Almost every person speculates into politics of their country. People tend to think that they have the answer for everything, or that if they were in a position of power they could make improvements. My question is, what would you do? If you had the chance to change how your country works, what would you do? I am curious as to what would be changed.
What I would change, here in America, is the fact that public schools can get away with filling their courses with religious dogma and material. I am all for freedom of religion, but I don't think that students should be subjected to the personal views of their teacher. I understand that any text book or reading material is passed by a board of members that dictate that kind of stuff, but either they are the problem or just don't care. When I attended high school, all of my English classes had text books or other books that were undeniably Christian. I would change this because I feel that exposing a student, of any age or grade, to religious materials influences their opinion on religion and they have no control over it. Believe me, I was one of the people that bitched to the teachers and eventually the principals about the material. But that is what I would change, getting rid of religious dogma in schools.
How about you?
This isn't a debate. It's more of a discussion. This should go in General Discussion or Fast Threads instead.
~x$$$LeGaLiZe wEeD 420!!!$$$x~
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("This is NOT how to debate" - Craptasket))[/highlight]
Cut a lot out of the military budget and dump it into space or fixing the national debt.
[QUOTE=TheWhiteCrow;34268876]
What I would change, here in America, is the fact that public schools can get away with filling their courses with religious dogma and material. I am all for freedom of religion, but I don't think that students should be subjected to the personal views of their teacher. I understand that any text book or reading material is passed by a board of members that dictate that kind of stuff, but either they are the problem or just don't care. When I attended high school, all of my English classes had text books or other books that were undeniably Christian. I would change this because I feel that exposing a student, of any age or grade, to religious materials influences their opinion on religion and they have no control over it. Believe me, I was one of the people that bitched to the teachers and eventually the principals about the material. But that is what I would change, getting rid of religious dogma in schools.
How about you?[/QUOTE]
where do you go to school? None of my textbooks have any thing religious in them, and some of my teachers are openly atheist.
[QUOTE=TheWhiteCrow;34268876]I understand that any text book or reading material is passed by a board of members that dictate that kind of stuff, but either they are the problem or just don't care. When I attended high school, all of my English classes had text books or other books that were undeniably Christian.[/QUOTE]
If I could slightly digress from the topic for one moment to add to this subject here. Now, I'm not really sure about religious material in textbooks, but there is a real big problem with them that needs to be addressed. There's a lot of textbooks that have information outdated since the late 19th century due to textbook cloning (basically plagiarizing previous textbooks on the same information)?
For example, the myth that Christopher Columbus attempted to sail around the world across the Atlantic in order to prove the world was a sphere is still being taught through textbooks. In case you were taught that, the fact is that most people in Columbus's age did know that the world was a sphere, and it's been more-less that way since a certain Greek mathematician actually proved that the world was a sphere (and calculating the circumference of it accurate within a few hundred miles to boot). Columbus was repeatedly denied support for his journey not because they believed the Earth was flat, but because his calculations were grossly inaccurate (with him putting India at about where Florida is). The only reason the Spanish gave him any support at all was because they were desperate to find a trade route to India since the Portugese had already found a way to it around the southern tip of Africa.
The only reason that the myth even came around was because of bad scholarship by William Whewell, who cited two completely unknown people in his research that both said the Earth was flat (and one of them was a complete loon, if I remember correctly). This research somehow found its way onto a textbook, and was simply copied ever since.
I honestly believe that the American government needs to put some regulation on textbooks, forcing them to renew and refresh their information every decade or so, because this is by no means the only example of how grossly inaccurate some of the information in textbooks are.
i would make it so schools shouldnt teach science either
if youre looking at the religious spectrum, science is the opposite of religion. if you want to approach the subject with a true open mind and teach kids right, teach science with the delicacy of religion because for all intensive purposes it is one.
[QUOTE=A big fat ass;34268957]~x$$$LeGaLiZe wEeD 420!!!$$$x~[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Dachande;34269031]i would make it so schools shouldnt teach science either
if youre looking at the religious spectrum, science is the opposite of religion. if you want to approach the subject with a true open mind and teach kids right, teach science with the delicacy of religion because for all intensive purposes it is one.[/QUOTE]
no, science is nothing like religion. Science is reason being used to explain the world. If we don't teach science, we might as well not teach logical thinking. Or math. And without that, we might as well cancel school.
[QUOTE=Dachande;34269031]imho schools shouldnt teach science either
if youre looking at the religious spectrum, science is the opposite of religion. if you want to approach the subject with a true open mind and teach kids right, teach science with the delicacy of religion because for all intensive purposes it is one.[/QUOTE]
That's an incredibly childish way to go about this. This isn't about what's right and wrong, it's about data. We have gratuitous amounts of hard evidence for science, and very little for religion. It's [I]extremely[/I] difficult to treat them equally from either side. It's incredibly easy to disprove that the Earth is only a couple thousand years old.
That being said, there are people who believe in a higher power, but still believe in science because it is [I]fact.[/I] One of the bases for science is that it is a fact. There is theoretical science, but any theory must be proven and accepted by thousands of people before it is true science. It is impossible to treat science and a religion equally and with an open mind without being contradicting.
As for the U.S. here would be my ideal changes:
1. Return tax rates to the levels of the 70s and close existing tax loopholes
2. Publicly finance all political campaigns, strictly regulate private donations
3. Get rid of the FPTP electoral system for Congress and state legislatures, replace it with proportional representation and a unicameral legislative body
4. Introduce single-payer universal healthcare
5. Legalize and protect same-sex marriage
6. Legalize and regulate/tax marijuana, the same way as tobacco and alcohol
7. Raise federal minimum wage to around $10 to account for inflation
8. Cut back on needless military R&D projects, cut down on overseas troop deployments and draw down in Afghanistan
That's all the big things I can think of right now.
[QUOTE=A big fat ass;34269151]That's an incredibly childish way to go about this. This isn't about what's right and wrong, it's about data. We have gratuitous amounts of hard evidence for science, and very little for religion. It's [I]extremely[/I] difficult to treat them equally from either side. It's incredibly easy to disprove that the Earth is only a couple thousand years old.
That being said, there are people who believe in a higher power, but still believe in science because it is [I]fact.[/I] One of the bases for science is that it is a fact. There is theoretical science, but any theory must be proven and accepted by thousands of people before it is true science. It is impossible to treat science and a religion equally and with an open mind without being contradicting.[/QUOTE]
exactly. I know religious people who believe in evolution, global warming, the whole shebang. From their point of view, god created the laws of science. Only irrational people reject science.
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