Colleges and the Atheist Mind

[manloveswomen]

I was talking about colleges, universites, etc, and I came to the conclusion that most "Christian" colleges don't teach evolution, then I remember about hearing about a friend of mine going to bible college. Well, I made stupid comments about how they aren't real colleges, and in my mind I believed they didn't teach nothing but the bible, then I realized an accredited university or college has to teach curriculum, I mean get real, yes they aren't good colleges for the most part, I don't consider Notre Dame that religious, just has some roots, its good. But my point is this, do atheists sometimes not think things through and write off a christian college as teaching nothing but the bible, when in fact, they are a college that does teach curriculum like other colleges, sure they teach religion and nonsense too, but it is a freaking college, or it wouldn't be called a college. You see?

 

[IAmJacksUserName]

You bring up a very good point. I plan on applying to a Quaker college next year, and I definitely would call it a "real college". Of course, statistically, there are as many Quakers as there are Jews there, but still. Christianity doesn't always equate to Bible-thumping.

 

[Belisarius]

It probably depends on the school. I know there's a prestigious Catholic college in town that has a ridiculously narrow "Philosophy" class, that teaches like, a single Christian theologian.

Investigate carefully...

 

[protovack]

It's a straw man argument. I doubt the average atheist thinks religious colleges ONLY teach the bible.

Unless you're talking about 12 year old atheists (or trolls).

 

[sushii]

I made similar assumptions about religious universities until I spent a year at a (Australian) catholic college. I studied psychology there and there was no mention of creationism, ever - evolution was either implied or advocated in many of our classes, and the validity of it was never questioned by our lecturers. Our first year was convened by an evolutionary psychologist and another professor who initially trained in biology, and they were both supportive of it and were clearly not required by the uni to teach students otherwise.

The only difference between it and the uni I attend now was that there were a greater proportion of students who clearly didn't agree with evolution; even then, this only amounted to a couple of people. I'm sure that in some religion subjects creationism would be endorsed in the same was that evolution was in mine, but fortunately the uni clearly didn't have an across the board policy of refuting evolutionary theory or pretending it doesn't exist in the subjects that rely on it.

I also took a couple of philosophy and religion classes (it was compulsorary to study one or the other in first year) and was thoroughly impressed by the breadth of material covered and the accepting was in which different ideas and value systems were approached. All in all it was a pretty good uni.