Way off topic (was: Re: Educational reform)

[Matt Hicks <matt -at- UNIDATA -dot- UCAR -dot- EDU>]

On Wed, 17 Aug 1994 mpriestley -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM wrote:

> As for culture: we covered Indian and Egyptian mythology pretty well in grade
> school.  I remember a course in world religions touching on Buddhism,
> the Khoran, and the Bible.

Just curious. Why are the Indian and Egyptian (ancient Egyptian, I assume)
beliefs "mythologies" and Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity religions?
Personally, I think they are all religions based on mythologies. Perhaps you
only studied the practices of worship in Islam, Buddhism and Christianity and
ignored the myths? And you didn't study any Indian or Egyptian practices of
worship? I don't think the fact that everyone who worshipped Ra is dead
does anything to invalidate the religion built up around him.

I just thought the bias was interesting--subtle, but interesting. (It's
also interesting that a course in world religions would include Buddhism
but not Judaism. Or was that just an oversight or forgetfulness on the
writer's part?)

My seventh-grade English teacher once called me "a nonpracticing
agnostic". I've never been quite sure what she meant by that. :-)

And since there's ALWAYS someone who hasn't heard it (even though it's
older than Baal):

        Q: What do you get when you cross a dyslexic person, an insomniac,
                and an agnostic?
        A: Someone who lays awake all night wondering if there really is a
                dog.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled "humorous business names"
thread, already in progress.

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Matt Hicks, Tech. Writer, Unidata * "Your brain is in my refrigerated
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