Reply #21: Yes you can if you get the Church's permission. [View All]

And that Darwin's books are relevant to the Church's mission in having a Sunday School. The point of this class is NOT to promote a Religion but to educate people in how the Bible has been used in out Society. We have to remember that what we call "Literature" and even "History Books" are a product of the Printing press and linen and pulp paper. Prior to the Invention of the Printing Press (and the introduction of linen paper about 1300) books were written to be read by readers in mass gatherings (Such as in Church, when the bible in Read in Church it is a surviving example of how MOST BOOKS were "read" prior to the invention of the Printing Press). Prue-Printing press Books were hand copied on parchment and thus expensive (Parchment is made from Animal skins, thus a book required the skins of Hundreds of Animals).

This all changed with the introduction of linen paper about 1300. Linen paper is a lot less expensive than parchment, through NOT throw away cheap like modern Pulp paper. Linen paper is generally made from old clothing, so the price of a book is like the price of a several new Suits. Linen is much cheaper than Parchment but but like a new set of clothes you just to NOT wear each piece of the set once and throw it away.

The significance of the adoption of Linen paper is that the hand printing press was invented right afterward (basically Linen paper made the printing of the book more expensive than the paper it was printed on, the reverse of the situation with Parchment). With linen paper books could be made affordable to the growing Middle Class of the time period (Still to expensive for the Majority of people who continued to get their news, literature and history by oral traditions via their church). During the Reformation this made Bibles and messages to the Church hierarchy easier to do, but it was still rare for people to have books at this time period.

Now in the late 1600s you had the invention of the Steam Printing Press, this mechanized press permitting the printing of vast numbers of books and pamphlets (Through not what we would call Newspaper and Almanacs, these were printed to be in circulation for MONTHS if not YEARS after they were printed). This is when you start to get Newspapers, Almanacs, and Literature for the price of the Printed word dropped enough for people to buy it for year to year use instead of a once in a lifetime purchase it had been previously. By the late 1700s these presses had become large enough that people would buy thing to read on a month to month basis (and thus the raise of pamphlets in the late 1700s). Even these were expensive and it was rare for people to buy these things except once or twice a month or it was something important like Thomas Paine "Common Sense" (and thus the start of what we would call Magazines, which were purchased and then passed around for months afterwords among readers).

Finally about 1850 you had the invention of cheap pulp paper and high speed printing presses that permitted what we would call weekly and as you get closer to 1900 daily newspaper. Pulp paper is so cheap people can read it once and throw it away. Pulp paper ended the hold of the Church over society for with pulp paper you could bypass the news information system of the Church for the first time in history (and this is the reason the power of the church has declined since that time period)

When it comes to the Bible, it was the First book Gutenberg Printed for he knew he could sell it. People wanted Bibles for use throughout their lives and thus were willing to buy a bible if they could read AND they could afford even one book. This was the majority of People prior to about 1850. Thus if you wanted to make a historical allegory or a point based on history you had to use the bible as an allegory. People owned and read the bible BUT not the books written prior to about 1700 (and since a large segment of the population prior to about 1850 could not read or write the only book they EVER heard from was in Church or some other public reader).

Now with the invention of the Steam Printing press the price of books DROPPED so that the upper Middle class could buy more and more books (And this continued till the invention of Radio in 1920). People started to write books for this group and thus you had the invention of modern Literature and History about 1700. Earlier books were re-printed during this time period but it is only with the 1700s that you get what we would now call "Fiction" and "Non-Fiction".

Most books prior to about 1700 were still wrote to be read by Readers NOT read by the person reading by him or herself (Exceptions occurred for example Machiavelli "The Prince" which was intended for one person through published and wildly read, but even "The Prince" uses Moses from the Bible as one of his many examples). Now Literature was meant to entertain not enlighten but like most great things, Literature was built on the existing social structure and that Social Structure included the Bible. Allegories to stories of the Bible show up in Literature starting almost immediately and continues to this day (Through you see less and less of it after about 1900, through that may be just based on the increase number of fiction and non-fiction books that exist that people can make allegories to).

The problem is a lot of good literature and history occurred prior to 1900 and to fully understand it a good background in the bible is essential. For example Why does the First Amendment NOT say Separation of Church and State? The answer is in 1787 such a division was not yet possible. The most efficient way to get information to people was via the Churches, and thus Churches were used till replaced as the more efficient way to spread news by modern Newspapers in the late 1800s. Thus the Amendment forbids the establishment of a Federal Religion but permits the use of such Church's as ways to spread news from the Government (The Amendment also permits Freedom of Religion but that does NOT prevent the Federal Government to use Churches to spread information).

One aspect of American History is the division between Protestant and Catholics on the issue of Faith and Works. To understand the dispute you have to read the bible. Why do Protestant point out Christ says religious leaders should NOT be called "Father" while Catholic Priests are called called "Father"? Reading of the Bible Beyond that text points out Christ was attacking people who INSISTED on being called "Father" as their right NOT being called "Father" as a sign of respect. Sounds like a minor dispute but to understand its use during the Reformation (and to understand the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation must be understood).

From my reading of the few passages of the textbook on line, the Text Book attempts to address the issue of both the use of the Bible in History, its affect on History and its affect on Literature.

Nature abhors a Vacuum and the Public Schools avoidance of the Bible had left a Vacuum filled in by various right wing hacks who used parts of it to further their agenda. Given this Vacuum, it has to be filled this Text book is an attempt to fill that Vacuum. Such Right Wing Hacks flourish in the US for unlike European Countries we do NOT teach religion in our Public School (Most European Schools do teach Religion, at least on a historical basis for it helps them understand their own history, through these Classes are much like this text-books as opposed to an actual indoctrination of Religion). France is the European Country with the greatest Separation of Church and State and even France teaches some religion in their Schools (Through since 1905 you have had a complete separation of Church and State in France and the teaching of Religion is more Historical in nature than ideological in nature).

My point is some understanding of the Bible is needed by most people. Understanding the Bible is like understanding Darwin's Theory of Evolution (you have to understand it to understand modern biology), or understanding Adam Smith "Wealth of nations" (to understand Economics) or Karl Marx "On Capital" (The connection of Economics and History) to understand our Society and History you have to understand the Bible (even Karl Marx read it to better understand the affect of Religion on people).

Thus if you can connect Darwin's Book with the Church's teachings I do NOT see any church denying you the opportunity to teach Darwin's theory in their Sunday School Class. The text-book in question is an attempt to help people understand the Bible in relations to the rest of our Society. Understanding our society is part of the Mission of the Public School and thus understanding the Bible in that context is part of the Mission of the Public School.