What we really need to protect Ferndale’s students from is the brainwashing they receive from their parents and pastors like Tyrel Bramwell. There should be a mandatory class in all schools that would be a critical thinking class that is laser focused on religion.

I am willing to bet that most, if not all of the people attending Bramwell’s church did not go out in their adult years and select their religion by doing some comparison shopping as you would if you were buying a car, or a vacuum cleaner.

They didn’t spend a few weeks at a Jewish synagogue to see how it compared to the teachings of the Islamic mosque on the other side of town. They didn’t study Buddhism, creating a list of pluses and minuses to see how it stacked up against the benefits of Hinduism.

It’s far more likely they were indoctrinated in their early childhood years into whatever flavor of religion their parents were indoctrinated into in their childhood.

If they were courageous, they might have switched to a different flavor of Christianity, either because they got married and they lost the argument of who’s church they would attend, or they found a church that better met what they considered to be their own one true religion.

What you do see a lot of though is kids that were raised in one religion or another, and when they get older and out of the care of their parents, they start thinking for themselves. They find that not only did their religion not make any sense, but all religions were equally ridiculous. So they become agnostic or atheist.

It’s not unknown for someone not raised in religion to become religious later in life, but it’s rare. It’s a phenomenom I really don’t understand, because having escaped one of the sillier religiouns myself, I don’t see how I could force myself to believe again.

Even if God himself knocked on my door (rather than those pesky Mormons) I would have a ton of questions for him and he’d have to do a pretty fine job of answering them. Questions so mind boggling, I don’t think even God would be up to the task.

I’d start off with, “If you’re so perfect, why haven’t you been able to convince even a majority of the people on this planet which religion is the true religion?”

That’s the question that made me an atheist. It’s the kind of question we need schools to be asking our students. If they can come up with an answer to that question, then great, go on believing whatever drool your parents and pastors instilled in your head.

I’m pretty sure if they had to write a paper on that subject, Bramwell would have a fit. Because he sure doesn’t want the schools teaching students that god doesn’t exist. If they learned that, he’d have to go out and get a real job.