Religion is the biggest scam in human history.
…and the most dangerous and impactful.
It was created when the first conman met the first fool
Several Bible scholars who reviewed the proposed readings at the request of the Houston Chronicle criticized the list for its exclusion of other religious scriptures, use of translations that they say have been discredited, and a selection of texts that some say are used only in religious settings rather than academic ones.
I’m all for more people reading the Christian Bible, it’s the best way to turn people Atheist.
That’s why the article clarified that instead of reading the Bible, they will read specific passages often taken out of context.
As someone who went to a Christian school for years, there’s a lot of cherry picking lines from the Bible to read.
And that’s exactly what they will do in these schools as well.
Fellow atheist here. It’s not so much the text, it’s the critical thinking that you do when you read it, and the self-knowledge needed to keep yourself rational. It’s the fanatics’ belief in their own infallibility (the sin of Pride) that makes them such obnoxious, pushy assholes. Also their failure to engage with the fact that the source texts are a mess of copying errors, paraphrases, lacunae, interpolations, mistranslations, compounded over generations of hand-copying. Ancient and medieval document management was a dog’s breakfast.
use of translations that they say have been discredited
New International Version? It’s known to be shite, where translations of some sections are distorted to fit pre-conceived fundie superstitions rather than being faithful to the original texts.
I mean, the KJV is full of errors, often due to errors in the source documents used, but at least it was translated by people who were literate.
The ESV, also on the list, is even worse. A bunch of conservative evangelicals read evangelical conservative translations and decided they weren’t misogynistic enough and decided to make another even more conservative version.
Putting aside the fact that this is a flagrant and intentional violation of the separation of church and state: this is begging for malicious compliance
Read the passage, and then turn it into a debate for the class: assign groups in two sets, at random - pointedly not based on actual beliefs or the religion (or lack thereof) of the student in question - biblical adherents and secular adherents (that will switch off whenever this exercise occurs, to give students experience on both the pro and con side, regardless of their personal beliefs, because that is valuable in terms of learning to debate). And later, perhaps expand that into debating the points from the viewpoints of other belief sets - abrahamic, polytheistic, animist, agnostic, atheist, whatever. Not only would it technically satisfy the regs, it would also very pointedly adhere much more closely to the original intent of the separation of church and state - which is not to deny that any such belief sets exist, but that the state shall take no stance in overt support or suppression of any particular belief sets exist (or lack thereof - though that reprehensible fuckstick Scalia openly disagrees that atheism is a valid personal belief system).
I love that the New Testament has an order of primacy to the books, and what’s the First Book of it?
Hmmmm. The one that is most on-point with Christ’s message, and the one that likely will be least touched on.
Personally, I think the kids should hold their schools and teachers to those 10 Commandments that they have on the walls in their classrooms.
Particularly the 9th Commandmant.
That one, pointedly demanded by the students, could set a lot of hair on fire.
Could you see the hullabaloo if a Texas High School 11th grade US History class demanded the actual historical TRUE Texas Letter of Secession was taught in class? It’s a right nasty, racist document that’s been whitewashed of the real language it was written with. Nothing to do with “States Rights” at all…
Oooooh I love the 9C angle. That’s delicious. If the enemy gives you a weapon, be sure to thank them by using it against them :)
If you haven’t seen her, I recommend watching to the videos made by a woman named Monte Mader. She’s a Goddess that knows Scripture forwards and backwards and will not hesitate to call out hypocrisy and bullshit wherever she sees it.
It was always about states’ rights to deprive other states of rights, especially when it came to depriving certain people of rights.
LOL! That is some damn fine pretzel logic there!
that reprehensible fuckstick Scalia openly disagrees that atheism is a valid personal belief system
He doesn’t believe in zero indexing, the mad man.
If Scalia’s against it, it must be good.
I would expect nothing less from a traitor state full of heathens.
“We’re dealing with the Hebrew text, and then we confront different translations and different translational decisions and debate whether those are accurate or inaccurate,” Buster said. “So, there isn’t a Jewish way to translate a particular word, and a Christian way to translate a particular word. Those different communities would probably come with different sensitivities.”
Mostly true, but many translations are produced by institutions which require their scholars to adhere to a statement of faith and therefore alter translations to fit their dogmas. Translations which prioritise certain Christian dogmas will (mis)translate words or passages (e.g. translating certain Hebrew Bible passages in the future tense in order to make them seem like prophecy about Jesus despite there being no grammatical or contextual basis for doing so other than the theological framework they are shoehorning the text into).
I’m not opposed to the Bible being read in schools for literary/cultural/historical educational purposes, but this should be done from a text critical perspective using translations which are suitable for academic study… which is never going to happen in the US. Using the Bible to prop up narrow-minded ideologies with no concern for the historical context of when the texts in it were written, the authors’ varied and often contradicting intentions and the historical developments which led to the dogmas different people profess today has no place is schools.
