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AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Personally I do think it should be required to post some amount of Islamic concepts. Among the many ways we are too provincial is seeing everything through the eyes of a single religion family. Even our friends and neighbors seem alien when we aren’t even aware there are other religions.

Let’s require at least some comparative religion study, perhaps in social studies and history. The major religions have had a huge impact on the development of our societies and we should all be more familiar with beliefs held in common or u destined where they’re actually different (and not just the Fix News version)

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Glitterbomb@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
They should learn about Christianity and Islam in their history textbooks. That’s fucking it.

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- AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Why should that be it? Throw in Deism to understand the attitude of the US founders, then round out most of the population with Islam, Hindu, Jainism, and probably many more. You have to cover Judaism because of its influence on Christianity. And of course agnostics and atheism to round out the beliefs. You’ll never hit all the possibilities but perhaps it would be ok to cover families of beliefs, such as if native belief systems are similar (I have no idea and that’s a shame)
  
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  - Glitterbomb@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I meant that’s the only place it should be learned about, and not plastered on the wall. I’d gladly shove all the other fairy tales in there too
    
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    entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Actual inter-religious comparative theology is probably even better for developing skeptical critical thinkers than not teaching people about religion at all. I would love to see schools adopt that sort of coursework.
    
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- prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Exactly.
  
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andros_rex@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Most states do require some comparative religion in high school history. I’ve taught it.

Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Abrahamic faiths were in the curriculum. What was really fascinating was having a high schooler that had no idea what Christianity was. I live in the Bible Belt!

But yeah, understanding things like the Five Pillars of Islam humanizes Muslims. Understanding why a classmate isn’t eating all day, knowing that Muslims are required to donate some to charity if they can…

I think even some of the quasi Christian groups should be covered, but that’s a lot dicier. I don’t know if JW kids’ parents would want them to learn about the Great Disappointment, or Mormon families would approve of discussing Jo Smith’s child brides… (much less that official Mormon theology was that Native Americans would turn white if converted, or the best outcome for black folks was being a servant in the afterlife)

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