Students and Religion

I have a student who is an atheist in one of my courses. I know this because he shared it publicly, in case people start worrying that I spy on students.

In this geographic region, it’s easier to spot a pink elephant than an atheist student, so I’m glad to have him in the course.

Most of my students claim to be very passionately Christian but I find that their knowledge of their own religion is pretty non-existent. I have to explain the most basic things. Forget the arcane (to them) things like, for example, the existence of the Orthodox Christianity. Or the Inquisition that they don’t connect to Christianity in any way. During the last lecture I had to talk about the crucifixion of Christ. The question I was asked was, “But what do the Jews have to do with any of it?” (This was in response to the discussion of how Isidore of Seville said the Jews were to blame for rejecting Christ.)

I had to explain who Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas were. It felt bizarre.