Oklahoma is now considering teaching a Bible class as an elective in public schools, anywhere from kindergarten to high school. According to newsok.com, “House Bill 2321 would authorize the Board of Education to adopt guidelines for the nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible.” I am against this. It is really bad, in a multitude of ways.

            When you think about this, you are likely to think that people will be trying to force their religion on students. This is unlikely to happen because high schooler’s beliefs are already deeply rooted within them and a Bible course will not likely indoctrinate them. Unfortunately, a Bible class will likely make them think and talk about those such beliefs and may break friendships and other relationships. When you find out your girlfriend is an atheist when you pray every day during the moment of silence may mess up your trust in her. I’m not sure why but some people think other’s morals are not as good as theirs if they don’t come from their personal deity.

            There is also the issue of separation of church and state. This should not be too much of a problem, seeing as that this class is not meant to be teaching religious doctrine as much as it is history and literature. This is Oklahoma, though, which is smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt. I have teachers that, given the opportunity, would most definitely bring their own beliefs into it, which is indubitably a violation of the first amendment. Separation of church and state is that the government, nor any of its representatives, like public school teachers, is to express a preference for any religion or religion over no religion. Don’t tell me you cannot think of anyone who would go against that.

            Another thing is equality. If you are going to teach about Christianity, even if it isn’t really Christianity but just a document out of which it grew, you also must teach other religions, such as Judaism, Satanism, Islam and Hinduism. The only other religion that is readily taught at secondary schools is that of the ancient Greeks, when reading Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” Although, that religion is often taken as complete and total fiction and that the people who practice it are crazy idiots. I don’t see why. Why is Christianity any more legitimate than the religion concerning Zeus and Aphrodite? Is it because no one supposedly practices it anymore, that the majority decides reality?