i’m getting tired of the “what?’s”
“what? you mean people really are born with a temptation towards homosexuality? really?”
“what? you mean there’s problems with theories about a young earth? you mean there’s evidence that evolution is true? really? like what?”
indoctrination is dumb. what part of christianity or conservatism is so weak where you have to discourage and silence free and independent thought? it’s NOT weak. it holds its own voice in the open forum.
so why do christian conservative parents (everywhere, not just the parents of the three or four reading this blog) feel it’s necessary to indoctrinate? one of the points (and the main weakness, i think) of homeschooling seems to be to discourage open-mindedness and an open forum. no discussion. no different views. homeschoolers buy the shallow propaganda from the white christian homeschoolers magazine that never talks about the civil rights movement. that never mentions that other people might have different opinions, or it can’t say anything about them without slandering them. that never could read any books that might say anything against christianity. that hopelessly heroize our founding fathers. cannot talk about evolution without demonizing crazy evolutionists. cannot talk about how there’s passages in our bible that were not in the original text.
those pagans out there aren’t crazy, folks.
if people believe in mormonism, if people are listening to hip-hop or screamo, if people are watching “lost,” if people are voting for democrats, if people lead homosexual lifestyles, if people are atheists, if people are smoking marijuana, if people believe the bible is not the inspired word of god, if people are promiscuous, if people believe abortion should be legal, if people believe that santa claus isn’t real, they aren’t crazy. they’re ordinary joes like you and me. they don’t just start foaming at the mouth. they have very very good reasons for what they do, they are as convinced as your or i. they eat mini-wheats for breakfast and they tell funny jokes, and they hate people who tailgate, they celebrate christmas, they love their family, they grumble about taxes, and you see them every day.
yes, i do understand that there is indoctrination at schools, it’s true. but that’s no reason to answer it with indoctrination. if your beliefs are weak, there’s no amount of lies and propaganda that will keep them standing up. in fact, lies and propaganda will only make it harder when you say goodbye to your fake plastic world and hit reality. step out of the fake and the categorization of everything into good versus evil. it isn’t as clear cut as you’re making it. the truth. use the truth. the truth will set you free.
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I think that isn't entirely acurate. I mean, we use the A Beka program and it certianly is very biased, saying this person was saved, and it wasn't that terrible . . . etc. etc. but we talk about it with mom. We all know there is more than one opinion about most things.
That sounded weird, of course their is more than one oppinion.
that's great!
i'm sure you have great guidance from parents.
i guess i was kinda being general about what experiences i've had with homeschoolers as a whole. of course there's exceptions.
i had an a beka health book that was atrociously biased. but that was only one book, i'm sure there's different views and everything.
i just look at these catalogues homeschoolers buy from and i just shake my head and wonder what people are thinking.
Okay Sorry but my annoyance alarm just dinged. There is nothing wrong with having a bias. Every single person on earth has a bias. That word has a generally negative connotation but I can have a bias towards dogs rather than cats. People don't just have biases against things they have biases for things and that is what makes us human. The fact that everyone has a different opinion is what separates us from the animals (if you'll excuse the cliche).
I do agree with you about the indoctrination of homeschooling. Homeschool is a very sheltered lifestyle and that's a good thing to grow up in as a young child. However it's the people who have been under that shield through highschool and right up until college that are the problem. The only way to truly be able to defend your beliefs is to hear both sides of the story directly from the sources. You can read hundred's of Christian books about how to refute mormonism or Jehovah's witnesses but until you talk to one face to face and hear exactly what they have to say, you are entirely ill prepared to defend your own beliefs.
It drives me off the wall with people whose parents are so conservative and so close minded that they refuse to let there older children be exposed to the world. I hate to break it to them but one of these days their kids will go into the world and they will drown in it if you don't expose them gradually. It's like any immunization you get is a mild form of the deadly pathogen. That dose it was ultimately saves you.
Anywho... that's my two cents. I would however advise everyone reading this to really question the opinions and ideas expressed in this forum because if you don't, it's just another form of indoctrination. Question everything.
well i think you're right that everyone has a bias, i disagree that everyone should have a bias. at least in a perfect world.
i like open places where everyone can give their own opinion unimpeded (like college or newspapers).
not propaganda grounds where there are "bad opinions" that should be silenced and excluded. think: 1984.
and about your last paragraph: word. of course-it's a forum. disagree with me, disagree with everything. rip it apart, please, be my guest.
"You can read hundred's of Christian books about how to refute mormonism or Jehovah's witnesses but until you talk to one face to face and hear exactly what they have to say, you are entirely ill prepared to defend your own beliefs"
that's so true. definitely.
hum. your right, this was totaly not a tear jerking post.
I remembered it differently when we were talking. lol. oh well. like you said one time, the benefit of old friends is that you can afford to be stupid with them. :-)
I think that if we can't stay strong in our faith without a bias, we have no grounds to beleive it. At the same time, one of the things that gives me assurance of my salvation is the unexplainable faith that just KNOWS God is real and working in me, even if I can't explain it rationaly. So blind faith, yes, but bias... i don't like the word.
ok, my turn to disagree! ok, and agree too. Sam, I think you kind of contradicted youself. maybe I just read it wrong (I do that a lot), but it seemed to me that you were saying that in a perfect world there would be no biases, but then you said you liked a place where people could state their biases how they wanted to and be as biased as they wanted. please correct me if I got that wrong. maybe it's just for our imperfect world, since a perfect world is impossibe. I really think I just saw that wrong.
well, I guess it's not good to be biased. that's my opinion, since the bible tells us not to judge anything or anyone. Sam, you're right, Christianity can stand on its own two feet without a bunch of conservative mother hens protecting it like a new-born chick. But I also agree with ryan, it's good for children to be raised in a christian-sheltered/biased environment, since other adults can sway them so easily by bombarding them with a bunch of (for example) evolutionistic doctrine that they don't yet know how to combat. (sorry if those words make anyone cringe, they make me cringe, but I think they're the most relatable for this topic) However, as we get older and develop our own ideas and relationship with God and listen to what He says, we sould be questioning everything we've been taught to believe. I know I have, and I know another thing - Christianity has always stood straight and tall, and God has never once let me down.
And another thing is that we should read the books and stuff about refuting other beliefs, because if we don't read what they're about it's a lot harder to witness to them, if we don't know how they think, without lots of misunderstandings. of course, actually talking with them and DOING it is way more important, I agree with that too. and some books are way too defensive, and not at all offensive, in which case it only takes a different religion with their own good defense and better offence to tear down the walls that a "sheltered" lifestyle has created.
There is such a thing as too sheltered. but there is also such a thing as not enough shelter. Our parents are appointed to protect us, and I can't speak for anyone else, but my parents have done a great job at training me both to defend my religion and to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of others (good offence and defense), and have given me the freedom I've asked for when I've needed it. I count myself very fortunate for the shelter I had when I was younger, and the freedom I have now. plus, I know how to defend my religion without being ignorant of other religions. it's important to defend our religion, even if it can do that itself, because it shows that we (as Christians) are strong, we are Christ's warriors. How would a king look if he had great defensive walls but no loyal soldiers, only a few cowering guards? God is our King and we should be His loyal soldiers, even if the walls of the castle of Christianity are strong enough by themselves. God asks for our hearts, and our loyalty to Him.
it's dumb though, to keep children ignorant of the other opinions in the world. but the only reason we should know about them is so we can effectively combat them, and present Christianity as the truth.
my two-cents, ha-ha. and I do agree that lots of homeschoolers are ignorant. I guess that's what set my annoyance alarm off: the difference between a necessary shelter and un-necessary ignorance.
yes, that's what i'm saying, lol, it's confusing. since we're such fallen, lost, not-all-knowing creatures, there's no such thing as "free of bias."
so--we need to acknowledge that some things are only opinions and that it is controversial-not fact. it's grey area-not black and white.
darn it - hate those gray areas. they're all so...confusing...
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