Do you agree about learning about other faiths?

  • Thread starter Thread starter theCardinalbird
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

theCardinalbird

Guest
As a grade 11 student. The Catholic School I go to requires taking grade 11 world religions. so I’m curious, do you think learning about other religions is a good thing?
 
It’s a good thing if you have a firm foundation in Catholicism.

How secure and knowledgeable are you of your own faith?
 
Of course, more true knowledge is generally a good thing unless it brings you to sin.

Perhaps it can be an experience of learning how other religions fail to fulfil you like Christianity.
 
I do think it’s important to learn about other religions but I’m not familiar with such a curriculum.

It’s ridiculous how ignorant some people can be about other religions (eg some thinking that the Muslim prophet is God, etc). Some basic knowledge about other religions can promote understanding between religions.

Also, imo it’s important to study different religions if you believe in God when you’re old enough. Blindly believing whatever you were raised with isn’t the most intelligent thing you can do
 
Spyridon said:
How secure and knowledgeable are you of your own faith?
Click to expand...
Pretty secure. I’m just asking because I’ve heard that some students who take the course end up converting to those religions…
 
In general terms, I would say yes, it’s good to learn about other faiths.

Of course, I’m imagining a grown up Catholic with a solid foundation in his own faith, or at least with the resources at his fingertips of any questions that arise.

I have learned that sometimes the faiths closest to us have the biggest misunderstandings. Evangelicals and Catholics often talk right “past” each other because they use the same words, but in ways nuanced just enough that they really aren’t on the same page, and what’s more, they don’t even realize it as they’re conversing!
 
If you’re a Junior in HS and are fairly secure in the Church you should be all set.

I have personally studied Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahaism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Jainism, Juche, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, British, Germanic, Scandinavian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian polytheism, I’ve also studied Native American religions, Aboriginal Australian religion, indigenous African religion, traditional Chinese religion and it’s connections to confucianism/Taoism/Buddhism, pagan Slavic religions, as well as pre-historic religion (animism and shamanism).

After studying all these faiths fairly extensively over the past decade, it makes me stronger and confirms my own Catholic Christian identity, as well as showing me how universal religiousity is, which to me is a proof of a God existing. What’s more likely: every single human civilization ever has believed in gods and supernatural things - option A: were they all groping at what we Catholics believe and know to exist, God and His Kingdom, or option B: were they all grasping at air, essentially the entire human race has been on a fools errand from the beginning of history - if thats the case, instead of calling ourselves homo sapiens, we should be called homo ignorami.
 
Last edited:
Joe1 said:
40.png
Spyridon:
How secure and knowledgeable are you of your own faith?
Click to expand...
Pretty secure. I’m just asking because I’ve heard that some students who take the course end up converting to those religions…
Click to expand...
World religions is a good requirement. There is nothing wrong with knowing the other belief systems of the world, in fact, I would rather my children learn about other religions when they are still young and at home than off in college or beyond.

I think you need to ignore the gossip about some students converting to other religions. I’ve done science labs. Some students hear about how X chemical has Y reaction when you do Z. They hear and KNOW it’s a stupid idea. And then they do it.

Whhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy???

Sometimes people do stupid things. It is not good to isolate ourselves from neutral situations where people do stupid things.
 
Code: 
First let me champion your maturity and forthcomingness! What a great question.
I do not believe there is a simple “yes or no” answer to this. The importance is you nourtering
your beliefs and faith and we should recognize that your Catholic School has their Student’s best interest at heart. Only you can decide your likability and level of comfort if any regarding other outside faiths.
Personally, I always demonstrate class and common courtesy in social settings where other faiths come into play but I do not allow myself to be swayed or get interpersonal with the topics. When I was a student of Catholic School my academics were for Middle School and did not include these teachings. I do have a friend that has adopted a Christian different religion and I admit the lack of commonalities and beliefs do bother me at times but I "agree to disagree’’ and keep our relationship simple although challenging at times. As you grow older you will learn how to navigate your comfort level and level of diversity.
I do not think there is a right or wrong to what you conclude, just stick with your inner voice and conscience. I hope this helps!
 
In general I think it’s good to understand other faiths. In your circumstances, if you’re confident in your understanding of our Faith and secure In your spiritual life I shouldn’t worry. You may even be help peers who get confused and see a different tradition as more attractive.
 
I think learning about other religions is important as for many people it is one of the biggest ways that shape how they see and interact with others. However I think investing a lot of time learning about other religions to the detriment of your own can get you lost along the way.
 
There’s no harm in it. If you’re going to make a case for Christianity, and specifically Catholicism, it’s good to understand other faiths.
 
Of course. I took a world religions class last semester. We didn’t really get to go into what they teach (it mostly just introduced us to the founders of the religion and how it influenced their countries), and I believe my professor had an anti-Christian bias, but it’s a good experience if you have a good teacher.

If you’re going to make a case for Catholicism, I think you need to have a basic understanding of other faiths. You don’t necessarily need to know as much about Buddhism as you do for your own faith, but you should know what they teach.
 
Joe1 said:
As a grade 11 student. The Catholic School I go to requires taking grade 11 world religions. so I’m curious, do you think learning about other religions is a good thing?
Click to expand...
Only when we are learning and know our own religion.

I don’t believe there is anything wrong with learning about other religions, but there is a huge problem when people don’t know their own religion, as is the case when it comes to a lot of Catholic Schools, and then teaching other religions.

Another problem when they teach this stuff in Schools, is that it has to all be PC (Politically Correct) so only neutral stuff is given, the bad stuff in Sharia is not touched, or the bad stuff in Pagan Aboriginal Spirituality is not touched, and the good stuff in Catholicism is not touched, because anything of note is always controversial.

Religious education has become an absolute joke in Schools, and the fact that when I went to a Catholic School, not only was the Catholic education very poor, to the point that if it were up to that education I would not be Catholic, but that in the most formative years near the end of High School, they didn’t even touch on Catholicism, but instead we learned neutral stuff about Islam.

Catholic Schools should have a dedicated course on Catholicism which is just as important as English, Math’s, Science etc. Unfortunately Music theory gets more attention in a Catholic School these days.

And what takes the cake for me in my so called ‘Catholic education’ in a Catholic School, is when we learned about what a hero Martin Luther was against the corrupt Catholic Church, lol, If only I knew back then what I know now.

I hope this has helped

God Bless You

Thank you for reading.
 
Last edited:
Knowing about other religions is good in a general sense. Besides not covering the bad things in other religions there is also a danger of emphasizing the commonality while ignoring the differences. Catholicism really is very unique. There is a tendency to make all religion sound the same which undermines the Catholic Faith. The Catholic Faith is based on the direct revelation of God incarnate. Other religions aren’t.
 
josh987654321 said:
Another problem when they teach this stuff in Schools, is that it has to all be PC (Politically Correct) so only neutral stuff is given, the bad stuff in Sharia is not touched, or the bad stuff in Pagan Aboriginal Spirituality is not touched, and the good stuff in Catholicism is not touched, because anything of note is always controversial. (although there is one small exception to this rule, as it seems to be neutral and PC on every other religion except Christianity, which they are free to attack as society does)
Click to expand...
That is sad as it can be such a subtle manipulation that for children/teenagers they are not able to recognize it. I do think for classes about other religions to be beneficial it needs to be well rounded instead of doing it in the light of look how enlightened this is as compared to Christianity.
 
I think it’s a good thing. I can’t remember if we had a World Religions course or if I just bought a social studies book about them at the school rummage sale, but I do remember learning the basics of several of them. When I was a teenager I was also really into a recording artist who wrote a lot of songs about Buddhism, plus there was Seals and Crofts who were Bahai, Cat Stevens who became a Muslim for a long time, and George Harrison with all the Hare Krishna songs, and of course about 500 fiction books, movies, and TV miniseries about Jewish families, so I picked a lot of stuff up without even having to study.

Never had any desire to be anything other than Catholic, though I didn’t think the general principles of these other religions (live a good moral life, exercise self-control, give to the poor etc.) were particularly at odds with Catholicism.
 
Last edited:
josh987654321 said:
Religious education has become an absolute joke in Schools, and the fact that when I went to a Catholic School, not only was the Catholic education very poor, to the point that if it were up to that education I would not be Catholic, but that in the most formative years near the end of High School, they didn’t even touch on Catholicism, but instead we learned neutral stuff about Islam.

Catholic Schools should have a dedicated course on Catholicism which is just as important as English, Math’s, Science etc. Unfortunately Music theory gets more attention in a Catholic School these days.

And what takes the cake for me in my so called ‘Catholic education’ in a Catholic School, is when we learned about what a hero Martin Luther was against the corrupt Catholic Church, lol, If only I knew back then what I know now.
Click to expand...
I absolutely agree! In Catholic schools we learn hardly anything that is necessary for the Catholic faith! It’s bad, to the point where they don’t teach that God is Triune. I told my friend God is three divine persons but are all one and she had no idea as to what I was saying!
 
Yes I agree. Being secure in your own faith really helps while learning though. PAX
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top