Bible/Religious Education in America

Don't be taken in by the assortment of media stories about faith/eduction in America. While there is a sizable lobby pushing for creation to be taught alongside evolution, there are only a handful of school districts actually pushing for it.There are tens of thousands of school districts and I would estimate, off-hand, that only .5% actually have anything in their curriculum that would be different from what might be read in British textbooks.That said, it does exist in small locales. It usually goes to court and to date, I think the creationists have all lost those cases.To answer your other question, no, I don't think there is any need to combine science with religion as they are completely separate studies. It makes about as much sense as combining literature with mathematics. They're two completely different studies, and one has nothing to do with the other.

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"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samual Adams

It has in the sense that some people have stretched its meanings a bit. All the Establishment Clause to this amendment means is that the government shall not infringe upon religion, and religion shall have no preference to government, meaning, the government shall not side with any religion. It is supposed to remain neutral. The instructors are supposed to have a kind of clinical detachment and simply teach the facts, not inject bias.So in a public school, which is funded by federal, state, or local government money, it is illegal to be teaching religion outside of a religious studies course. The course itself has to remain neutral and simply teach the tenets of various religions. They cannot show preferential treatment to any of them. It has Seperation of Church and State, but as I said above some people or groups confuse the issue to mean more than what it does. In essence, certain theist or anti-theist groups intentionally distort it to suit their own agendas. Ha! No, it doesn't, and much to my chargin, as I am American. America has some very good universities but the public school system on the elemantary, middle, and high school level in many areas are abysmal. The United States fares very low on the education totem comparitively for a number of reasons, but most notably due to indifference and laziness. Nations who have far less funding often do better than their American counterparts, which proves that funding alone can't make students do better. Edited by Hyroglyphx, : No reason given.

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"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samual Adams

A "religion czar?" Why would it have to be so serious? There is already a body of curriculum writers, no need to create something as extreme as an religion czar. What are you talking about? If it's not in the religion, then why would it be discussed?What you're saying could go for anything in school curriculum, including science. Do we need a science czar because of it? There is nothing "arbitrary" about it, this is all common knowledge. Maybe we need a czar because % in some obscure place means &.What then is your solution to the false dilemma you invented?

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"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samual Adams

Theology classes teach the facts about mainstream religion. How does that conflict with anything? What relevance does it have to being able to teach about the tenets of various religions? Would we also need a Philosophy Czar because philosophy is subjective?My point is that you're really being silly about this and needlessly dragging this out. Different denominations have varying perspectives on certain issues. That doesn't mean that there is not a common theme that runs through them all. All that one would have to do for a theology class is to simply go over mainstream beliefs and how they often splinter off. No one has to be right or wrong, just present the FACTS.That would be like not teaching evolution because Lamarcke and Darwin differed on opinions, rather than just accepting that they came to different conclusions. How is that different from religion?Seriously, why are you making a mountain out of a molehill? So you don't want anyone teaching any religion at all? You expect people to intrinsically know what the Qu'ran or the bible is without informing them what it is?Why? What does it matter to you?

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"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samual Adams

That's irrelevant. There are private parties, like ICR, who try and "present their view." It doesn't matter though. There are curriculum writers that have to apply by certain standards. Why would theology be any different? Immaterial, especially when I've yet to hear of anyone complaining about theology classes being taught at schools.Your solution is to just not teach it at all. Your real motive for doing so, I suspect, as you've explained on other threads, is to rid the world of religion. It doesn't matter since you'll never get an 100% concensus on ANYTHING, let alone religion. What matters is what has always been historically central to the tenets of any given religion. Acting as if we need 100% approval for ANY curriculum is ridiculous, and in fact, if you want to be fair, then you are going to have to step aside and let creationists share in your victory by allowing their take on it too. [qs]Because I would be paying for it![qs] So your whole solution is just pretend religion doesn't exist at all!

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"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samual Adams

There is nothing wrong with teaching theology in public schools, so long as it does not show bias or preferential treatment towards a specific religion. That's the scope of the First Amendment. It doesn't mean pretend that religion doesn't exist.

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"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samual Adams