<p>Has anybody had an experience taking them? I’m real interested in the topics discussed but don’t want to get into a situation where the professor is only interested in forcing his/her views on us or if it can get pretty tense with varying viewpoints in the room. Any feedback would be awesome! I’m interested in taking either World Religions or Old Testament for my general education class next semester!</p>
<p>My daughter took a Tibetan Buddhism class last spring that she really enjoyed, at a Big Ten university. However, she is used to religion classes because she attended a Catholic high school where she had a religion class every semester. Even at the high school, no views were “forced” on anyone. The teachers actually enjoyed being challenged. And this was at a Catholic school.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends have taken religious studies classes and have enjoyed them. When you get an instructor who teaches about their religion, they know that they are prohibited by law from pushing their religion in a public school. Don’t assume however, that the person teaching the course will be a member of the religion being discussed.</p>
<p>My D is taking a Global Christianity class at her LAC this semester as her requirement, it is not a public school however.</p>
<p>What I would do in your case if you are concerned is check any professor rating web sites to see if any students at your school comment on a professor not being tolerant of differing views (either in class or in an exam/paper). Hopefully the professors at your schools do embrace differing views, particularly in a religion class, all students end up learning much more that way (and I am sure the professors do too).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I took a religion class at big state u. many moons ago. S1 also took one at our big state u. I believe his was something like Intro. to the Old Testament. In both cases, the class was taught more as a history class. There was no questioning of students’ faith beliefs.</p>
<p>I would check the Prof. Rating websites in advanace of registering. S1 registered for Intro. to Religion for this sem. only to find out afterwards that RMP reviews gave the Prof. poor ratings. He dropped the class and picked up an Eng. class to fulfill his Humanity req.</p>
<p>I took a comparative religion class at a large public school. It was fascinating. And the professor was an athiest. He announced this at the first lecture so students could have the option of withdrawing if they had a problem with that. (No one did.) He also made clear the class would be a secular study the images/philosophy/history of the various religions - and he conducted the class as such.</p>
<p>That’s good. I’m a christian but I’m really interested in learning about other religions but from a non-biased/secular point of view. Though it seems that from the ratemyprofessor ratings that the teacher of the class is pretty good. I think I’ll give it a shot.</p>
<p>I once took a class at a state u. called “varieties of religious expression.” The professor happened to be a Presbyterian minister. It was about all different kinds of religious behavior worldwide. Especially unusual tribal religions. A real eye-opener for this cradle Catholic.
The prof didn’t bring his own religion into what he was teaching.</p>