"The Bible and its Influence"
Alabama has became the first state in the Union to approve a textbook for a course about the Bible in its public schools:
"Some of its more liberal champions, such as the American Jewish Congress'' counsel Marc Stern, feel that the republic can not only survive but will actually benefit from public school courses on a document as culturally central as the Bible -- as long as the classes avoid being devotional."
Comments (2)
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Seems to me that the proper place to discuss the Bible's influence on history is in context with the influence that other sacred texts have had. Equal time ought to be devoted to the Qur'an, the Upanishads, the writings of Confucius, and so on. Studying only the Bible gives it a status above what the government should be providing, it seems to me.
Posted on October 29, 2007 2:02 PM
here are a few other major relligions, listed by followers. seems Christianity is 71% more popular than its closet rival. considering that Christianity is the most followed faith it seems reasonable that it would float to the top of faiths to research. in history classes students learn about the revolutionary war, civil war, WW1 etc.- there are a plethora of other wars thoughout history which could be studied but the list needs to be narrowed down to that which has most greatly affected our culture.
# Christianity: 2.1 billion
# Islam: 1.5 billion
# Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
# Hinduism: 900 million
# Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
# Buddhism: 376 million
# primal-indigenous: 300 million
# African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
# Sikhism: 23 million
# Juche: 19 million
# Spiritism: 15 million
# Judaism: 14 million
# Baha'i: 7 million
# Jainism: 4.2 million
# Shinto: 4 million
# Cao Dai: 4 million
# Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
# Tenrikyo: 2 million
# Neo-Paganism: 1 million
# Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
# Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
# Scientology: 500 thousand
Posted on October 31, 2007 10:12 AM