Debate Over Bible Course to Be Taught in Public Schools
National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools Argues that Bible Should Be Studied as Work of History and Literature
Logan Reed said the teaching of the Bible in school wouldn't promote Christianity. Instead, Reed said, it would allow students to become more familiar with the common references and stories mentioned in the Bible. Reed is so committed to getting the course into the schools that he would even see them taught by an atheist.
The Fort Smith School Board's curriculum committee voted down a proposal Monday that would have allowed. The full board still has to vote on the measure.
The course was developed by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. The organization states that their curriculum program is designed to serve the public through educational efforts. They hope to establish a state certified Bible course (elective) in the public high schools nationwide. Ostensibly the curriculum is to convey the Bible as a work of literature and history. The program is concerned with education rather than indoctrination of students. The Council argues that the central approach of the class is simply to study the Bible as a foundation document of society, and that such an approach is altogether appropriate in a comprehensive program of secular education.
This approach is reminiscent of that Intelligent Design, which argued for the existence of God, based on the premise that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." All of its leading proponents are affiliated with the Discovery Institute which claims that intelligent design is a scientific theory that stands on equal footing with, or is superior to, current scientific theories regarding the evolution and origin of life.
The scientific community states unequivocally that intelligent design is not science; many scientists and at least one major organization of science teachers have also termed it pseudoscience. Some have termed it junk science. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences holds that intelligent design "and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life" are not science because they cannot be tested by experiment, do not generate any predictions, and propose no new hypotheses of their own. Intelligent design advocate Michael Behe has also testified, under oath, that there is no scientific evidence in support of the intelligent design hypothesis that has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
In 2005, a United States federal court ruled that a public school district requirement for science classes to teach that intelligent design is an alternative to evolution was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Court ruled that intelligent design is not science and is essentially religious in nature.
References/Resources
(2007). Intelligent design. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design
Ridenour, E. (2007) President's Message. National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. Retrieved from http://www.bibleinschools.net/sdm.asp
Staff Writers (2007, Feb 20) Arkansas man wants bible course in AR & OK. Associated Press. Retrieved from http://www.fox23.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=4987786d-82f8-4ce4-b343-f3315aa2cbff
Staff Writers (2007, Feb 20). Debate on bible class in publiuc schools heats up in NW Arkansas. Pine Bluff Commercial. Retrieved from http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2007/02/20/ap-state-ar/d8ndkq900.txt a
Published by Terry Diffee
Terry Diffee has mostly been a Student altho he has also been called Soldier (Sergeant & Lt.), Farmhand, & Lawyer. He has learned by both formal & informal means experiences throughout his life. View profile
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- The course was developed by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.
- This approach is reminiscent of that Intelligent Design.
4 Comments
Post a CommentWe are trying to teach students moral behaviors???? Have you taught in a public high school??
Having a bible course in public schools is say that this book is better than the others. Any good history teacher, because you must not have had a good one, teaches the foundations of the 5 major religions. My grandmother was a teacher in high school, she taught history and comparative religions, and I am a history teacher in Ark. We would do better to place mandatory frameworks into the Arkansas curriculum that would mandate the teaching of major religions in World History. These way students are giving a chance to become more understanding about the world they inhabit today. One religion is not better than another, and you say that by placing a course directly related to only one religion. The bible is important in shaping the western world, Crusades, the Trail of Tears….want any more. By having this course you are saying the bible and Christianity are better, closing off the
the bible is very important in showing how we should behave, not only as christians, but as human beings...yes there are some differences the bible has from other holy books, but in seeing that most all religions share the same major rules of morality, the bible is not putting in something that will shut out other religions...we are not pushing biblical stories down childrens' throats, but instead teaching them moral behaviors they need to be a decent human beings...look at our world today, divorce rates are at an all time high, you can't watch the news for a week without seeing atleast twenty murders and three missing children, two of which are found in a ditch raped, naked, and killed...our world is a mess, and teaching the morals of the bible is simply a way to help solve the mess our world is getting into
If they get the bible in whats next, the study of how the prayer has shaped our past? This will keep on going and going and it wont stop.
You hit it on the head, it's another badly disguised attempt to bring religion into the school..by itself, the idea of studying the bible as literature is fine. I would question trying to use it as a history book. But of course, the study of the bible would be agenda driven. And I would think that christians who regard the bible as holy text wouldn't want it considered as literature alongside of (well, behind) the likes of Homer and Tolstoy.