Steve Shaw says: forced to chant prayers and sing hymns....and...good education should not include enforced worship.


Well, shucks, Steve. I had no idea that worship services and hymn singing were so harmful. I kinda enjoyed them.

Of course, one might expect worship services at a "faith-based" school. No doubt, many attended religious schools and decided they didn't like worship services and never attended again once they finished school. But at least they were exposed to such things and then were able to make a choice. I suppose your students were also subjected to the torture of Algebra? How is a worship service any worse torture than Algebra? For those of us who liked music, the hymns and chanting were very enjoyable - even if we didn't believe all the words.

And I liked the Algebra, too.

As for freedom of thought, we had lots of rich, no-holds-barred discussions in the seminary. I think we were quite open about considering all points of view. I went through a period during my seminary years when I considered myself to be an atheist, and I wasn't kicked out.

"Critical thinking" does not necessarily require espousing an atheist ideology, despite what some Mudcatters seem to think. It means being open to various opinions, and being open to questioning one's own opinions.

If you are not able to set your own opinions aside and see life through the eyes of a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Jew or a Wiccan or an Evangelical Christian, then I wonder if you are capable of "critical thought." Critical thought is not the ability to refute all viewpoints other than one's own. Critical thought requires being open to all possibilities and all perspectives, and it is clear that some of our Mudcat absolutists are not capable of that.

-Joe-