Of course it’s alright! We, as a society, are based in religion. We all have a system of what is right and wrong and of what we will believe and what we won’t. The Bible can be taught as a curriculum, it’s done in colleges all the time. The problem is that when a child goes home and says he is being taught the “Bible” the parents go balistic and they want their child to be taught THEIR religion. It can not be taught with a religous base, It must be taught impartially, with no stand or belief. It has to be taught as a subject. People need to start opening their minds and closing their mouths and just listen to whats going on around them. I think we have given to much of our freedoms to people who want their own ways. You simply cannot be fair to everyone and have a decent society. If you don’t want your child to pray in the morning with the rest of the class the teacher should know this and the child should be excused from prayer. If you don’t want your child to take a religion class then another class should be provided, but one already in exisitence. Why do we need to form another class to accomidate this. When I was growning up not everyone won, not everyone was picked for the team and you didn’t always get what you wanted. We survived. So, whats wrong with society today. . .everyone feels entitled. So, YES, teach the curriculm.

I cannot fathom how a class on just the Bible could not be a religious course. I could accept it if it were a portion of curriculm along with other religious historical texts. For example the Koran and Buddhist teachings. However direct teachings of the Christian Bible and only that would be a Christian religious course in my view. Everyone is aware of the seperation of church and state arguement so I will not even bother arguing that point. I will however pose this thought. In America we have many off shoots of Christian religions. Some of these Christian derived religions other Christians do not even recognize as having to do with “their God” (examples: Latter Day Saints, Jehovah’s Witness, Catholic, Mennonite, Christian Scientists, Southern Baptists-to pick on a few). They all use the Bible. Would you truly feel comfortable with a person that believes in what you feel as incorrect docterine teaching your child the Bible? If the answer is yes then you do view this as a religious course and perhaps it does not belong in the public school system as a class for all.

Personally I think that by allowing the Bible as a curriculum in a public school class you would also need to allow other religious materials, such as the Koran or Torah, be taught along side it to diffuse any sort of argument that it a christian-centric course. No matter what people want to debate, the Bible is the central focus of most christian based religions so it would be hard to say that teaching the Bible is not based on particular religion seeing you can’t guarantee what a student would take from the lessons. Isn’t religions most simplified teaching method their document of choice? Sure it is a book, and filled with good advice, but what’s to say that this book is better then any of the other ones that are out there and by teaching the Bible you risk the chance of saying that to a student or parent out there.

I’m not Christian, I don’t like the religion and I think that a word of it is true. But thats just my opinion. Just because I don’t care to learn about the bible doesn’t mean that other people should have the right taken away from them. I don’t even care if the bible is taught in public schools based on specific religion. Its a book that countless people live by, and it does a lot of good things for people. Why does everyone have a stick up them about teaching religion in school. As long as you aren’t being forced to take the class, it doesn’t involve you in any way. I’m just so sick and tired of all these atheists going “OMG! I don’t believe in God and no one should either because when you do you oppress me!” I think that every religion, every religous text should be allowed in school. Find out how many people want to learn about Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or whatever other religion you want to add to the mix. If you have enough kids willing to take a religous course, your school has enough money to fund it, and you can find a teacher why shouldn’t it be allowed?

Come on people, its a book and no one is forcing you to believe in it. Saying that the bible shouldn’t be allowed in school is as dumb as saying Harry Potter shouldn’t be allowed in libraries. Give people the right to read and believe what they want, and its about time they start allowing people to learn more about religion in public schools.

I personally wouldn’t want the course to be taught as a public school. Private school go ahead, but public school, no, and I hope that it will neve happen. No matter what anyone say,s religion should not be taught at public schools. Some people may say that it’s ok to be taught but people will be pressrued by their peers to take this class. From my own personal experience, in my school, if you say that you believe in a religion other than Judaism and Christianty, kids will not want to be your friends and they will argue with you that their religion is right. teachers will also look down on you and give you bad grades. The Bible is a religious text and it still counts as reglion. If reglion is taught at school, the the US education system is really doomed to fail .

The Bible is not only OK, it should be essential part of any curriculum. The Bible, the Source of God’s word, is so rich in history and life lessons that it would be shameful not to include it in a fundamental education. For all who are of the Islamic, Buddhist, Hindi, or other of faith, the same basic parables, principles and history are found in the Texts of those faiths as well. I encourage reading all of them. This would be a very long course, or series of courses, but a great program would be to take all of these Texts and investigate all of the similarities, not the differences, found. That is the best way to get to the truth of God’s word, as there are many paths up the mountain, but only one pinnacle.

Yes. Why?

Before anything else, Bible is always affiliated with Religion. It is Christianity’s foundation of teachings. And, you can’t just remove its affiliation. It’s a suicide! But in order to teach the Bible by not basing on a particular religion, the teacher must be OBJECTIVE… If the teacher can’t be objective, at least he/she can incorporate ETHICS in the study (duh! we must be ethical!!!). To further substantiate:

–> Bible is not only “religious” or “Christian” stuff. It is the story of the first civilization, Persian/ Assyrian regime, as well as the Roman Regime. It can be used as a supplementary text in order to understand the life under these periods. It can be used in history class, Israel History (the best name of the subject if the bible will be made into a subject), since the Bible is their history, etc.

–> it has many proverbs and stories that can be suitable in literature classes. Every books in the bible, at least, have different styles and method. It can be great it teaching literature.

See? Bible is not only for weird people singing: “Alive, Alive…” It has many uses!

In seventh grade, we had three major units – Ancient India, Ancient China, and the three Abrahamic religions. While we mainly focused on culture and history, throughout the year, I also learned a great deal about several religions and philosophies:

– Hinduism

– Buddhism

– Confucianism

– Daoism / Taoism

– Legalism

– Judaism

– Christianity

– Islam

Because of the wide range of religions/philosophies studied, no one was offended.

Think this one through a little more. The Bible is inherently based on the two older religions of Abraham – how can this kind of study not be based on any particular religion. You can have a generic Christian or a generic Jewish curriculum, but it is still Christian or Jewish, and that is a religion. Those who are non-Abrahamic see things a little differently. And what about the two modern Abrahamic religions, Islam and Bahai? Do we exclude their sacred texts?

I’m not sure I understand your question. Are asking is a bible based curriculum okay or are you asking if the bible can be taught as a subject?

Do you feel using the bible as a study tool will undermine the morals or ethics of your child? You can have your child excused from participating in any subject that you feel will undermine family principles.