Religious Ignorance.

I don't know about you, but where i live, people are clueless about religion, except for Christianity, which is the only thing taught in our multi-cultural nation.

Why? Why is it that people are ignorant? Why can't our government stop things like racism? It can be stopped by the simple solution, we need to dissolve ignorcane of nationalities and religion. There is no source of religious wealth in my area. It sickens me. We all need to urge our government to get rid of this religious and international (country-wise) ignorance. I mean, this is why i would be racially abbused, because the idiot next door cant tell the differnece between an indian and a pakistani.

There should be a big :help:, we are stupid! Stamp on my town


Thoughts?

If this doesent apply to you in the U.S. Thoughts are still appreciated.

People are ignorant because they are. It's like asking why does mass attract mass? It does. Drop a spoon and it falls to the floor. Why can't our government stop the spoon from falling?!?

It would be great if everyone wanted to learn more about other types of people, but most of them don't. You can't force them to; you can't legislate something like that, it won't work. At best you will give more information to those already inclined to learn, and just make the rest mad.

Wandered Off said:

The best cure for racism is interaction. The more people get to know each other, the more we figure out that we're not so different.

When I was in high school (decades ago), busing was instituted to eliminate segregation. I remember being opposed to it. I figured that my ability to learn algebra didn't hinge on the ethnicity of the person next to me, which is true. However, I was ignorant of the social interaction that is just as instructive as formal classes. That is where I missed the point.

When my school was split in half and recombined, I got to know people with different backgrounds, and it really did help me see them as individuals, which made a real difference.

Government can only encourage interaction so much though. Most of the action has to come from citizens, not the government.

Click to expand...

Frubals! So true!

Or maybe, our government can stop teachign christianity so much ALL the time in our classrooms. With todays view on Islam, us kids need to learn that, they aint all bad.

It is hard to tell the difference between alot of middle-eastern or east asian ethnicities. just as you can't tell us white people apart except for maybe our accent or the way we talk, I see alot of other ethnicities who are ignorant who think white peopel are all from texas, or all from new york.

You have to understand that it is extremist factions of Islam that is causing a worldwide ruckus and alot of people are going to think it is all of Islam. Growing up i actually thought that Islam was a peacful religion similar to Buddhism, It wasn't untill recently when i learned that there were extremist factions. does that mena I think they are all the same? no. people are ignorant everywhere yo go.

Engyo said:

Why can't our government stop the spoon from falling?!?

Click to expand...

Because there is no spoon.

People seem want to know about things that are about them. I know a little about most religions, but that is only because I chose to learn about them. Most people I have known don't choose to know about things that don't concern them. This is a sad but true fact.

penguino said:

which is the only thing taught in our multi-cultural nation.

Click to expand...

That isn't technically true.

Although I think that an unnecessarily large portion of religious studies is taken up by Christianity, I covered all the main world religions bar Buddhism in my religious education. I know that my brother, for example, spent the vast majority of his religious education on Hinduism and very little time at all on Christianity.

I suspect that this will very heavily from school to school based on the teachers expertise. Our teacher was a reverend and so that is likely to have been the reason why so much Christianity was taught. I think it was more damaging that we had a chapel service as part of our weekly schedule, however, even though it would have been a wonderful opportunity for a multi-faith worship session.

penguino said:

It can be stopped by the simple solution, we need to dissolve ignorcane of nationalities and religion.

Click to expand...

If you are interested in stopping racism in the UK then I strongly advise you to look into issues of community cohesion.

At the moment, the communities in which the highest levels of racism occur are those which are very splintered. Encouraging communities to become more integrated is essential to overcoming racism and although religious education is an important part of this, it is just one part.

Much of racism and religious intolerance is also closely linked to intolerance of asylum seekers as this is almost seen as a pc way to be racist or religiously intolerant. Again this issue, whilst definitely solvable, is far too complex to be put down to mere religious education.

As I'm sure you are aware, Bradford is one community that is severely splintered and I spent some time up there working to bring the community together. Some activities that we did that I think made a difference:
1) Handed out anti-BNP literature in a BNP swing ward just before the local election.
2) Set up half a dozen events surrounding the celebration of culture in areas that were all of one racial group
3) Set up multi-faith worship sessions and multi-faith community parties to encourage greater learning and understanding between the faiths
4) Ran a school linking project in which students from a mostly white school and students from a mostly British-Asian school took lessons together on racism, intolerance, celebrating culture etc.

There are many other ways as well but I think this sort of direct action is far far more effective than trying to get the government to legislate more varied religious lessons and highly encourage anybody in the UK to get involved.

One reason people are generally ignorant about religion is that world religions are not taught at the grade and high school levels, and parents don't usually teach other religions besides their own to their children. I took a world religions course in college, about the only place you can get "formal" instruction on the subject.

It's really a shame.

In my personal experiences it all comes with the topic of religion, religious ignorance just stems from the fact that people are so on edge about their faith. Just like politics, people cannot just have a conversation about religion. They come backing in defensively. Everyone wants to be told they're devoting their lives to the "right religion" (whatever that means). So instead of following the idea of 'to each his own', they'd much rather find the perceived flaws in whatever religion and beat them into the ground.

to the op

why do you need government to solve your problems? did gandhi whine to the government to solve india's problems? no he acted

You excpet a 13 year old kid (me) to go my town centre and start teaching?

Gandhi's time was very different, his government was not capabable of what he wanted. Our goverment's solution is simple, do only ONE year in Christianity and do diffrerent religions.

Come on, Gandhi lived 50 years ago in a state of turmoil, im in a stable environment (sort of) Our government is there to answer to our needs and give an answers to our problems, although this ins't what they do, we must remember, our government is here to do that.

So, thats precisely what i am doing.

I know why people can't discuss religion--each person usually believes that his way is the only correct way (this appears to be true even with "non-religion"). Even the most broad minded person can be unbelievably narrow in his or her view of religion. Almost no one seems to want to admit that there may be more than one way to God so they dismiss all others but there own.

My Son goes to a church of England school but the religious education classes dos'nt only teach christianity and he is quite knowledgeable about other religions.

Racial discrimintaion is an evil cancer. Any critisism or predudice against you purely for the way your were born is totally wrong.

However I don't feel the same for religion. I don't think there is any more need for anyone to understand religion, as to understand any other 'group'.
As far as I am concerned an organisation of trainspotters deserves EQUAL respect to any religious group.

England my lionheart said:

My Son goes to a church of England school but the religious education classes dos'nt only teach christianity and he is quite knowledgeable about other religions.

Click to expand...

Your son is a very good lad then if so, if i may ask, wherabouts in England do you live? I live in London and, (somehow) makes it harder. Especially in my area, full of very stupid working class people. Plumbers and electricians... Most people are :sleep: when it comes to religion.

madhatter85 said:

no. people are ignorant everywhere yo go.

Click to expand...

So true, so true.

I took a cultural/religious studies class my freshman year of High School, infact everyone in my school did.
It focused on "not Europe/America" the history, religions and cultures of Asia, Africa, PreColumbian Americas and preEuropean Australia.
We learned about all the worlds major religions and many of the smaller ones as well. Islam, Hindu, Buddhism, Taoist, Animisim, Jainism, and so on...
Not bad for a small town in a small state in the USA.

wa:do

In my country they can teach about birth control and even give it to children without a parents consent, but cannot whisper a word about different religions.

I would love to see a different religion come to the school each week and educate children about the basics of their faith. We are suppose to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion!