Religious Education

A Religious education can promote a lack of acceptance & ignorance of science/social norms via interpretation of ancient texts representing a deity or deities. Religious schools can be detrimental to a pupil’s education in a number of ways, particularly when it comes to the teaching of science. In many religious schools, scientific concepts are distorted or dismissed in favor of religious beliefs, leading to a lack of understanding and critical thinking skills. To make matter worse, morality in society is based on rationality.

A Religious education may teach creationism as a legitimate scientific theory, despite it lacking empirical evidence and being widely rejected by the scientific community. By promoting creationism as a valid alternative to evolution, students are misled and given a false understanding of the natural world.

Additionally, a religious education may teach that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, in direct contradiction to the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting the Earth’s age of over 4.5 billion years. By ignoring or dismissing this evidence, students are deprived of a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the history of our planet.

There are a spectrum of religious schools from those that teach that the interpretation of ancient writings are figurative stories to those that teach that they are facts.

Religion should not be taught in science classes (biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering etc). If the building blocks of education are tainted, the outcome of that education will be faulted. How can one truly understand science if education is intertwined with fables.

With falsehoods as the foundation of religious education, true education suffers. Furthermore, by presenting religious beliefs as scientific fact, religious schools hinder a student’s ability to think critically and evaluate evidence objectively (belief versus scientific scrutiny). This can have long-term effects on a student’s ability to make informed decisions and engage with the wider world in a meaningful way. In conclusion, religious schools can be harmful to pupils by distorting scientific truths and limiting their understanding of the natural world. It is important for schools to provide students with a well-rounded education that includes a strong foundation in science and critical thinking skills. If religion is to be taught, it should be segregated from science and labelled as theology.

Choose an educational institution critically. Look for an institution that educates rather than indoctrinates. Schools that enforce religious beliefs in lieu of science generally rank lower within University ranking systems. Putting one of these institutions on your resume, devalues the education one has obtained and worse yet; it devalues the resume on which such an institution appears.