(June 12, 2013 at 12:52 am)Ryantology Wrote: [Indoctrination is] an underlying agenda to teach a falsehood or an opinion as if it was factual truth.
Wouldn't you first have to show that Christianity is "falsehood or opinion"? Christianity has evidence. The evidence is inconclusive. Dark matter has evidence. Its evidence is inconclusive. So why do we teach one and not the other?
(June 12, 2013 at 2:26 am)Esquilax Wrote: you don't need evidence for this assertion, just believe it... is indoctrination.
It sounds like you've hit on the professional definition for indoctrination: "Teaching someone to accept doctrines uncritically." The question of course becomes, what if we taught religion critically? Is that okay? Or better yet, what if we taught all material critically? Imagine it. The professor teaches the theories of Isaac Newton. A student cries out, "I don't believe he was a real person!" The professor provides primary sources. The student critically replies, "These could have been fabricated." How, in an education system like this, are we to teach history?
Of course, there is a difference between the historicity of Jesus and the truth of what he said. Jesus' words fall under philosophy. Like Plato, Descartes or Hume, we can read his worldview and evaluate it against the backdrop of the real world. Philosophy addresses problems science cannot answer: metaphysics, morality, knowledge. It even tells us how to use science. People must first accept a worldview, then they have a standpoint from which to judge and evaluate the world. If you fail to teach worldviews in school, children pick them up elsewhere. It’s like failing to give your child “the talk”. They end up learning about sex from dubious sources. Why not teach philosophy and religion under the umbrella of school, where they can be viewed critically and equally? Include atheism and agnosticism among the worldviews. But for the sake of our children, do not be silent on the subject! If the school omits God, it implicitly recommends atheism and agnosticism. Is that fair?