During the “Does God Exist?” debate (see the debate, my thoughts, plus some comments here) between Frank Turek and Christopher Hitchens, Hitchens made much ado about how “religion poisons everything.” That’s the subtitle of one of his books, in fact. Turek countered in his closing statement by remarking, “religion doesn’t poison everything…everything poisons religion.”
At the time, I thought “woaaaa, good one!” It had a rhetorical punch to it.
On second thought, though, I can see that the statement’s value is limited.
Of course Hitchens’ statement goes too far, and Turek’s notion of religion being poisoned from the outside brings some balance. However, some religions really are poisonous in and of themselves. Some religions really do teach hate and violence. I’m primarily thinking of Islam here. There is no doubt that some followers of Islam are peaceful people, but the Koran really does incite violence and backwardness. A study of the Koran or a cursory glance at a culture where Islam reigns will tell you that.
I know certain verses in the Koran prescribe peace, yet those verses tend to come from the time when Muhammad lacked military and political power. The surahs “revealed” when Muhammad had power tell a much different tale, however.
There are other examples. One doesn’t need to stretch to see the poison of a religion that prescribes sacrificing children to Molech, for instance.
Some religions *are* poisoned from the outside. Take Christianity, for example. Jesus is sublime. His followers–not so much (not that I’m biased..:) I do think that I’ve got good reasons to be biased, however!)
But others are poison themselves, and any followers who are peaceful and moral are such not because of their religion, but in spite of it.
Plus, similar to “curing” cancer with a medication that dulls the pain, all religions but one only cure the symptoms of the human problem, not the disease. Only Christianity, with Jesus the true doctor, cures our disease of sin. Therefore, all others are impostors and hence are not intrinsically good.
Yesterday I blogged my thoughts on public education.
But I totally forgot to address the solutions to the problems!
I hate to disappoint, but I don’t have a thing to say as far as solutions. I’m not even sure public education *can* be fixed. It can sure be improved, and, like I kept mentioning, individuals within the system can make a huge difference, but I don’t know if the institution itself can be salvaged.
All that to say: I got nuthin’.
I could be wrong on that, though. What say you? Do you have any thoughts on how public education can be saved?
HT: 
