Ausborne Blog

I’ve read today that a California school district has cancelled a course on “intelligent design.” First things first, let’s mention that this was an elective course, and I’m all for people learning about religion.

BUT, in all honesty, do you really want your kids to be learning about religion in a public school? One can reasonably presume that if you want your kids to learn about religion in school you probably belong to a certain church or denomination. By virtue of the fact that there are different denominations, one can also reasonably presume that the teachings of the denominations are different.

This leads to some interesting questions (or more appropriately, “some questions that are interesting to me”): Who would determine what the instructor teaches, with regards to intelligent design? Who would determine which theories of the “First Parents” would be taught? Would Lillith be mentioned? What theories regarding the name of the Lord would be taught? Would only Christian prophets be mentioned? What about Christian denominations that are not splits off of the Catholic Church?

I’ll be completely honest here. I don’t want my child going to school only to learn religious teachings that are contrary to what they learn at home. If I wanted my child to be taught religion at school, I’d send them to a religious school. If I were Lutheran, would I want my child being taught religion by a Baptist minister’s wife? Most likely, no.

Let’s just keep public school and religious instruction separated.

UPDATE: It’s not that I don’t like people of other religions, or that I don’t think that they have anything to offer. Most assuredly, I believe that they do. The problem is that I just wouldn’t want somebody teaching my child doctrine that I firmly believe to be wrong.