Religious symbols in classrooms

[Minimalist]

Fascists LOVE religion, idiot.



They stick together like priests and altar boys.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I don't see an issue with the use of religious symbols of whatever faith in the classroom. If you start banning and censoring, you lead yourself towards fascism.

I would argue it's more to do with pluralism and fairness.

Allow a cross in the classroom, allow a chakra too, or a star and crescent. Makes no difference.

If we want fairness, we must ensure a level playing field, as is logical, and which I think you allude to and agree with.

[Polaris]

Fascists LOVE religion, idiot.



They stick together like priests and altar boys.

Wasn't the originator of fascism atheist?

[Minimalist]

Xtians are always surprised when their carefully crafted little schemes for jesus blow up in their fucking faces.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/...im-schools

Louisiana Rep. Valarie Hodges was outraged when she discovered that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan, a voucher program allowing state educational funds to send students to religious-run schools, included funding Muslim schools.

“We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools,” Hodges said. “I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”

Hodges added that she supported funding only for teaching the fundamentals of the Founding Fathers’ religion: Christianity.

I'm sure deists everywhere are outraged!

[ignoramus]

There's a primary school here in Melbourne where my mates little ones go to.
There's a lot of faiths represented as the area is very multicultural.
They had a fete one Saturday and to satisfy a small minority, they paid a little extra for halal sausages for all for the BBQ. Fair? Would they do the same in their home country to satisfy the Christian minority?
More likely they BBQ the Christians instead.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

I don't see an issue with the use of religious symbols of whatever faith in the classroom. If you start banning and censoring, you lead yourself towards fascism.

I would argue it's more to do with pluralism and fairness.

Allow a cross in the classroom, allow a chakra too, or a star and crescent. Makes no difference.

If we want fairness, we must ensure a level playing field, as is logical, and which I think you allude to and agree with.

What about the altars depicting child and human sacrifices? The one showing the crazy old coot Abraham getting ready to burn Isaac on a pile of wood should be very popular. And they need the figurines showing the priests throwing the virgins into the volcano. The ones showing the Aztec priests ripping hearts out will be a big hit with the illegal alien students from Mexico.

[CapnAwesome]

Any religous symbol a student wants to wear that's not otherwise against the dress code, but no need for a public school classroom to be decorated with religous (or anti-religious) symbols.

Pretty much this.

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I don't see an issue with the use of religious symbols of whatever faith in the classroom. If you start banning and censoring, you lead yourself towards fascism.

Well I agree if it comes to the students wearing whatever they want. However there is a big difference between that and the school having religious decoration. It's the same as the 'ban' on school prayer. There is no such thing, the school is not leading a prayer anymore. There is no reason to do such, and a school not doing something is way different than censoring and banning.

[Ravenshire]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautsi_v._Italy
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/mar/...es-allowed

What are your thoughts regarding religious symbols in classrooms?

The Italy V. Lautsi case ended with the European Court allowing crucifixes to be maintained in classrooms as a symbol of cultural identity. Firstly they decided against religious symbols in classrooms, but after that the court reunited fully with all judges and they decided it was not against the Italian constitution or Human Rights

I've studied extensively and debated this case in college, I'd like to know other people's opinions

Keep in mind this is not against personal symbols every person can wear, but against symbols placed deliberately in public schools/classrooms where everyone can see them.

The absolutely do not belong. Of course, this is from the view of someone who's nations founding fathers stove to separate the church from the state.

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I don't see an issue with the use of religious symbols of whatever faith in the classroom. If you start banning and censoring, you lead yourself towards fascism.

[emphasis is mine]

So, you'll have no objection then if a teacher hangs a pentagram in his/her classroom as an expression of faith. Good to know.

[MindForgedManacle]

One must wonder just what is the point of a teacher displaying religious iconography in classes not pertaining to religion. Public schools are basically government-run. And if the class itself has nothing to do with religion, why would teachers be displaying it? An obvious reason would seem to be a lite version of proselytizing. This classroom is run by a servant of God! And that's the sort of thing government in the US just isn't supposed to do (though many do their damndest to violate this). It makes no sense, serves no real function and it opens the door to the very real possibility (especially down here in the Bible Belt, where such happens often) of institutionalizing the idea of Christians being superior (and in fact, this is the obvious implication in all attempts to merge government and religion (always a particular religion)). After all, if the government itself is supportimg Christianity - always to the exclusion of and hostility towards other religions - then clearly it's because Christianity is the legitimate religion.

Anyway, it doesn't have any place in classrooms where it isn't relevant, which would be scarce few classes, like comparative religions classes, some history classes (obviously has to be relevant to the course work) and maybe english and humanities classes.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I would argue it's more to do with pluralism and fairness.

Allow a cross in the classroom, allow a chakra too, or a star and crescent. Makes no difference.

If we want fairness, we must ensure a level playing field, as is logical, and which I think you allude to and agree with.

What about the altars depicting child and human sacrifices? The one showing the crazy old coot Abraham getting ready to burn Isaac on a pile of wood should be very popular. And they need the figurines showing the priests throwing the virgins into the volcano. The ones showing the Aztec priests ripping hearts out will be a big hit with the illegal alien students from Mexico.

I don't think this is a discussion on the symbols per se, rather the display of symbols themselves.

Incidentally, when I was in primary school here in England, we learnt about the Aztecs and the conquistadors, including human sacrifices and the import of diseases from foreign lands.

Symbols are only as important as the values one places on them. To most people an alien symbol is meaningless, even if it does involve a long dead demographic that occupied a segment of land you currently also happen to occupy some 500+ years ago.

This is also more about education and not proselytisation. Plurality is the only fair way to ensure that all voices are heard whilst giving no one single voice preference. The ultimate conclusion of this would naturally either be no symbols in class, or a multitude of them from all around the world and throughout time. Only one of these is more feasible, which was the actual point to my post.