Education for tolerance of world religions

Abstract

Every year, we put up our first posting on theinternet discussion site for our first year Studies inReligion unit, and ask the students to write withrespect and tolerance when using the site. The unit,Introduction to World Religions, is offered to bothinternal and external students of our small regionalAustralian university, and open to virtually anyundergraduate student at the university, although inreality it is generally taken by students in theBachelor of Arts or one of its many combineddegrees such as the Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor ofTeaching. Every year the inevitable happens sooneror later there will be an attack on Catholicsby Bible-believing Christians, closely followed byan attack by Christians on Muslims and vice-versa,and perhaps also something from the Buddhistsabout how flawed the religions of Semitic originare. We wait for the attacks to occur, closelymonitoring the discussion site in the first fewweeks of the semester. While we may chide theperpetrators of the attacks for a lack of respect, ourresponse is firmly focused on asking the students todefend what they have written by reasonedargument-Where do Catholic teachings advocateworship of Mary? What can be learned of theconcept of jihad by consulting the Qur'an? Whatdoes the Christian concept of a Trinity imply for itsavowed monotheism? What do Buddhism and themonotheistic religions have in common in theirteachings about peace, and how have theynevertheless been involved at times in violence?