Religious schools for the non-religious

[hey]

Are you being obtuse on purpose?

Yes.

You go to your local library, find a book that looks interesting, and read it. Foreign concept, I know.

But how do i know that it will be better than just reading bg?

[Greatguardian]

No one likes a smartass.

Who am I kidding, everyone loves smartasses. But seriously shut the fuck up.

[archibaldcrane]

No, the statement was retarded. Reading BG for a year vs. any single book - for a critical thinker, you'll get way more out of reading BG.

If you're not a critical thinker, then sure.

[Greatguardian]

If you're already a critical thinker, props all around. If we are still working on the assumption that most people are not, which was the case in the context of the statement, then yes they are going to benefit much more from reading a book.

Reading in print form is also a valuable skill that people don't practice nearly so much as they used to. Even a critical thinker would benefit from reading books, journals, and printed papers in whatever genre or field suits them. The internet is somewhat less picky about its source material.

[Siatdiat]

The poll results I listed I think are pretty damn accurate, considering they have gotten similar results in several polls since 1982. I would suggest that common American resistance to ideas like evolution are a "symptom" of poor education. By education I don't mean being fed facts to regurgitate later. I mean quality teachers and professors who are able to inspire their students to challenge their own assumptions about the world.

Add: to respond to the concept that reading books will improve your critical thinking.... nah, get some actual guided education. If you start out as an idiot, and just start reading lots of books, you end up as the guy on ancient aliens.

[archibaldcrane]

The point of my criticism of your interpretation of the poll is that the question was whether man was created in current form 10,000 years ago (as opposed to having evolved) - whereas you said

Just short of half the US population thinks god shit the world out less than 10,000 years ago.

[Siatdiat]

The point of my criticism of your interpretation of the poll is that the question was whether man was created in current form 10,000 years ago (as opposed to having evolved) - whereas you said

So, I see where you are basically being really anal about wording, but in this situation I'm not sure what the actual issue is. Everything being created approximately seven thousand years ago is the whole and short of young earth creationism.

Somewhat randomly, check out this site...

http://www.sonlight.com/young_or_old_earth.html

An excerpt:

Why is the Age of the Earth Such a Big Deal to Many Christians?

Many Christians suggest that the Young-Earth/Old-Earth debate is of vital importance not only or merely because there is a vast difference between 6,000 to 10,000 years on the one hand, and 5 billion-plus years on the other. But, they say, this debate is important because of a syllogism, a logical and appropriate progression of thought:
a.Either God did things as the Bible says He did them, or He did things differently.
b.If God did things differently than what the Bible tells us, then the Bible lies and/or isn't God's word.
c.If the Bible lies and/or isn't God's word, then it isn't worthy of our trust.
d.If the Bible isn't worthy of our trust, then Christianity isn't worthy of our trust, either.

By these logical steps, beginning from a "scientific" inability to believe that the Scriptures are trustworthy, many people who once committed themselves to love, honor, and obey the Lord Jesus Christ have been led in their adult years to abandon their Lord and Savior.

The point: if we can't trust the biblical account of creation, then we have no reason to trust the Bible as God's authoritative word at any other point, either.


Shit blows my mind.

[Ragnus]

Except for the hundreds of times that the book contradicts itself.

Shit blows my mind also.

[Sera]

Haha yeah.... I am glad I received some straight forward great advice on the first page. I don't mind if this thread is derailed at this point into a tangential discussion. The main thing I wanted to make clear in the OP is that my question wasn't about atheist vs. religion thing, the question would really have the same meaning if I said I was religion X and the school taught religion Y.

Did you look into the two types of schools I suggested? You're basically going to spend the same money and IMO teaching a kid HOW to think is infinitely more important than teaching them WHAT to think-- ESPECIALLY at a young and impressionable age. From my view, that's the real difference between those types of schools I mentioned and the religious schools.

http://www.greatschools.org/nevada/c...harter-School/ & http://www.carsonmontessori.com/flashpage.html

http://www.hearttohand.org/

[Alleya]

My advice is home school. If you're going to dish out the cash money for a private school and all the non-tuition costs that are going to come with that anyway, then you're better off having the parent with lower income quit their job and teach the kid themselves. Then you know exactly what's being taught and religiosity is a non issue, and they'll get an education miles better than a public school. There's usually programs in any decently populated area for other home schooled kids to get together and socialize (though then you have to watch out for the crazies who homeschool because they don't want their kids learning anything that doesn't come from the bible).

[Dantrag]

That's assuming the person that would be quitting their job makes less than about 30k a year. Other wise I don't think it would be worth it(financially speaking).

[zoobernut]

Did you look into the two types of schools I suggested? You're basically going to spend the same money and IMO teaching a kid HOW to think is infinitely more important than teaching them WHAT to think-- ESPECIALLY at a young and impressionable age. From my view, that's the real difference between those types of schools I mentioned and the religious schools.

http://www.greatschools.org/nevada/c...harter-School/ & http://www.carsonmontessori.com/flashpage.html

http://www.hearttohand.org/

Yeah these are great options and definitely schools we will look into once he is at the age where he will be going to elementary school. I had several cousins that went to a Waldorf school in a different area and that school was pretty great.

Right now we are just looking for daycare/preschool

Thank you for the links.