My wife Deborah taught a course in world religions in the Sunday school of the Unitarian Church of Santa Fe. The students were elemetary and junior high age kids. It was a well regarded project in the Church.
--- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 3:47 AM Pieter Steenekamp <[email protected]> wrote: > I totally agree — it would be great if all students learned about the > major world religions. I don’t have the inside scoop, but I’d be a bit > surprised if Texas public schools don’t already include that. > > That said, teaching about religion is one thing. Starting the day with > “Let us pray”? That’s a different ballgame — and, in my view, a firm no-go > for any public school. > > On Fri, 27 Jun 2025 at 08:21, Russell Standish <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> On Fri, Jun 27, 2025 at 07:31:53AM +0200, Pieter Steenekamp wrote: >> > >> > Now, here’s where it gets interesting. If we’re all chipping in tax >> money for >> > public education, then yes — I’m 100% on board with keeping religion >> out of >> > public schools. That’s not only a fair deal, I would be horrified if any >> > religion were included. >> > >> >> I have a dissenting opinion on this. I believe all students should >> learn about all the major religions, including having a passing >> knowledge of the contents of the Bible, the Koran, and a notion of the >> special traditions etc of each one - eg the importance of confession >> to Catholics, the importance of Shabat to Jews and Muslims, etc. In >> todays world, you come across all these sorts of people, and having an >> understanding of where they come from helps a lot. >> >> After all, the Bible is probably the most important work of fiction in >> the English language, followed closely by the complete works of >> Shakespeare. >> >> When my son went to school here in Australia, there was a smorgasbord >> of about 3-4 varieties of Christianity and Judaism (no Islam, from >> what I recall), and Non-religion, where you just got to read books in >> the library. We sent him to the latter of course, but if there'd been >> a proper comparitive religion course, that would have been my choice. >> >> > But if my neighbour is still paying her taxes like the rest of us, and >> on top >> > of that has to fork out again to send her kids to a private Christian >> school — >> > that's also just not right. A voucher system, to me, seems like a fair >> > compromise. It respects both freedom of choice and fairness of >> contribution. >> > Maybe it’s not a perfect solution, but it does stop us from >> double-charging >> > parents for believing something different. >> > >> > For me, diversity of opinions and freedom to choose your religion is a >> very >> > good and positive thing. >> > >> > On Fri, 27 Jun 2025 at 02:33, Santafe <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > >> > >> > On Jun 27, 2025, at 7:31, Marcus Daniels <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > >> > Dave writes: >> > >> > < My 'mysticism', like my hallucinogenic experience, is nothing >> more >> > than a source of what I consider to be "real" data and a supply >> of >> > fascinating questions—never answers. > >> > >> > Not clear why something that supposedly cannot be captured by >> mere >> > language keeps getting pitched as a real and intersubjective >> thing via >> > language. >> > >> > >> > I am much less bothered by this _in principle_, since I generally >> hold the >> > two premises: >> > >> > 1. Language is a collection of signals _within_ a system, that are >> part of >> > coordinating states among people; it doesn’t follow that language >> should >> > “contain” or “capture” anything that works as a model “of” the >> system, in >> > the way I would want formalism to have a mappability to phenomena in >> > anything I consider science. Often language-in-general will have >> some >> > mutual information with something closer to a model, but that is >> partly >> > luck and not uniform. Languages that do have those mappable >> qualities tend >> > to be more bespoke, because they were under heavy pressure to do >> that job, >> > which is somewhat different from the background social/material >> criteria >> > for the great majority of language (though scientific language and >> sense >> > can both, I would argue, be seen to grow out of their counterparts >> that >> > have some presence in the broader bulk of language and >> commonsense); and >> > >> > 2. The term “reality” is a problem in general. It is still too >> close to >> > its origins in the hand-me-down umbrella term from common usage, >> which gets >> > it accepted and used with a fluency that belies its evasive and >> indefinite >> > character. I would put it, in most instances of usage, in the >> category I >> > call “placeholder terms”. They enable the rest of discourse to >> proceed, >> > because something is needed in those slots, but that doesn’t mean >> they >> > necessarily carry very good meanings on their own. To the extent >> that >> > “reality” has a central tendency of meaning, it seems (to me) to be >> around >> > the notion of “since we are always trying to economize on >> attention, which >> > things are safest to turn your back on, in the expectation that >> they will >> > still be there and not bite you in the meantime?” >> > >> > So for a language-term to be suggesting that it is trying to >> coordinate a >> > state, with some somewhat reflexive situation-statement >> acknowleding that >> > it does not have a model of the state, together with the state >> itself’s >> > being so loosely handled that it is not clear when the people >> really are >> > coordinated or how they would decide on that, I can certainly see >> this kind >> > of pattern as an ordinary occurrence. Even if some >> intersubjectivity would >> > be reasonable to expect, in view of our vast overlapping >> constitution >> > shared by all being people, primates, mammals, and so on. >> > >> > I do like the idea that this is just a version of the normal >> confusion, for >> > things not understood very well (like, quite badly), and that one >> could >> > find ways to do better. >> > >> > Eric >> > >> > >> > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. >> --. / >> > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. >> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom >> https:// >> > bit.ly/virtualfriam >> > to (un)subscribe >> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> > archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/ >> > friam_redfish.com/ >> > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >> > >> >> > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. >> / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. >> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom >> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam >> > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> > archives: 5/2017 thru present >> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >> > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >> >> >> -- >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) >> Principal, High Performance Coders [email protected] >> http://www.hpcoders.com.au >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / >> ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom >> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam >> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ >> archives: 5/2017 thru present >> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ >> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >> > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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