To be clear, fundamentalist Christianity has no issue with education, technology, or social change that doesn't disagree with their dogma. The line in the sand is whether you stick to the party line when it is challenged by "mere" human understanding. In the US today that means evolution, biogenesis, marriage equality for gays, and, particularly in the South, race equality -- amongst other things.
The irony is that some of these things have Biblical support ranging from a questionable modicum to none whatsoever. Even when it comes to taking the creation myth literally, there are plenty of Christians who long since reconciled it with evolution via a system called theistic evolution or by simply regarding the myth as metaphorical and symbolic. The Bible does not really unambiguously teach eternal perdition or otherizing of gays or other groups, either. Many of these things are interpretations that are actually quite a stretch.
I'm not making excuses for the Bible here; like all holy books, it's ambiguous and vague enough to serve as justification for practically anything. Such books are "timeless" precisely because each generation adapts their understanding of it to suit their own purposes. A hundred years ago, skirts shorter than ankle length and listening to the radio were "condemned" by the Bible; a hundred years from now it will be something else.
This sign highlights, more than anything, the failed epistemology of religious faith, and its powerlessness before the light of [inter]subjective facts, critical thinking and reason.
Leviticus 20:13
I maintain religion defeats itself, just not fast enough.
Good example of why right there.
If you go to most fundamentalist religious groups you are hard pressed to find anyone with an advanced degree unless it is in Religious Studies. lol Education and Faith are in direct opposition to each other, little wonder the religious don't 'science'.
Sick thinking on the part of this house of worship. Ignorance.
So they are pandering to the uneducated? Yikes! But then why would we expect anything other than that attitude because it is so much easier to deal with sheeple
It varies by sect. Jehovah's Witnesses for example are particularly notorious for openly discouraging their young from getting a higher education. I have spoken to former JWs who were children as far back as the 1970s and they deeply regret taking that advice. Then, as now, the JWs were saying, why bother, Jesus is coming any day now, it's a waste to prepare for a career you're not going to need because it's the End of Days.
Most are not that extreme. Fundamentalists routinely send their children to college for economic / career reasons, only to lose them to the faith, often after less than a year. Secular higher education is a shocking eye-opener for most of them.
They also have half-assed church-sponsored colleges but even those have to conform to state standards and teach science (including evolution) and just being exposed even to conflicted information about reality is usually enough to wake them up.
To try to counter all this, fundamentalism has been generating pseudo-intellectual blather known as "apologetics" since the 70s too, most notably, Josh McDowell's series of books beginning with Evidence That Demands a Verdict. They try to inoculate teens with this and hope they make it through college, but it's a losing battle.
It's a dig at science. They are terrified of losing their comfort blanket to reason.
One of the leaders of the mormon church some time ago was quoted as saying, "intellectualism is the enemy of the church.' one of the few times he spoke the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
These churches can't have people getting smart - they'll loose funding!!
Many churches do good things for their communities, but suggesting that getting educated makes you less in the 'eyes' of god is just plain stupid!!
I see this as a very truthful statement and LOL but I know religious people who believe this stuff and while I think they are nice I do not understand the suspension of thinking and reasoning!!!
SMH
It's not about education per say, it's about awareness and understanding that nothing can force us to believe if we don't want to. Once one get there then one becomes really separated from all those things, regardless of attempts like the picture on this posting. That church or any other, they can try but won't go through me ever again
To be fair, “educated” is in quotes, indicating that the author is referring to what he considers pseudeducation or just indoctrination. There are such things as gray areas—there could be a modicum of truth there.