Religious Education is Bad
Wow, how can religious education be bad?! Almost all educators would agree that teaching critical thinking skills to our students is paramount. Religious education is contrary to that very basic premise of teaching and learning. Religion is false–The world was not created in 6 days. The earth is certainly more that 6,000 years old. Sacrificing a person by killing him on an altar or a cross is pointless. There is no evidence of heaven or hell. Noah couldn’t have built a boat that could contain all the species of the earth and provide the food, temperature, and habitat so those specimens could survive. I could go on and on. The point is, these things are false. In a typical Catholic school, students are required to take a full-year religion class every...
When and Where Religion is Useful
I wrote this for an online discussion for one of my classes. The prompt was about how religion helps maintain stability in societies. I think in small, non-literate societies, religion is useful for stabilizing the society and perpetuating the culture. Some of its institutions can facilitate education by traumatizing children enough that they remember everything they’re taught. It puts a name on shared beliefs and values and gives people something in common and a reason to gather and work together. It also incorporates myths about how and why the natural world works for people who don’t know or understand the scientific explanations, and addresses the supernatural, which natural science can not explain or prove even exists. It can also placate...
The Clergy Club
As a former church lay leader (elder, Sunday school teacher, youth leader, church president), I have had occasion to deal with pastors with serious personal problems who have literally torn the congregation apart. An interesting observation for me was that members of the clergy tend to have an unwritten code to protect one another. Akin to the code of silence that police officers often have, the clergy staunchly protect one another from their congregations, even when they are absolutely wrong. As naive sheep, we often defer to the wisdom of the clergy in many matters. Interestingly, even those who have no religious affiliation whatsoever, confer a profound respect toward the clergy. This is not warranted or deserved. While there are many good examples of loving...
Masters and Minions
Are you a master or a minion? In the Despicable Me world, minions are “naive and impulsive with little self control.” In the real world, minions are also naive and are controlled by others. In the real world, people who are in control (of themselves and/or others), I will call masters. As you can guess, I would recommend you not be a minion! You are a minion if you allow others to dominate you. If others compel you by an unverifiable belief system or by religious guilt, or by lording power over you in some other way, then I am here to help you make the shift from minion to master. Priests, pastors, and religious (brothers, sisters) all consider themselves to be masters. They are in charge of their minions and exercise power over them –possibly...
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