Need help with the They are teaching the Koran

in public schools issue. A couple of fundies are at it again, they are saying that since the Koran is being used to teach kids about the history of muslims that the bible should be used in science classes. Whats next the Torah for math class next?

According to California's Grade 7 social studies standard for this particular unit: "Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages." In and of itself that would be fine, but the breakdown of how that goal is to be achieved opens the door to potential blurring. One item from the 6-point list on how that standard is to be reached is especially troubling: "Trace the origins of Islam and the life and teachings of Muhammad, including Islamic teachings on the connection with Judaism and Christianity."

There's more at
http://www.snopes.com/religion/islam.htm

A comparable arguement is that the Bible be taught in European History class, since it was influential in European history. I doubt many people would have a problem with that. If they still want to teach it in science class then insist on teaching evolution in their Sunday schools and during church services.

they could make an argument that the bible be used in the context of historical events etc., but science?! Give me a friggin break!:eyes:

Most of those pushing to have "the Bible" taught in public school want it presented as literal truth. That has no place in a history class either. Hell, one of the first things you should learn in a history class is that when it comes to historical texts, "literal truth" is impossible to find.

In fact, while in college, a not-so-small controversy developed in an ancient civilization seminar I took in which we examined several ancient religious texts. An overly zealous Baptist woman in the class was constantly distrupting our discussions and complaining to higher authorities about the class content. She called the whole class "pornographic" at one point, which was truly bizarre; I suppose she got it from an image of an ancient artifact in a book we were discussing that focused on religious imagery. The statue was of a godlike creature with an enormous penis. Anyway, what really got her worked up was when we compared creation stories, focusing on the similarities, in texts from Mesopotamia, modern China, and in Genesis. Her whole world turned upside down, and she decided the professor was a Satanist and promptly began writing letters to the editor detailing her "theory."

I learned very little in that class compared to what the syllabus was supposed to cover, entirely because of her. I can see her now at a board of education meeting discussing the place the Bible would take in any history class, and it's not a pretty image.

history, and I think a lot of fundies would be upset about some of the ways it did being taught to their kidlets (burning people at the stake, pedophile popes, mass murder...not pretty stuff), but it would be a much more rational argument than the absurd "Intelligent Design crap. Of course with the current religious zealotry that has infected some portions of the country, they might think burning people at the stake isn't such a bad idea.:yoiks:

Then tell them to take men's nipples and creationism and shove it up their pooholes.

when it comes time to teach European history.

It's still not science, doofuses. It's superstition.