Reply #172: As an athiest in the field of religious studies

[greekspeak]

I find your comment off base: "If relgion is to be taught it should be by someone without an anti religious aggenda." One thing we are taught in religious studies is that EVERYONE has an agenda. The agenda's centrality to a person's presentation of material may vary, but that does not exclude the agenda. By your reckoning, I should be flailing my arms wildly screaming about professors with Christian agendas. I went to a public university, yet without fail, all my professors were Christian. Now, they all did a good job of being objective, but all of them had a Christian agenda to at least some extent. What agenda do you think professors should have? I am dying to hear, because all professors have one.

Another idea I have learned as a student of religion is that all viewpoints are valid. No matter how much you dislike them, you have to investigate all viewpoints to end up with a well-rounded study. I myself have been suprised on more than one occassion to find myself in the same camp with evangelicals and fundimentalists on an issue. Lest I get flamed, let me assure you that my studies are mostly textual and historical in nature, not theological and modern.

My point is, simply, that agendas-our "baggage"-is not just put down outside of a classroom.