Is teaching religion in public schools morally wrong?
It probably depends on what you have in mind as "teaching religion". You might have in mind teaching comparative religions or the study of a particular religion as a cultural and/or historical phenomenon. If so, then I don't see why teaching religion, in this sense, is or need be wrong, at least if it is offered as an elective, rather than a requirement. However, you might mean teaching religion as involving representing theistic claims as true and/or advocating some religious doctrines, rather than others. It seems to me that this is probably wrong in multiple ways. First, it is legally wrong because it violates the anti-establishment clause of the First Amendment, requiring a separation of church and state. But there seem to be good moral reasons for this constitutional guarantee, so it seems likely to be morally wrong as well. Whether to believe religious claims at all and, if so, which ones seem to be matters of conscience and are subject to persistent, intractable debate that is...
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