Have you ever been discouraged to pursue (academic) education on religious grounds?

[Sirona]

As you may know, I have a knack for Christian movies. I just watched one entitled A Matter of Faith, in which a concerned fundamentalist father challenges his daughter's biology professor for teaching the theory of evolution in college. The point is that the daughter wants to be a pharmacist, so she "has to" take the class on biology (chemistry would have been too complicated I suppose (). This film upset me very much (although it basically covers the same topic as "God's not dead"). If I was a "concerned father" I probably wouldn't send my kids to such a godless college in the first place, which is probably the intended message of the movie. I am aware that many Jehovah's Witnesses discourage their kids from pursuing academic education as "the End is nigh" but I'm not aware of other religious groups acting that way.

(However I can say that I consulted a new dentist when my last one recommended homeopathic treatment to me (which is also pseudo-science) without me asking for this.)

 

[SalixIncendium]

Aside from being discouraged to explore other religions outside Catholicism, even academically, because everyone that belonged to them was going to Hell, no, I have not been discouraged from academic pursuits.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Just the opposite.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Aside from being discouraged to explore other religions outside Catholicism, even academically, because everyone that belonged to them was going to Hell, no, I have not been discouraged from academic pursuits.

Replace "Catholicism" with "Islam" and that was my exact experience too. I was otherwise heavily encouraged to pursue education and academic interests.

 

[Rival]

Anglicans still run half the universities, so nah.

In Europe the universities are a Christian invention, so it's weird that Christians would stop other Christians going. Not something I see here.

 

[Quintessence]

No.

In fact, my experience was precisely the opposite.

I would not have pursued post-graduate study in the sciences without religious motive. Science is the study of the gods. Studying it was a means to the ends of serving the gods.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

As you may know, I have a knack for Christian movies. I just watched one entitled A Matter of Faith, in which a concerned fundamentalist father challenges his daughter's biology professor for teaching the theory of evolution in college. The point is that the daughter wants to be a pharmacist, so she "has to" take the class on biology (chemistry would have been too complicated I suppose (). This film upset me very much (although it basically covers the same topic as "God's not dead"). If I was a "concerned father" I probably wouldn't send my kids to such a godless college in the first place, which is probably the intended message of the movie. I am aware that many Jehovah's Witnesses discourage their kids from pursuing academic education as "the End is nigh" but I'm not aware of other religious groups acting that way.

(However I can say that I consulted a new dentist when my last one recommended homeopathic treatment to me (which is also pseudo-science) without me asking for this.)

I was never academically discouraged. Both of my parents went to college, and my father had a doctorate. It was always assumed that I would go to college too.

A good well rounded liberal arts education is a valuable thing. It gives us more knowledge to draw upon when we are called to make decisions in our lives and at the voting box. It teaches us critical thinking skills, and more. But to accomplish this, a person has to gather a large body of knowledge in many fields.

One of those fields is science, and that would include learning the major theories and the evidence that supports them. Evolution is at the top of that list. Now, if you learn the basics of the TOE and the evidence that supports it, and at the end still believe otherwise, that is of course your right. But at least you will be making your decision based on what the TOE actually is, and not some fundamentalist church's false representation. You cannot reject something you never understood in the first place.

 

[Viker]

Even when I went to a Baptist school, over 40 years ago (omfg), they "taught" the TOE in biology class ( 7th grade). They sandwiched it between Biblical studies and ancient Greek/Roman mythology (that shocked me and I enjoyed it). And by "taught" what I mean is they presented it and then tore it apart using scripture, to "accompany" it and offer scripture as an "alternative" deserving equal air time. In other words, a literal interpretation of Genesis was preferable to them. The rest of the biology course was fine.

Other than that, I have never been impeded by religion to pursue an education. My current religious leaning is totally in favor of academic enlightenment.