Religion vs. Learning
Okay, Greg. Let’s try to get through this post without saying something offensive…
According to a survey by The Princeton Review that asked 110,000 students at 361 top colleges to rate their schools and report on their campus experiences, Reed College (Portland OR) has the best academics. It also has the least religious students.
Now I could say something mean about religion that uses the words “myth” or “superstition”, but I think there’s probably something else going on here. For one, college is the last place where I’d expect people to be religious. When you’re young and breaking out on your own for the first time, why the hell would you want to go to the place your parents dragged you every Sunday morning. Then again, I’m the one making the leap that the study’s definition of “religious” includes going to church. Perhaps the study missed a lot of people who believe in god and occasionally pray, but don’t feel comfortable being lumped in with zealots who have hijacked religion. (Do I even need to bother naming names?) Maybe asking students isn’t the best way to determine which school has the “best academics”. Or maybe the study is evidence that a religious lifestyle and academic pursuits are incompatible. Who knows?
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When I visited Reed as a potential student in 2000, the college bookstore had a sweat shirt for sale with an authentic looking college seal, circled by the words “Atheism, Communism, Free Love”
I just checked, and according to Wikipedia, its an “unoffical motto.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_College
Comment by Clint — August 23, 2005 @ 10:14 am
From what I have gathered by my own experiences and stories told to me by people who attended college in very Christian areas that real academics are shoved aside to make way for learning more about the bible.
Comment by Kryten Syxx — August 23, 2005 @ 10:42 am
The more a particular religion leans toward fundamentalism, the less tolerant it is of independent thinking, even actively discouraging it. Hence the persistent belief in the Adan and Eve myth. The perfect male student at ORU and Bob Jones University lets someone else do his thinking for him. The perfect female student is graciously submissive. That’s how you prove what a good Christian you are.
Comment by Becky — August 23, 2005 @ 11:42 am
Quite intresting article posting.I enjoyed reading this.
Paul
Comment by Paul — August 24, 2005 @ 9:38 pm
I would like every practicing christian to partake of a little test that should put their religion christianity in perspective. Over the next year I want you to look in the eyes and watch the manerisms of every priest, minister and religious proponent as they spew their religion. Look at their spouses and study them. Look at their kids. Listen to the message coming from their mouths. Turn on TBN and watch Paul and Jan Crouch, Bennie Hinn and the other preachers.
Would you want to be like them. Would you be comfortable in their shoes. Could they fit comfortably into your circle of friends.
If you have any sense of objectivity or half a brain you have got to come to the conclusion that these people are stark raving mad. These people are nuts and the sheep that follow them are equally nuts. What is wrong with America that so many people can buy into this BULLSHIT.
America has become the laughing stock of the civilized world. When are we going to cast aside all the superstition and fear associated with organized religion. When are we going to stop practicing religion and start practicing our humanity.
Comment by Roger — August 25, 2005 @ 12:47 am
I think this survey just measured how self-satisfied Reed students are. Very.
Comment by Joe — August 27, 2005 @ 12:36 am
Let’s not forget Reed’s reputation as a drug fest. Even at Lewis & Clark (Portland’s other major private liberal arts school), where pot was more popular than Jesus, we knew that Reed was the druggie campus in town. We’re talking mountains of coke, forests of pot, and (metaphor for sizeable amounts here) of shrooms.
Comment by Alan Mitchell — August 28, 2005 @ 3:28 pm