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All Ages Did religion subjects make you more religious?

lindbergh

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For those who have religion subjects, what do you think is the purpose? Is it to spread the word about religion? Is it to make you a believer? Is it to make you go to church more often? Is it to make you a good person?

When I was taking up religion subjects, I asked myself these questions and I came to thinking maybe a combination of things, but probably mostly to spread the Word. Did it make me more religious? I think not... Did it help me become a better person? I don't know. Did it make me a believer? I was already a believer. Did it open my eyes to new teachings? Absolutely.
 
When I was in grade school and high school, religions are discussed on our Values Education subject. So, I think it is for the students to know what and how to be good. It can also help makes a person closer to God.
 
The history of Christianity in relation to the development of Western culture is valuable, whether a person is religious/spiritual or not. It fits in naturally with the study of philosophy, history, politics, literature, art... etc.
 
Religion is a very broad topic and there are thousands of different religion spanning over the globe.Research as shown that different types are developing daily, that really provides the answer to the question.People want to know about things pertaining to God. As I commented on one thread earlier all humans have that need to be close to God. Anytime religion comes up in school or anywhere else everyone wants to Speak about it because it appeals to our conscience, that in born need is already there so we feel something inside that makes us want to connect with our creator.
 
I feel that without faith there is nothing! Faith is necessary in order to understand life and the trials of it. Those who do not have faith usually have many difficulties like broken relationships, few friends and other problems that they do not understand. I think it is also only once you have lost that you find your faith.
 
It's not that my teachers were ineffective or something but I simply had my own experience with God that had nothing to do with the lessons I received. Although the religion subjects (there was only one per year level) reinforced my knowledge of my church's history and purpose, still I got my faith from somewhere else.
 
I attended a Catholic school growing up and we had religion class once a week plus a visit from a nun and a priest once a month. Add in the trips to mass during the school day and I actually became pretty bored with the topic. They really focused on drilling in rules and how to act in mass. Maybe if there had been more focus on social justice or service to others even when were were really young, I would look back and say I got more out of it.
 
In my last year of middle school, I was given a Religion History class, but it focused on Christianity and Catholicism. I am a Catholic, but it did not make me feel "more Catholic" in any sense, just more aware of my religion and the roots of my faith.
 
Learning about a religion does not in any way make anybody more religious or less religious. It's sort of like reading a book about, say, terrorism. Just reading the book would not make you a terrorist. However, since religion is very much a part of the world we live in, it is good to have a broad understanding about religion.
 
I think it's all about teaching the students the gospel, and in the process, it's also making the youth be more like a better person. As for me, yes, religion subjects such as Christian Living somehow taught me how to be a good human being, and a follower of God. It has also helped me have a personal relationship with Him.
 
For those who have religion subjects, what do you think is the purpose?

For me, it's more of teaching the students about the history of the religion and what it's all about. It's more of enlightening the child on what the religion is, its teachings and its principles.

Is it to spread the word about religion?

In a way, the teachers want to spread the good word about the religion they're teaching. After all, they do teach all the good things about it and no bad things about the said religion.

Is it to make you a believer?

Yup, definitely, since like I said, it mostly focused on why that religion is good and did not discuss the bad sides of it.

Is it to make you go to church more often?

Hmm... I must say that I wasn't swayed to go to church because of what I've learned in class. It was only my choice to do so, even before the class, I was already going to church.

Is it to make you a good person?


Definitely, because the religion always taught us to adhere by the rules set by God. And if you follow them, you're mostly being a good person especially if you take them by heart.
 
For me, no it didn't. I practice all the basics that must be done in my religion but it definitely didn't get me more religious than that. I think it could work depending on how the teacher teach the subject. If you teach exactly by the books, then it's quite unlikely that it'll happen because students will only learn it to pass the exams. But if you teach with style and with interesting stories and examples related to religion, then it might work because they're more interested in what you're teaching, thus bringing them more closer to their religion.
 
In school, religion is assumed to be normal academic discourse. I this increasingly secular world, depth in faith and demonstration of it in the school environment is discouraged. Even devout teachers did not go the extra step of converting their charges and preaching was restricted to routine sermons during the morning assembly. The conclusion is that it formed a foundation for future piety.
 
I guess, quite the opposite happened. I got to the point that all the religions are pretty much the same to me. The same old attempt to guess what's our life gonna be like when it comes to an end. I also found out that some religions bluntly do copy their counterparts.
 
Studying religious education didn't make me more religious either to be honest, but I'm not sure that's what the lessons are there for though in the first place.

Learning about different religions can maybe help people understand more and be more tolerant to others, but at the same time if a person as a set mentality of what they think a religion is, no amount of teaching will change their minds.
 
I believe the sole aim of religion teachings are to draw out moral lessons for its students so as to guide them on how well they should conduct themselves within their immediate environment and in a larger society.
 
I had religion subjects when I was already in college because I studied in a Catholic school. So religion subjects were automatically part of our curriculum. I was also already a religious person even before I had the religion classes and I couldn't say I became more religious after studying the subject especially because my religion instructor wasn't the nicest instructor around. The other subject instructors were even much kinder than her. I must say that my faith and my being religious has something more to do with the lessons I learn from going to church every Sunday.
 
When it comes to religious education being part of the school curriculum I DO have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I think that even if it doesn't make the children any more religious it can teach them important lessons about life that aren't covered in any other subject. At the same time though, religion does create a divide amongst certain sectors in and out of schools and universities so I can also see the argument for saying if you want a child to learn religious education it needs to be done outside of the school curriculum rather than in it.
 
Studying religion helps us to understand other beliefs. We have a better view on how people on Earth think, live and interact with others. There is no way in changing your or other's religion. All we need is to behave with wisdom, truth and gentleness. Knowing about religion doesn't make you a better person if you don't make a follow up when you think and act. It is useless if you don't practise any goods you've learnt.
 
Here in Malta, religious education (i.e. Roman Catholic Studies) was compulsory until this year. To be honest, these lessons pushed more of us away from the church than the actual church did. We looked at our teachers, who appeared to be mousy and so detached from the lives we actually lived, and most of us just wanted to be really different from them. We didn't want to live life by a series of unflinching rules, we didn't want to deny ourselves earthly pleasures, and we didn't want to denounce people for not living the way the Bible told them to.

I'm sure there are a lot of amazing teachers of religious education, but this was the experience my friends and I shared, with a small number of specific teachers, and was in no way meant to offend.
 
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