LeftwingPitbull

Would you say the Bible is great literature, debased crap or what? Is there worth in the Bible? If so, should it be taught in schools?

Clete

I think the Bible is like any other work of mythology, it doesn't really make for a very entertaining read (very few likable characters and long, often pointless, sections). But it does still have some cultural and literary value by virtue of having been around a long time and having been referenced a lot.

It should be taught alongside Gilgamesh, Beowulf, the Iliad and the Ramayana where it belongs.

LeftwingPitbull

And, proverbs is very great poetry.

Clete

Is it? I'm not much a fan of poety but I'll take your word for it.

LeftwingPitbull

But you will admit that chick tracts are high art...hehe.

Clete

You know, occassionally he gets a little sloppy, but I have to admit that I actually like Chick's illustration style. Strangely enough it reminds me of some of the old MAD Magazine artists.

dado

in the original langage - hebrew - there is much beauty and much cleverness in it.

sure. in all honesty i think a cliff's notes version would be a better idea, though, because...

...we can't even teach kids to multiply and divide anymore, teaching comparative religion in any meaningful fashion - were it even politically possible - would be a waste of time.

NearNihil Experience

As literature yes. And as no more than cultural discussion materials.

However, I find it interesting that many people who want the Bible taught in schools for religious reasons and indoctrination of children and social ousting of non-conformists( ), think only about one step ahead...go figure for a bunch that still thinks dead people come back.

The strange conversation usually goes like this:

Xtian: The moral fabric of our country is falling apart. Our kids are learning un-Biblical things in schools from a bunch of homosexual, tolerant, evolutionarily minded, dope smoking anti-christian hippy peace mongers.
The Bible needs to be taught in schools now to save our children from a life of deprivation and an eternity in Hell.

Me: And who do you expect to teach this Bible of yours? Didn't you just say the teachers are a bunch of liberal whacko fag-dopers? So you want the Bible being taught to your children by this bunch of Heathens?

Xtain: Well no, but, but, but...............(usually it ends here with some funing and stomping away)

(but if its a stubborn one)................. we need to get rid of all of these damned liberals and rearrange the school systems to appease my point of view.

Me: And your willing to retrain all those teachers you want gone, and train a whole herd of new teachers....wheh there is already a shortage of qualified teachers in this country? And you are willing to pay for this all through your taxes?

Xtain: Yes I am.

Me: Well, I'm not. And frankly, right now you can garner all the tax money you want to send your kid to some dumbed down mytho-centric private school where they emphasize social-backpatting and conformity over rote knowledge and education. Go ahead and and take some school vouchers and start your child down a road to incapability and don't come to me wondering why your kid failed all the college entrance exams he took because he said the Earth was only 6000 years old...and don't come crying to me when he drowns trying to save a drowning child in a hard current because at school he learned that with God all things are possible, and with faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains.
Keep your dirty fingers out of a school system that is already lagging and corrupt enough by lack of monetary support...what it doesn't need is a further burden on its teachers to adhere to some dogmatic cirriculum that holds about as much water in reality as sifter.
Just because something is not pro-Christian, doesn't mean its anti-Christian. Take your martyardom and persecution complex somewhere else...like Utah!




Yeah they should teach the Bible in schools as a work of literature and myth. You can even point out the literal connections between the book and historical record. However, reserve teaching it as a moral guide and the truth for church....remember church, the place where people used to take their kids to learn the Bible? Most seem to have forgotten how to be good parents and good christains and good teachers. They want the system to rasie their children on whole..."Teach them about sex," they say, "Teach them about God ," they say....
...."Hey, why don't you fucking do it, Parent. Its your kid!," is what I say.
I find nothing wring with theaching the Bible in school, but I do have quite a problem with preaching the Bible in school.