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My high school's World Cultures class discussed Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but it was very vauge, just an overview of each. A lot of the students made jokes about Judaism and Islam, so I asked them to stop, so they just made fun of me.

I think religion could be taught in junior high and high school, but not before that. If it is taught, they should go into a little more detail then my school did, and discuss more religions.

Mostly, i learned about other religions in college and, well, at church.

When I was in high school I had one teacher who did a unit on World Religions. But not all were covered; more the ones she assumed nobody in the class was and nobody was familiar with like Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, also covered Christianity and Judaism I believe. Not Hinduism, or Paganism, which are two other big ones. It was a short unit too, so not much detail.

post again later when I have time... sweatdrop

I'm not convinced the lack of open-mindedness is the problem. Everybody is inherently both open and closed (you can function otherwise, psychologicaly or physiologically). I think that people just don't THINK about it in the first place. They don't think about other religions, for they are not taught of them in the first place. And when confronted with something outside of their worldview, a natural first reaction is to be guarded against it (most likely a survival mechanism passed down from our ancheint ancestors).

And, a lot of people don't bother to self-educate themselves either. I was fortuante enough to be raised in a family that really values education, so we actually take the initiative ourselves, sometimes, to learn about something. Most people dont' seem to do this from what I've seen.

It's hard to promote religious tolerance when there is not first religious understanding.

I think that if religions are to be taught, they should be done in a college setting. I believe that any college with a religious affiliation should be required, by a national law, to have their students wishing to obtain a degree of any sort, take so many credits of Religious Studies.

I believe this because, I believe that, for the most part, kids in highschool (Freshmen and Sophomores) are too immature and are less likely to take it seriously. While Seniors in highschool, could be required to take it, I find that, for the most part, they are more interested in focusing their attention on getting the hell out of there. Juniors, simply have too much to sift through, with all the standardized testing, and college touring.

As for myself, the only religion I learned about through school was the Islamic faith, during my World History class. This took up a good portion of the trimester. Other than that, I taught myself about various religions.

I think that there should be a philosophy requirement for highschoolers. It's not much different than English.

Chaoticpuppet, it's true that a lot of young people really don't have the experience or interest to apprechiate religion. But the thing is, if they are not introduced to the concept at all, chances aren't as great of them taking interest in it at other levels either. I know that a factor in me googling up different religions was partly because I was aware of other systems out there that fit me better than what I was forced into as a kid. If I hadn't felt there was any system out there that would fit, I wouldn't have even bothered looking. And this is coming from a person who randomly reads up on subjects anyway just to become more informed.

Religious diversity in my school consisted of the different forms of Christianity and Judaism. We touched on Hinduism and Buddhism, but very little. As for the rest of the religions, when we asked we were told that "they are unimportant heathen cults that will corrupt you and send you to hell."

domokun Imagine that. I heard that in 3rd grade . . . and they wonder why so many of us were paranoid . . .

There are five nationally-recognized religions in Indonesia: Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. What's so funny is that the Indonesian national ideology actually calls for the 'belief in one God' (which is not that much different from the U.S., but anyway), yet there are no persecution for polytheists or any other people who practice, say, Confucianism or Taoism there.

Indonesia is the most-populous Muslim country in the world. Most of the places have a mosque where you can actually hear the call to prayer everywhere; but most people are generally tolerant of each other's beliefs. Even though I went to a Christian/Catholic school throughout my ten years of schooling there, the national motto of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (sanskrit; means 'unity in diversity') actually held everyone together.

Most people only know the general beliefs in those five religions I've said above; but what people do not know are the arguments for and against those said religions. Yet, I'm sure that those kind of discussions would blow little children's heads up. sweatdrop

Getting rid of the religious ignorance shouldn't be left to the education system alone; I believe that parents should teach their children more than the schools. My mother was raised with a very broad, liberal view of religion: even though my grandparents are Muslim, she was Christian. I have a cousin who's essentially agnostic, and we wouldn't even blink an eye if one of us grew an extra eye or something. xp

Instead of parents just blindly having 'faith' in a religion that their parents taught to them, I think it would be best if they chose their faith willingly, then teaching the basics of each religion to their children so that they can also choose their faith willingly. Freely choosing one's beliefs, in my opinion, is more pure to the eyes of God compared to being forced to perform religious obligations of a religion one does not truly believe in.