Foonicate

Using religion as an excuse

July 17, 2007 – 9:03 pm

I just finished the last general studies course I needed for my undergraduate degree, World Literature. In this class, we were assigned reading each week which we were required to discuss (answer questions) on a discussion board. Given that the class was online, each student could read and respond to other student’s responses. The class was rather easy; we were to apply the techniques learned in our earlier English courses to discuss and dissect ancient literature.

Most of the students in the class kept to the assigned curriculum. Quite a few of the pieces assigned were religious pieces, spanning from ancient Indian writings, to ancient Egyptian poetry, to excerpts from the Bible. When asked to note parallels between non-Christian literature and the Bible, things got a bit hairy.

It seems that some students continuously get away with stating that a piece of ancient literature is incorrect because it doesn’t adhere to their Christian Bible. For instance, one of our assignments was to remark on the close parallels in the wording, thought, and sequence of ideas between Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Sun and Psalm 104. Most of the students were able find the very, very similar aspects between the two pieces. Yet, because Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Sun was written to the Egyptian sun god, and not the Christian god, some students felt compelled to answer things akin to this:

“I agree with some of the wordings, some of the thoughts, and some of the sequences of ideas, but I disagree with some of the passages, especially in paragraph 11 of Akhenaten’s hymn…”

Paragraph 11 reads:

“You make Hapy, the Nile, stream through the underworld,
and bring him, with whatever fullness you will,

To preserve and nourish the People
in the same skilled way you fashion them.

You are Lord of each one,
who wearies himself in their service,

Yet Lord of all earth, who shines for them all,
Sun-disk of day, Great Lightener!

All of the far foreign countries –
you are the cause they live.

For you have put a Nile in the sky
that he might descent upon them in the rain –

He makes waves on the very mountains
like waves on the Great Green Sea
to water their fields and their villages.”

Obviously, the issue here was when the sun god was referred to as “Lord”.

And the ‘critique’ continues with:
“The poem doesn’t help understand the Bible, but my personal preference is Psalm 104 because of my personal beliefs.”

…because the question was, “which one did you prefer?” Right? Wrong.

This is just one example of people using their religion as a “cop-out” for class assignments. I don’t understand how students can pass classes like this when they defend everything they do with their religion. So, you have strong beliefs. Does this mean that you cannot compare a piece of literature to your Bible? Does this mean that instead of even bothering to compare them you can state “I don’t believe this” and expect to make an A?

Unfortunately, yes. Teachers are too afraid to mark down a student who uses the “it’s my religion” defense. So, they keep passing the students that should fail. And students like myself have to repeatedly deal with their small-minded responses that contaminate our school system. Its pathetic that teachers let students get away with this and even more pathetic that these people go through life believing that, regardless of circumstance, their religion will give them a “get out of jail” free card when they don’t feel like contributing their share. If I have to take the time to form an non-bias, analytical response to a question, so should you. It doesn’t matter what religion you are. This is school, not bible study. Get over yourself.