coal mine. The other was the link between the development of the brain and central nervous system of worms and primates.

In both instances it is clear that these events happened millions, no, maybe billions of years ago. There are some who believe in a god, and some who do not, but both realize the earth is more than 15,000 years old. We can have varying opinions as to whether there is god behind this, or not.

But I am afraid we are wasting our time with someone like Anon who is adamant about a literal reading of the Bible and that the earth is 15,000 years old.

[Anon]

Paul - 9 of 10 Americans believe that life was created by God or a spiriual power while only 10% believe in evolution. Most of these people were taught the theory of evolution and have learned to reject it.

While older radicals like you want to maintain the movements of the 50 and 60's the rest of the world is looking at other research than what you limit yourself to. I think I'm close to your age but have kept an open mind.

Any fair assessment of the founding and education of this nation up to our generation could only conclude it was biblically based.