Which would be a plus.
The historic truth, or Longfellow’s entirely fictional claptrap?
Because I think religious education should be more of the former: “Moses probably didn’t exist”, “The great ‘Davidic kingdom’ was a collection of mud villages at best”, “Muhammad had a thing for 9y olds” and less buying into the myths.
As religion is a "mind altering " substance, I’d say no religious education until after the age of 18. I am as close to an Atheist as one can be without completely crossing over. I wonder if my “belief” is real , or is it because it was drilled into my head every Sunday by people I trusted as an impressionable child?
Having said that, the Bible is full of great lessons about how we should or shouldn’t treat each other, even if you take the mythical “Sky Daddy” and the threat of eternal suffering out of it.
How do you impart a real understanding of Western (well, really, ANY) culture prior to the Enlightenment without some background education in religion? “Today, we’ll discuss Handel’s Messiah…without explaining what it’s about.” “Today, we’ll learn about Gregorian chant, a pivotal era in the development of Western music…but we won’t tell you who developed it or how it developed.” “Today we’ll talk about Michelangelo…but we’re not going to actually look at any of his works.”
You cannot teach almost anything about Western culture without imparting at least some small bit of education in Judaism or Christianity.
And I AM an atheist.
“Jesus was alright but his disciples were think and ordinary.”
By that logic, education is a “mind-altering substance”—so, no education until after age 18?
Real education is based on truth. Religion is based mostly on myth and superstition. And the worst part of it is that most of the beneficial stuff is left out in favor of bigotry and punishment.
But I will concede that some great music came out of it, so some background should be taught, though we don’t have to include all the guilt.
I just remember playing at an event where there were several bands. One was a family that did Country music and they were very good. However, they had a kid not more than six years old who went up to anyone paying Rock and SCREAMED at them about Rock n’ Roll being the devil’s music and we were all going to burn in Hell. The parents just laughed like it was cute. I say it was child abuse. (and it nearly was, but I held back)
As long as the students don’t reject science for mythology, it is not too harmful. If they think man existed with the dinos and the world is 6000 years old, they need reprogramming.
I would hope that one would seek religious knowledge (or any other type of knowledge, for that matter) because one was truly interested or curious.
As parents, how we live and what we believe will, no doubt, influence our children. But that doesn’t mean they should be mini-mes. We should be confident enough to make sure they have exposure to information about the world’s cultures and belief systems. Then we can know that when they are mature enough to adopt their own worldview, it will be their own.
You appear to have access to the internet. Feel free to google the terms.