The Disaster of the Absence of Moral and Religious Education in the American Public Schools
Cód:
491_9781453584163
Thomas Aquinas, in his philosophy of religion, said that man is areligious being (homo religiosus). By this he meant that man is abeing that naturally stretches to the beyond, to the unknown outsideof himself. He yearns and reaches out for an infinite peace, joy, andhappiness. He does all within his power to grasp an endless happiness,a joy that knows no end. This has been his instinctive, conscious,and unconscious aspiration. He tends to pursue and grab that whichcaptures his attention and wins his admiration. Many a time, he endsup grabbing a shadow, an illusion of real happiness, an illusion of thesource of true and lasting happiness. When he grabs that shadow, hesettles to worship it as the ultimate source of an infinite happiness. Itwill not be long before he discovers that it is all a mirage.This ultimate joy and happiness is not found within mans immediateenvironment, because whatever he clings to seems to fail in providingsuch ultimate joy, peace, and happiness, which men, by nature, tend toyearn and long for. Man has always interpreted peace, joy, happiness,and their sources differently. Thus, his beliefs and objects of worship,devotion, and dedication vary one from anotherhence the reason fordifferent world religions and creeds today (Christianity, Judaism, Islam,Buddhism, atheism, etc.).To say that man is a religious being implies that naturally manalways believes in and worships something. Hence, there can neverbe an atheist in the real sense of it. Not to believe is to believe. Forexample, not to believe in the existence of God is to believe thatGod does not exist. Even though some people do not believe in theexistence of a personal God or god, they still believe in something,which could be anythingmoney, freedom, wealth, riches, power,beauty, achievement, talent, name it. Just as our ancient fathersbelieved in carved idols as gods and worshipped them, so do peoplein the modern time hold on tenaciously to all kinds of idols i
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