<div dir="auto"><div>My wife Deborah taught a course in world religions in the Sunday school of the Unitarian Church of Santa Fe. The students were elemetary and junior high age kids. It was a well regarded project in the Church.</div><div><br></div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">---<br>Frank C. Wimberly<br>140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br>Santa Fe, NM 87505<br><br>505 670-9918<br>Santa Fe, NM</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 3:47 AM Pieter Steenekamp <<a href="mailto:pieters@randcontrols.co.za">pieters@randcontrols.co.za</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">I totally agree — it would be great if all students learned about the major world religions. I don’t have the inside scoop, but I’d be a bit surprised if Texas public schools don’t already include that.<br><br>That said, teaching about religion is one thing. Starting the day with “Let us pray”? That’s a different ballgame — and, in my view, a firm no-go for any public school.<br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, 27 Jun 2025 at 08:21, Russell Standish <<a href="mailto:lists@hpcoders.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">lists@hpcoders.com.au</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">On Fri, Jun 27, 2025 at 07:31:53AM +0200, Pieter Steenekamp wrote:<br>
> <br>
> Now, here’s where it gets interesting. If we’re all chipping in tax money for<br>
> public education, then yes — I’m 100% on board with keeping religion out of<br>
> public schools. That’s not only a fair deal, I would be horrified if any<br>
> religion were included.<br>
> <br>
<br>
I have a dissenting opinion on this. I believe all students should<br>
learn about all the major religions, including having a passing<br>
knowledge of the contents of the Bible, the Koran, and a notion of the<br>
special traditions etc of each one - eg the importance of confession<br>
to Catholics, the importance of Shabat to Jews and Muslims, etc. In<br>
todays world, you come across all these sorts of people, and having an<br>
understanding of where they come from helps a lot.<br>
<br>
After all, the Bible is probably the most important work of fiction in<br>
the English language, followed closely by the complete works of<br>
Shakespeare. <br>
<br>
When my son went to school here in Australia, there was a smorgasbord<br>
of about 3-4 varieties of Christianity and Judaism (no Islam, from<br>
what I recall), and Non-religion, where you just got to read books in<br>
the library. We sent him to the latter of course, but if there'd been<br>
a proper comparitive religion course, that would have been my choice.<br>
<br>
> But if my neighbour is still paying her taxes like the rest of us, and on top<br>
> of that has to fork out again to send her kids to a private Christian school —<br>
> that's also just not right. A voucher system, to me, seems like a fair<br>
> compromise. It respects both freedom of choice and fairness of contribution.<br>
> Maybe it’s not a perfect solution, but it does stop us from double-charging<br>
> parents for believing something different.<br>
> <br>
> For me, diversity of opinions and freedom to choose your religion is a very<br>
> good and positive thing.<br>
> <br>
> On Fri, 27 Jun 2025 at 02:33, Santafe <<a href="mailto:desmith@santafe.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">desmith@santafe.edu</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> On Jun 27, 2025, at 7:31, Marcus Daniels <<a href="mailto:marcus@snoutfarm.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">marcus@snoutfarm.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> <br>
> Dave writes:<br>
> <br>
> < My 'mysticism', like my hallucinogenic experience, is nothing more<br>
> than a source of what I consider to be "real" data and a supply of<br>
> fascinating questions—never answers. ><br>
> <br>
> Not clear why something that supposedly cannot be captured by mere<br>
> language keeps getting pitched as a real and intersubjective thing via<br>
> language.<br>
> <br>
> <br>
> I am much less bothered by this _in principle_, since I generally hold the<br>
> two premises:<br>
> <br>
> 1. Language is a collection of signals _within_ a system, that are part of<br>
> coordinating states among people; it doesn’t follow that language should<br>
> “contain” or “capture” anything that works as a model “of” the system, in<br>
> the way I would want formalism to have a mappability to phenomena in<br>
> anything I consider science. Often language-in-general will have some<br>
> mutual information with something closer to a model, but that is partly<br>
> luck and not uniform. Languages that do have those mappable qualities tend<br>
> to be more bespoke, because they were under heavy pressure to do that job,<br>
> which is somewhat different from the background social/material criteria<br>
> for the great majority of language (though scientific language and sense<br>
> can both, I would argue, be seen to grow out of their counterparts that<br>
> have some presence in the broader bulk of language and commonsense); and <br>
> <br>
> 2. The term “reality” is a problem in general. It is still too close to<br>
> its origins in the hand-me-down umbrella term from common usage, which gets<br>
> it accepted and used with a fluency that belies its evasive and indefinite<br>
> character. I would put it, in most instances of usage, in the category I<br>
> call “placeholder terms”. They enable the rest of discourse to proceed,<br>
> because something is needed in those slots, but that doesn’t mean they<br>
> necessarily carry very good meanings on their own. To the extent that<br>
> “reality” has a central tendency of meaning, it seems (to me) to be around<br>
> the notion of “since we are always trying to economize on attention, which<br>
> things are safest to turn your back on, in the expectation that they will<br>
> still be there and not bite you in the meantime?” <br>
> <br>
> So for a language-term to be suggesting that it is trying to coordinate a<br>
> state, with some somewhat reflexive situation-statement acknowleding that<br>
> it does not have a model of the state, together with the state itself’s<br>
> being so loosely handled that it is not clear when the people really are<br>
> coordinated or how they would decide on that, I can certainly see this kind<br>
> of pattern as an ordinary occurrence. Even if some intersubjectivity would<br>
> be reasonable to expect, in view of our vast overlapping constitution<br>
> shared by all being people, primates, mammals, and so on. <br>
> <br>
> I do like the idea that this is just a version of the normal confusion, for<br>
> things not understood very well (like, quite badly), and that one could<br>
> find ways to do better.<br>
> <br>
> Eric<br>
> <br>
> <br>
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