Religion is a part of everyone’s life. Whether our parents instilled it in us or we came across it in our own way, we have all crossed that path. Religions are meant to be enlightening and to show us the “right” way. But over the years religion has become the center of many debates.
For a long time, schools were allowed to teach religion as fact and impose religious beliefs on their students. The development of Darwin’s evolutionary theory and others, though, created difficulties. How was a Catholic supposed to believe that God created man and at the same time believe that we were not created but rather evolved from early primates? Darwin’s theories have been involved in legal tangles since 1925. In an effort to solve these problems, the government passed a law allowing schools to teach religion in the classroom but forbidding schools from requiring students to practice any given religion. However, this left many questions still open. For example, on Thursday, May 25, 2006, a case was presented to the federal appeals court: a lower court had ordered a suburban Atlanta school district to remove textbook stickers that called evolution “a theory, not a fact” and the school system protested. Cases like this have filled our courthouses year after year.
Why is religion such a problem? Is it not supposed to bring us peace instead of strife? Religion as a discrete area of study should be taught in schools worldwide. As hard as it is to imagine, not everybody in the world thinks, believes, or interprets situations the same way that we do. If we want to communicate and involve ourselves with other parts of the world, we need to understand that they believe different things than we do. We should learn about their cultures so that we can better understand how they rationalize their decisions and, we hope, avoid conflict. Their culture includes their religion. Religion is one of the many dimensions of an individual that factor into one’s decisions. We should be as knowledgeable as possible so that we can avoid miscommunication. If we learn and comprehend a country’s religion we might be able to abstain from unintentional disrespect. Different people take offense at different things.
At the same time, science, including Darwin’s evolutionary theory, should be taught. It is understandable that some people do not believe in this theory, but a school’s job is to educate its students, not to tell them what to believe. If a school does not tell a student which belief is the right belief and which is the wrong belief, why should it matter or be grounds for offense if both are taught? Just because a theory goes against a religion we should not ignore it, but at the same time we do not have to believe it. Schools should presenting each student with both beliefs in an unbiased manner and let the student choose. And as for the choice that a student has to make, why do they have to choose one or the other? Why can’t we choose to believe a combination of the two?
A school is an institution for enriching individuals’ minds. Religion is as important and enriching a concept as science. However, there are science courses all across the country. So where are the religion courses in our public schools?
