have grown up in California...I can't imagine having Christianity shoved down my throat in High School.. like some of these kids.

And because of that I am a free-thinker today.

I call myself a free thinker for 2 reasons:

1. I live in a religious area. If in a social situation I am asked my religion and I say free thinker, most evangelical types change the subject; they do not know what the term means and since they lack intellectual curiosity they never ask. Just go on about their Jesus.

2. Atheists generally believe there is no god. I can’t prove there is no supernatural being so I just punt.

Many people in the rural south are religious because it is necessary for economic success.

This move places Christian dogma in the realm of "history and literature" electives instead of devotional studies. Pretty sure the Board of Bible Thumpers would declare crusade on other dogmas being given such treatment.

"But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."


Lesson Two:
"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."



....

"What if I could speak all languages of humans and even of angels? If I did not love others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. '

The Governor will no longer be addressed as "governor," but "your holiness."

During right times of the year the state has some of the most pastoral beauty i've ever seen anywhere.

That's all I got to say about Kentucky.

I can't for the life of me figure how such a beautiful place breeds such evil humanity.

Which Bible? The Catholic or Protestant? Which one is official?

Which religion is gov't approved?

I had a Mennonite coworker who told me one of his hobbies was reading ancient Greek. It wasn't until his funeral that I found out why he had taught himself to read ancient Greek. He was reading some of the original biblical texts to get closer to God. While not overly religious myself I do respect those who seek to enlighten themselves and seek out the answers themselves.

My dear friend Merlin, qui graditur cum deo

The Wal-Mart edition I believe...

which is about the same as the Christian "Old Testament".

Or at least what they will try to push. The first time some kid gets the college door slammed into his/her face due to flunking a mandatory religion course, the state would probably not be able to fend off lawsuits. Of course that is just my opinion. I have seen Matlock, the Defenders and Perry Mason.

I was caught trying to smuggle books into the state. They can lock me up, but they'll never break my spirit.

Wound up on the "Hal Rogers Parkway"--aka the Highway To Hell, no way off and the only escape was thru Damnation Alley. If their highway signage is any indicator of their educational standards, They. Are. F*cked.

(apologies to all progressive, intelligent Kentucky Democrats; I don't know how the h&ell you survive in that state.)

but these are elective courses, not mandatory. I would want any course my child took to have standards for passing. Don't see the problem as long as it's elective.

teaching anything at all can be highly problematic. When I took AP English 100 years ago my teacher made us read the Bible "as literature". Sadly we disagreed on what it actually said. I didn't receive a good grade in that course, but I was one of only 2 who actually passed the AP exam.

Completely unacceptable.

(which were 'parochial,' as the curriculum made it clear this was done for reasons of understanding literature and history.

Of course, I have little/no confidence that Kentucky will do so, and of course KY will neglect 'OTHER' world religions' 'words.'

and this on deserves it.

African saying:
Everyone is ignorant, but choosing ignorance is stupid.

Please go to m-w.com and refresh you memory/education on the word "parochial".

That is "private" school funded by the church.

The adults here are discussing 2nd Amendment, "Separation of Church and State."

Maybe you should go to the website e-sword[.net] and get the excellent program e-sword.
Many additional versions for free and very powerful program, dictionaries, cross reference, lots & lots & lots....

Parochial = relating to a church parish.

I understand what the discussion here is about.

Certainly choosing ignorance is stupid, and many do it, that's obvious.

My point is that there need not be universal objections to schools, church/parish/or state, to providing studies of religious texts, as long as the teaching is NOT being done to teach AS religion, but rather as literature and history.

no way in heck they plan on making this a legitimate literature-class. Try suggesting a class on comparative religion to these same backers and see what happens.


Then you get into issues of translations and interpretations and it can get hairy. In a parochial school most of the students are from the same religion and the teaching is done from that point of view. There are a whole lot of people in Kentucky who think Catholics worship multiple gods (and btw you're going to hell for it in case they haven't told you).



The republicans behind this bill have only one intention, to get more religion in government and politics, and by more religion I mean their religion. Don't fall for their seemingly good intentions.

It worked in my daughters' schools.

And I don't want them thinking that there was some dude named Jesus who rode on dinosaurs.

comparative religion. Study all of them, or at least the 10 or 20 most used in the world. Free Will, that's in it.

just to let the kids know it an option

.. circa 1972-4 in Alabama.

Unfortunately for the masses it had no lasting impression on me.l.. but fortunately for me. Taught me to take all religious literature as socio-political comments of the ancient past.

The Bible is more important than the Constitution anyway!

"Quit wasting my time" on every test.

Resistance!

doesn't support their position. Ignorant followers grasping for any shred of legitimate moral ground. imo

"In most ancient copies of the Bible which contain the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, the Book of Daniel is not the original Septuagint version, but instead is a copy of Theodotion's translation from the Hebrew, which more closely resembles the Masoretic Text...............................got that...................that will be a test question....................oh boy.................

would seem proper.

Of course, we are talking about Kentucky, so I would expect such standards to be lax with plenty of loopholes for Christian indoctrination. If so, the ACLU will fight it.

or history can be quite interesting. I took Comp Lit in college and it was one of the best courses I had. It was eye-opening to read our Biblical stories and what we would call "myths" from other religions and to see how closely all the stories tracked. It gave me an entirely different perspective.

If you want to study the bible then join a church.

Assholes.

Is if we Rationalists and atheists taught the classes!





Bashing Kentucky? Yep. But I also bash my southern birth state and all the others. Yet there are a lot of us southern DUers here, so we can conclude that not all of us are morons. 😀 And Virginia has begun to move out of the buybull belt, tg.

If they are learning critical thinking, the Bible is an excellent place to apply it.

if the Kentucky Board of Education were sincere. Instead, what they are trying to do is sneak religious indoctrination into the classroom. And who knows, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court might even allow it.

The teacher was actually a Baptist deacon but I credit him for teaching the literature about the Bible and not putting any proselytizing into the course.

He was neutral and really only taught how the references in the Bible are used throughout literature. He, also, was the fist person to tell us about the Council of Nicea and how there were many things left out of the Bible. He had copies of the Apocrypha and discussed the different versions of the Bible and how the various translations affected it. He actually discussed the maiden vs. virgin issue with translations about the birth of Jesus. This was all very eye-opening to me and my fellow students in small-town TN. We certainly never heard any of this in Sunday school or church.

This type of course can be educational and valuable if it is taught the way my teacher taught it. Therein lies the rub. I can see it being used as a back-door to get the Bible in the classroom. Proper guidelines must be in place and enforced.

Since it's supposed to be an elective, will there be a minimum requirement of students taking the course each term before cancelling it due to lack of interest? No school public or private is going to be allowed to continue teaching a course with a handful of students. I have a feeling that in order to keep this course on the books, it will be made mandatory. Or the sneakier way would be to get rid of other electives and make this the only choice. I once got roped into the school chorus due to everything else being filled. It didn't go well.

and in this one we see it in action as people only read the headlines and not actually reading the piece or anything extended on it.