*Dan Dennett: response to Rick Warren

Dan Dennett responds to Rick Warren on religion.



In the beginning of this talk, Dennet makes a proposal. I'm not necessarily against Dennett's public policy proposal: to educate students about the "facts" of world religions. The facts about their history, myths, creed, music, rituals, etc. etc.

My concern is if this is actually feasible. I think this is problematic not in the spirit of informing persons for the sake of religious freedom, religious understanding, and the promotion of democracy. I agree with this sentiment. But what I find problematic is with the term "facts" and the problems associated with teaching certain religions as they are or as they have been proscribed to be. This presents methodological issues and the extent to which one teaches a "religion." Christianity is not just one religion. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, are not singular forms of religion. Each one of these terms have variations, sects, and cultural variations/adaptations/syncretisms of each. Catholicism in the U.S. is not the same as Catholicism in Brazil. We may even see the blurring of "religions" where one is more "cultural" and the other, for lack of a better word, "imported." One can take a semester long class on just one of these religions, an entire semester on Tibetan Buddhism alone. Not Buddhism in general, but one strand of Buddhism. So my question is: how would informing students from grade school and onwards actually execute itself? Is it feasible?