# College is against your religion? Then why are you in it? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 1, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736 "2012-06-01T04:48:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/21 "2012-06-01T15:42:52Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Is this in Leviticus or something? I know what a time signature is, but why is this one in particular considered evil? Because it’s unnatural, like premarital sex and Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/22 "2012-06-01T15:43:37Z")
No, no. _Blue Rondo_ was a scathing commentary on the history of Asia Minor, mixing the pure time of Christianity with the evil time of Islam. After all, the full title of the piece is\* Blue Rondo à la Turk.\* ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/23 "2012-06-01T16:06:22Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > No, no. _Blue Rondo_ was a scathing commentary on the history of Asia Minor, mixing the pure time of Christianity with the evil time of Islam. After all, the full title of the piece is\* Blue Rondo à la Turk.\* Good point. Odd, but good. Okay, maybe just odd. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/24 "2012-06-01T19:07:50Z")
If memory serves, the major scale was dubbed the lacivious mode and banned by the church back in the day. Ok, maybe that’s not such a problem for jazz comp, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/25 "2012-06-01T19:27:27Z")
> [@Gukumatz](#): > > My high school biology teacher’s maxim when a student walked out on a dissection of rats after protesting that her religion forbade her from taking a life. (She was a neo-pagan of some stripe, I recall.) I always thought it was a fair way to handle it. I had a wonderful 10th grade biology teacher, and when it approached the time to dissect a fetal pig, I explained that I wouldn’t do it and asked for an alternate assignment. He told me the fetus was already dead, and that they weren’t exactly impregnating pigs with the purpose of creating the fetuses for killing. I responded that my goal was to withhold financial support from the meat industry, and that participating in the dissection would mean purchasing an extra fetus, which would give more money to the industry, etc. So he accepted my argument and allowed me to spend that class time in the library, researching and writing a couple of 5-page papers on biology topics of my choice (parthenogenesis and cloning). Everyone was happy. Long anecdote to explain what I think is the appropriate response to an assignment that interferes with your sense of ethics: 1. Be sure you didn’t sign up for it (this was a required high school course; I avoided taking AP biology specifically so that I wouldn’t do dissections). 2. Approach the instructor as soon as you find out about the assignment. 3. Explain your rationale if asked, and be prepared for hard questions about it. 4. Offer to do an alternate assignment that’s at least as educational as the default assignment. 5. Appreciate the extra work you’re creating for the instructor (something I didn’t really do at the time, unfortunately). In my experience as a student watching this sort of stuff happen, most students do something like this: 1. Sign up for a course. 2. Fail to do the assignment. 3. Afterwards explain that they didn’t do the work because their religion prevents it. 4. There is no 4; they just expect the professor to be hunky-dory with that decision. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/26 "2012-06-01T19:29:31Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > But 5/4 is the devil’s time signature… Where do these dingbats come up with this crap? I’ve heard it all now. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/27 "2012-06-01T19:34:39Z")
Bahhhh. Just insure that all of the courses you teach end in a 666 number or the course description involves eating pork, alcohol, gambling, porn, or dancing and you profs won’t have to put up with any of this shit. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/28 "2012-06-01T19:45:43Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Bahhhh. Just insure that all of the courses you teach end in a 666 number or the course description involves eating pork, alcohol, gambling, porn, or dancing and you profs won’t have to put up with any of this shit. HIST666: History of Public Porking: Bet you a Keg It’s Not A Dance Move ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/29 "2012-06-01T19:47:05Z")
Oh, and my all-time favorite example was in a children’s literature class (for prospective elementary school teachers). The prof’s day one icebreaker was to have us all introduce ourselves and to say what kind of books we liked to read. One girl stood and said, “My name is Emily, and I hate to read, except the Bible.” I wish we’d booed her out of the room and the profession. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/30 "2012-06-01T19:49:08Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > HIST666: History of Public Porking: Bet you a Keg It’s Not A Dance Move Damn you are good. You’re tenured aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/31 "2012-06-01T19:52:58Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > We hardly ever bother making our own [del]music technical terms[/del] words if we can borrow one from the [del]Italians[/del] ancient Romans or the French. FTFY ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/32 "2012-06-01T20:04:49Z")
Before I get in trouble (for a perfectly inoccuous joke that happens to involve edited attributions), I apologize to the mods and **Kimstu** for doing it. I’m posting on my phone and thought I was over at Giraffe because all message boards look the same on Tapatalk. THEN the social worker here grabbed my attention so the 5 minute window passed to delete it. No intended blatant scofflawism was meant… ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/33 "2012-06-01T20:21:00Z")
[“As a math atheist, I should be excused from this.”](http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2011/03/09/) ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/34 "2012-06-01T20:22:16Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > I think I’ve shared this before here, but people who are too religious to participate in their own education are a real PITA. > > My grad school advisor had an undergraduate advisee who went to him to complain that one of the professors in the department wasn’t being fair to Christians, and he found that personally offensive. The advisor was in the rather lousy position of having to talk to the other professor to find out what had happened. The other professor (who really is something of a dick) explained that he’d done a lesson about how to cover religion, and that the student took offense to the lesson and how it had been taught. The advisor had a very gentle talk about how, in journalism, you can’t always do your job so as not to offend your sensibilities. He also suggested that the student find a college that better reflected his worldview, and if the student needed a recommendation for a transfer, the advisor would be more than happy to give a good one. I posted here a year or so ago about a student on my campus who went to the dept. head and dean because her English prof would not give her an alternate assignment. The assignment was to view, among others, a film that was rated R. AFAIK, she was the only student I had ever heard of who raised a fuss about such a thing. The admins sided with the prof, so the student dropped the class. What gets me is the tunnel vision. All she could focus on was the R rating, not the content or message or meaning/theme. I ended up having a similar situation with one of my own students later. She wasn’t comfortable with the idea of watching an R-rated film and had made it a “lifelong commitment” never to watch one. And there’s the rub. You can make all the commitments you want, but you can’t force the rest of the world to accommodate them. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/35 "2012-06-01T20:30:21Z")
There’s something that seems very at odds with Jesus’s ministry in the modern fundamentalist/evangelical disengagement with the world…they’re basically deeming the world as unclean and untouchable, which is antithetical to the example their savior set. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/36 "2012-06-01T21:06:44Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > There’s something that seems very at odds with Jesus’s ministry in the modern fundamentalist/evangelical disengagement with the world…they’re basically deeming the world as unclean and untouchable, which is antithetical to the example their savior set. If Jesus were around today he’d be hanging out in bars, I’m firmly convinced. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/37 "2012-06-01T21:10:02Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > If Jesus were around today he’d be hanging out in bars, I’m firmly convinced. That’s where the fishermen and harlots end up, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/38 "2012-06-01T23:25:25Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Before I get in trouble (for a perfectly inoccuous joke that happens to involve edited attributions), I apologize to the mods and **Kimstu** for doing it. I’m posting on my phone and thought I was over at Giraffe because all message boards look the same on Tapatalk. THEN the social worker here grabbed my attention so the 5 minute window passed to delete it. No intended blatant scofflawism was meant… We appreciate your apology, **jayjay** , but we’re still going to have to cut off a pinky. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/39 "2012-06-01T23:31:25Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Where do these dingbats come up with this crap? I’ve heard it all now. 5+4=9, which is divisible by 3. You know who else’s number is divisible by three? SATAN!!! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736/40 "2012-06-02T00:10:15Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > We appreciate your apology, **jayjay** , but we’re still going to have to cut off a pinky. Really. What’s up with all the FTFYs here this past day? Do people think that because they can do it on other boards, even one with a real stick up its ass otherwise (not **giraffe** ’s board–he has something else up his ass 😉 ), they can do it here? :mad: 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/college-is-against-your-religion-then-why-are-you-in-it/623736.md?page=3)