An Examination of Religion, Part I

Part II | Part III

[Let's begin this trek with a light disclaimer: What follows took 20 years of consideration and 2 1/2 hours of writing. It's in three parts. I found writing this cathartic; those who read it all may be bored or offended. I can't apologize for that; it's what I think and how I feel, and I needed to get it out.

For those of you who would appreciate a synopsis, here you go:

I am not a believer because I can't force myself to believe. If you are a believer, I respect that, but this isn't about you anyway.

If you're hanging out, please grab a refreshment.]

Once upon a time, I was a middle school English teacher. This shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me now, since I have a fairly simplistic (i.e., dumbed down) vocabulary and a penchant for potty or otherwise juvenile humor.

Of all the curriculum I taught, my favorite was the unit on mythology covered in the 6th grade. It proved most entertaining to the students as well as me, when we explored beyond the general confines of Greek and Roman mythology. Norse gained the students' admiration by including several disabled primary gods, and that and Egyptian appealed to the 6th grader in all of us with their common inclusions of boogers and gore in their stories. Creation myths were particularly interesting to me. While I can't remember the Greek or Roman stories (just the beginnings of miscellaneous gods), the basics of the Egyptian and Norse stories stay with me still. (I say basics after googling a little to check my next couple paragraphs and finding details a little sketchy. I'm not changing them, though. Google for yourself.)

The Egyptian creation myth began with chaos and involved the primary being emerging from the Watery Abyss (after the appearance and spontaneous combustion of a phoenix). Upon doing so, he sneezes, losing his children, the gods of moisture (i.e., boogers) and air, in the process. He removes his eye from the center of his forehead and sends it off to find them. [Side story here that I'm silently giggling about as I remember it... I taught this story one day by partially acting it out, complete with a crayoned and cut out eye taped to my forehead. After school let out, I visited the office, the teachers' lounge, and various other teachers' classrooms. When I left the building that day and got into my car, I realized the damned eye was still on my forehead. No one had reacted to it; such weirdness had become normal behavior for me.]

The Norse creation myth started with two areas, one of extreme cold and the other of darkness. From them evolved a giant, who was nursed by an even larger cow -- note here use of the word "teat" was especially enjoyable to the kids -- who then had a fight with some others and was killed. The giant's body became the earth, his blood the water, his hair the vegetation, and the maggots that appeared became the elves that lived under the earth [we lost some of the girls at this point, but most of the boys would be hooting excitedly].

While I no doubt enjoyed the creation myths, I found them harder to discuss with the students than anything else. Mythology is the religions of other cultures past, and with any mention of the word religion comes the unavoidable comparison to current theology. While the students giggled about how silly the stories were, I reminded them that people at one point in time seriously held these beliefs, as seriously as beliefs can be held today. There was usually one student who would ask if people hundreds or thousands of years from now would think our religion silly. Because trying to look objectively at one's own religion is pretty difficult, I encouraged them to talk to their classmates and friends, to tell each other about their religions. We lived in a fairly multicultural area, so there was a wide range of belief systems represented. At the same time, I had to remind the students that they needed to be respectful of each other. Even if what they heard was the goofiest and craziest ideas EVER, don't make someone else feel bad about their beliefs and the beliefs of those they love. I wish I had had the balls to devote class time to such an activity, but around the same time a war was raging in the science department over how creationism was to be taught. I wasn't going to go there.

Here's my question... well, maybe more than one: If science classes in public schools are forced to teach creationism along with evolution, why don't they include creation stories that exist in other cultures and/or religions as well? Why not do a joint project with Language Arts to merge mythology with science, to explore the beliefs of our world's ancestors?

To Be Continued

Comments

[Susie]

mrtl, I think that is an excellent idea. It would be so educational, so fascinating. It would take very gifted teachers to pull it off, though, without trying to influence students unduly with their own beliefs or lack thereof. The more information people have, about anything, the better choices they're able to make for themselves.

[mrtl]

I agree, Susie, but can only imagine the reaction of parents who want to shelter their children from harboring any doubt about their own religion or otherwise can't admit that other religions even exist.

[Sarah]

Oh oh! Finally something I can comment on!

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I believe the real push is to have teachers in schools teach the theory of Intelligent Design, not necessarily 6 day Creationism. I think it's important in science classes to show scientific evidence for things like that, and there definately is some evidence that there is a Designer. I think it would be great to teach what other religions think but I'm not sure science class is the right context. Just my humple opinion as a scientist and believer.

[Sarah]

A scientist that can't spell "humble"! Geesh.

[Amy]

Great post. Yeah, it would be great to include other cultures/ages creation ideas. It is such a shame to think that parents would want to shelter their children from these things. I say bust it all open, the more information the better, if it is related thoughtfully, respectfully, and intelligently.

One of the best parts of my Catholic school upbringing, which people might not know happens in Catholic schools, is that you take religion class, and in that class part of the curriculum is to study other religions. And I don't ever remember a teacher saying, "These are all WRONG", more that they were different.

Even as 'a believer', I struggle all the time with my faith. It is imperfect, just like me. I question everything.

Keep it up mrtl! Looking forward to PART II Dum da dum dum DUM!

[cat]

I just wanted to say that a humple opinion sounds WAY more valid that a humble one. Just sayin'. Or am I thinking of humpable? Hmm. Never mind.

[cat]

;)

[mrtl]

Thank you all for your input on this. My first in this little series is the most tame. Hopefully you'll stick around for the rest. :) (I have these written already, but am having some residual Catholic guilt over some of the things I've written about, and it's wigging me out a bit.)

[Amber]

Refering to your last question, I've always wondered that myself.

But where I grew up, the ONLY taught evolution in school, but nothing else. I always wondered why they couldn't teach the other things. Not to force religion on people, but to enlighten others about different religions and cultures.

I've read your religion posts, and I find them to be quite remarkable.

Theology and religion can be very difficult subjects. There are many questions around about religion, and I don't think that there is a soul that knows everything for sure.

I am a Christian. But I have asked myself so many questions to get where I am today. Kudos to you. Keep asking questions and keep trying to find answers.