Here’s a photo taken by a friend at the Penn State campus:
This is the work of a local campus christian group called ACF – the Alliance Christian Fellowship.
My first reaction is, if you feel this way, why are you wasting money on college?
I know, it’s probably supposed to be hip and ironic. But many a true word is said in jest, and I think this qualifies. Come to college and then skip classes in favor of church, or at least take your classes less seriously than church. This explicitly places religious faith above secular knowledge – which is not a surprise, really, since that’s generally been christianity’s official position since, oh, forever. If faith and knowledge conflict, which they often do, the orthodox response is to reject knowledge and cleave to faith.
I’m sure the ACF would protest that this is not what they mean. But it’s really hard to see it any other way, if you think about it, and I suspect they haven’t. The belief that faith takes primacy over knowledge is so deeply embedded in christianity that I doubt they’re even aware they’re expressing it here. But it’s a sad and absurd thing to see displayed on a college campus.
So for these people, I would recommend a slightly altered slogan. Skip College, Not Church. By which I mean, if you’re not serious enough about learning to put aside your superstitions – if what you believe without evidence is more important than what you still have left to learn, and you explicitly intend to reject new knowledge if it contradicts your preconceptions – then save the money and stay home. College is not for you. Education is not compatible with a firm commitment to ignorance. Stay home and go to church, and leave that admissions spot and that student aid open for someone more serious – someone who’s there for education.
I knew you’d like this.
Freud would be pleased with this.
Of course, in the linguistic tradition of the English versions of the New Testament, with the highlighting shown they could be exhorting “skip not class church,” meaning “do not skip class or church.” Probably not, though.
I agree, Christians are, as a group, a screwed up bunch of people.
[...] ago, I wrote about a religious tract that warned readers to resist the temptation of college. Via dwasifar, here’s another version of that same [...]
….they could be exhorting “skip not class church”…..
as opposed to skipping classless church? Must be one of those where the priest doesn’t suck up to the lady of the manor.
ummm…except I ask people not to check their brains at the door!
Christ certainly used reason and entered debate with the educated of his day; and tangential evidence suggests that Jesus also was in, and from, the educated class.
BTW, go look at Genesis 1 again…it also supports the scientific view, from light (“big bang”) through the creation of higher and higher forms of physical and living things. (admitting the air-based animals are mentioned before the sea-based animals.)
The Bible, is a unique religious text in that it may be the first to chronicle history, using method to point out how and when God interacted with people. This required study and research, which is, in part, following scientific method to make the connection between the earthly and heavenly.
@Mr Fnortner…yes, any group, any human gathering can be “a screwed up bunch of people”!
Here we have a good example of religionist revisionism, trying to rationalize away the flaws in the “perfect word of god.” The claim that Genesis “supports the scientific view” is ludicrous. The universe was not created in six days six thousand years ago. And there is no scientific method in connecting the real to the imaginary. That is the opposite of science. It may have been a lot of work, and it may have even been methodical; but starting from your conclusion (“the bible is true”) and working backwards to find supporting evidence is not science.