Teach our kids about religion. it's ok!

I recently posted "Let's start teaching 'Atheism' in school?" and got some really cool comments and suggestions. Not only on all the great community websites but also on my own blog ; vizhnet.wordpress.com

This morning i posted a comment myself, but later decided to also use it as a separate post.. so here you go.

We should bow to the mighty ZEUS!

When i was in highschool, i obviously had to take history. I was very fortunate to have greek mythology enthusiast as a teacher. This meant that besides history of the world, europe and The Netherlands we spent a great deal of time talking about this enjoyeble subject. The great thing about it is that the way it was taught, is to my opinion exactly the way we can teach children about christianity, islam and other ancient religions of 'today'.

Recently, during a holiday in Greece, i told my 8 year old daughter about some of the greek gods and their stories. I told her that the ancient Greeks used to believe these stories as truth. Because it is so obvious that the aren't factual I did not make an effort to make clear that they weren't. And even though the word mythology does not imply truth or falsity perse, it is my opinion that they are false. I'm sure most, if not all people these days, will agree with me that Zeus never really existed. My little girl does'nt. But she still thought the stories were great.

My point is that one day the bible, the thora and the quran will have the same status as other mythological 'holy' books. It can be taught in schools as part of history. One could take specialized courses in judeism, christianity, islam or theism in general. Or get a degree, or become a professor in ancient mythology. As this is already possible and i even know that some theology students are non-believers i am hopefull that this will happen.

Let's not forget that, even though the theism that we know today is not factual and indeed responsible for a lot of the problems in our world, other ancient beliefsystems like the Greek polytheism were also very harmfull and 'bad' in their own time. Just because there are no active Greek polytheist fundamentalists around threatening to blow themselves up if we do not bow to the mighty Zeus, means we can see it as a part of history and teach our kids about it in a neutral way. And most importantly, without the fear of insulting anyone. If we take this approach to christianity and islam we might finally get somewhere. Like it or not, these beliefsystems are an integral part of our lifes and will effect our future for a long time to come. For former believers and but even for people who have never been part of a particular beliefsystem, like myself.

We do not need to 'teach atheism' to our kids, as teaching them about religions the way i described above, will 'make them' into what they are supposed to be. Smart kids. And one day there will be as much use for the word atheist as there is for the term anti-Greek-polytheist right now.

I for one, would like to see this happen during my lifetime. Care to help?