Steve Shaw says: You appear to have a habit of becoming very prickly and defensive whenever religion comes up. Without wishing to judge you, I would say that, in the past, I've noticed that people who get that way are usually insecure. If you feel secure in your beliefs you can laugh me off in a heartbeat. Can't you?

Sorry, Steve, but you're just not understanding me. You seem to be understanding religious thought, or any kind of thought, only within the context of ideology.

Doctrine is a necessary thing, very much like Algebra. It gives the outline of the thinking of a particular religious denomination. It is not faith, but it can be the context for faith. You study it, consider it, retain what is useful to you, and forget the rest. It is a systematic presentation of a system/school of thought - but it is not thought itself. I think it is worthwhile for students to be exposed to as many systems of thought as possible, including a wide variety of religious thought. As a person becomes capable of thinking for himself, then that person should develop his or her own system of thinking - learning from the many systems of thought presented to the student through education.

These private schools in Israel seem to be ideal. Since they provide an excellent education to both Muslim and Christian students in a country dominated by Jews, they must be exposed to all three traditions (traditions, not ideologies). As such, they offer hope for developing a mutual understanding among these three traditions that have so many differences and yet so much in common.

I'm sure that government-owned schools in Israel are dominated by Judaism, no matter how hard they try to be open-minded. It would seem that the privately-operated schools must be preserved, to hold out some hope of communication and harmony among Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Now, I admit that most Jews I know of in Israel are atheists, so that complicates my argument a bit.

-Joe-