Talk to Religious Philosophy students today


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RoxyRedhead is offline RoxyRedhead Post #1  December 1,2009, 6:55pm

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THE SECOND SIMILAR THREAD IS MY BAD- A DOUBLE POST BOO-BOO
Today I gave my talk to the Religious Philosophy class at grand daughters high school. I didn’t realize that I was actually going to have to give it twice-to two different classes but, say, I coped.

My initial 10 minute spiel began with the disclaimer: “I am an agnostic and follower of Buddhist Philosophy, I am not a scientist. However the school has required your teacher to call this part of your religious philosophy education The Scientific Viewpoint, not atheist or agnostic information as might more correctly be called.”

At this point, 17 of the about 35 students in the first class got up and walked quietly out. This classroom is in the front of the school near the flag pole. Those class members who walked out went to the flag pole and prayed, loudly, until another faculty member went and got them and took them to wherever. I was quite happy to see them go.

The rest of my talk went fine, I discussed some of the things I had gleaned from my first thread about this event from all of you (Thank You Very Much) and generally thought I kept the 17 year olds interest. I delved into the differences between agnostic and atheist, a bit on how Buddhism was not a religion and a person could be any religion or none and still be a follower of Buddha. That Buddha was a teacher like Mohammed and Jesus are believed to be. I was supposed to have a 10 minute talk but it ended up being quite a bit longer and I didn't follow my script, though I was glad I had written points out on 3x5 cards like I used to do in Speech and Debate Tournaments in high school..I guess I should have done a power point demo though!

Q & A was a bit surprising. I was asked if I believed in heaven (no) and wasn’t I afraid of going to hell (no-I don’t believe in that either) and what did I think of the bible.
I said I came from a family of story tellers, that the wee folk, the sidhe, were a part of my Celtic heritage and I put the stories in the bible in the same category. Like Aesop’s Tales and Disney stories. Folk tales-sometimes fun to read, sometimes scary, sometimes weird but never something I actually believed in after I grew up. And that the bible was not written by Jesus but by men hundreds of years after his death, and is based on stories that had been passed down thru generations.

I also shared how reading Alan Watts had changed my life back in 1958 when I was their age and suggested they see if they could find a copy of The Way of Zen. (and thank you whoever brought Alan Watts up in the last couple of weeks).

Then I had to explain the difference between Celtic as in basketball and Celtic as in the British Isles..just a bit of a detour but fun.

Thee was some lively conversation but I think all the hard core fundies boycotted my time which was fine with me.

The second class was of mostly freshmen and sophomores and no one left, and basically I had no challenging questions either. It seems that, between the ages of 13-14 and 17-18 the questioning part of a teens mind has become more developed.

All in all I thought it was a positive experience for both me and the students. Januarye, the Wiccan Priestess (who wore jeans and a Mickey Mouse sweater this time) said she wished she hadn’t dressed in her garb. I don’t think the kids realized who she was today.

Again, I very much appreciate all the thoughts you passed on to me the past couple of weeks. I’m fairly low key with my beliefs and usually don’t put much real thought into what I actually do believe-I mostly know what I don’t believe-Being a member of this group has really helped me pay more attention to the positive aspects of being a sincere doubter of the Judeo/Christian religious ideas.

I could probably go Pagan or even Wiccan or Gaian fairly easily as the similarities between my personal beliefs and what Januarye told me were pretty strong but there is a lot of what I see as Woo-Woo stuff included in those religions and it's in the same category, to me, as the Woo-Woo stuff of christianity. Woo-Woo being the mystical magical things that I try really hard not to roll my eyes and cringe at. Crystals and more wee folk stories seem to abound in those religions and it seems too much like the powers that are invested in male religious old fogies except it's more female based.

Guess I'll go back to reading Alan Watts.
Last edited by RoxyRedhead; December 1,2009 at 7:00pm.
 
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DennisWisconsin is offline DennisWisconsin Post #2  December 1,2009, 7:03pm
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Sounds like a great experience... those kids that went and prayed, planned that in advance I'm sure... They probably were told by their parents that you eat babies...



Nice job!
 
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Sassafras54 is online now Sassafras54 — Advice Official Moderator Post #3  December 1,2009, 9:35pm
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RoxyRedhead wrote :
Then I had to explain the difference between Celtic as in basketball and Celtic as in the British Isles..just a bit of a detour but fun.
LOL! Cute.

Thanks for the update. Sounds like quite the experience! Probably good that the rabblerousers just left, instead of staying there and being hostile.

It's an interesting feature of fundamentalism that just getting exposed to other viewpoints gets labeled evil, the devil, whatever. I remember my sister in law deciding at some point that my little nephew could no longer participate in Halloween because it is Evil. Sigh.

Yeah, Wiccan kind of attracts just because of the alternative view of the rise of the Church, subsuming of pagan rituals, etc. But then there's, as you say, the WooWoo (such a perfect term for it!)

Congrats!
 
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rix is offline rix Post #4  December 1,2009, 11:19pm
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Happy 1st Anniversary, babe!

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Yes... not too many players of Celtic origin left on the Celtic basketball team!
 
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Comedian is offline Comedian Post #5  December 2,2009, 8:20am
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Where do you live that you have so many fundamentalists in the publice schools?
My son has a few fundies in his classes, but he has the same number of Mormons (Latter Day Saints), so they argue among themselves whose Jesus is better.
I am pretty sure that they don't bother him, despite his being an athesist/agnostic.
He is also considered very popular, although that may be from his ability to tell an off-color with great flair!
Anyway the schools here in Colorado would not allow a prayer meeting around the flag pole during the school day. And if they did, only a few students would attend.
 
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Spider is offline Spider Post #6  December 2,2009, 1:13pm
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So sad that even learning about what others believe is too dangerous for some!

It speaks to their insecurity - if they were secure in their beliefs then no amount of information could change their minds, right? But somehow, even the knowledge that other faiths/beliefs/philosophies (including non-belief) exist is so threatening that they have to actively avoid it.

Shameful. And sad.

It sounds like you did a great job with the students who had the curiosity (and courage) to remain in class and, y'know, actually learn something.

I am surprised that - since this is a class about religions and philosophies - that they were allowed to leave. Isn't the whole point of the class to learn about all manner of faiths and positions? I wonder if they were docked points?
 
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RoxyRedhead is offline RoxyRedhead Post #7  December 2,2009, 2:23pm

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I used 'Fundies' in a general sense-don't know exactly what religion the kids who left are, though there is a large LDS adjunct school right next to the high school-suspect they were all the hyper religious kids in any case.

Yeah--several years ago the religious parents met with the school and got the ok to have the kids be able to leave if they felt ...dunno what...frightened? of learning about wicked atheists. I fared better than the Wiccan Priestess who got heckled though.

And I live in a fairly sophisticated (for Oregon) part of the state that usually votes liberal dem. However there is a strong LDS community right where the HS is......the entire huge subdivision is LDS and has been for 30 years. Being a recovering LDS myself, I know the pressures that the church can bring on kids.
 
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Comedian is offline Comedian Post #8  December 3,2009, 7:38am
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You are a fallen LDS? That must be very interesting.
 
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Sassafras54 is online now Sassafras54 — Advice Official Moderator Post #9  December 3,2009, 7:47am
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Recovering. She said recovering, not fallen.
 
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ming_on_mongo is offline ming_on_mongo Post #10  December 3,2009, 1:52pm
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LDS..... aren't those the guys with multiple wives? Geez, I have enough trouble with one!
 
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