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Professor examines religion in the South |
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Tuesday, 23 January 2007 |
by HEATHER SANDERS
News Reporter
The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion awarded a $15,000 grant to an Appalachian State University professor to study how religion influences students in an academic setting.
“We want to think about how Christianity influences our classrooms,”
philosophy and religion professor Dr. Sandra Gravett, who received the
grant, said. “We want to help students see the influence.”
She and two other Appalachian professors will conduct the study, along
with three professors from the University of Georgia and three from the
University of Tennessee.
Gravett said some students in religion classes have had trouble
understanding different religions, such as Buddhism, which has no god.
“Their touch point for what is religion is Christianity,” Gravett said.
She said there is also trouble when it comes to teaching the Bible
because students already have an idea of what the Bible means. Often,
these ideas are challenged by academics.
“Public schools have to be fair and handle the material in a way that is respectful to what students believe,” Gravett said.
However, she said most students are open to new ideas.
“In my specific class, the majority are open-minded enough to accept
other religions and not be judgmental,” senior psychology student
Shelly D. Bates said. “It helps that the professor teaches in an
unbiased way.”
Allan Blume, pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church on Bamboo Road, said it is important for professors to be fair.
“A lot of tolerance is determined by the person teaching the material,”
Blume said. “They have a lot of power to change the slant of a course
for or against faiths.”
Gravett said it is easier to introduce another set of norms and values
in a class once students realize she is not trying to denigrate or take
away their religion.
“We all have blinders about how we see the world,” she said.
She said once students are able to understand their own religion and
other people’s traditions, they are able to relate to other people
better.
Although religion is not required at Appalachian, Gravett said it is
hard to understand the world without understanding religious faith.
She said the study includes all types of classes, such as politics, history and even biology.
“Once you’ve accepted a specific religion, you embrace the ideas that come with it,” Bates said.
“Anything that strays from those ideas may not be wrong, but it gives a
different opinion of religion, evolution, politics or abortion.”
Blume also said it is important to understand religion from a historical background.
“Religion is very integrated into the political climate,” Blume said.
“People shape government by their beliefs. Without religion, it would
change everything.”
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It is a rather tragic statistic to read that the “US ranks almost last in understanding evolution” http://www.huffingtonpost.com This is probably a direct result of the spread of superstition (religion) within the US culture where 90% believe in gods. Perhaps this the primary reason for the USA to be the only developed nation that does not embrace social values such as supporting the notion of universal health care and is most definitely the primary cause of the society blindly following Bush without criticism.
Children in the UK who study religions will also have the opportunity to learn about A-theism. This is an appropriate and intelligent approach to handling myths in the school setting. I think it’s rather exciting that Galileo, Darwin and Dawkins will be up against creationism in the religious education classroom. Those giant intellects are of course paramount in the science labs too where Intelligent Design is no where to be seen.