The Disaster of the Absence of Moral and Religious Education in the American Public Schools

Book excerpt: Thomas Aquinas, in his philosophy of religion, said that man is a religious being (homo religiosus). By this he meant that man is a being that naturally stretches to the beyond, to the unknown outside of himself. He yearns and reaches out for an infinite peace, joy, and happiness. 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 which captures his attention and wins his admiration. Many a time, he ends up grabbing a shadow, an illusion of real happiness, an illusion of the source of true and lasting happiness. When he grabs that shadow, he settles to worship it as the ultimate source of an infinite happiness. It will not be long before he discovers that it is all a mirage. This ultimate joy and happiness is not found within mans immediate environment, because whatever he clings to seems to fail in providing such ultimate joy, peace, and happiness, which men, by nature, tend to yearn 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 for different world religions and creeds today (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, atheism, etc.). To say that man is a religious being implies that naturally man always believes in and worships something. Hence, there can never be an atheist in the real sense of it. Not to believe is to believe. For example, not to believe in the existence of God is to believe that God does not exist. Even though some people do not believe in the existence 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 fathers believed in carved idols as gods and worshipped them, so do people in the modern time hold on tenaciously to all kinds of idols in the form of money, beauty, wealth, riches, power, achievement, talent, etc., and worship them as gods and hope that someday these might give them an endless peace and happiness, which have been the ultimate end of mans endeavor or pursuit on earth. This false hope of mans longing to achieve endless peace and happiness from material possessions or natural endowment explains itself in some ancient cultures whereby the dead are buried along with some of their possessions, including gold, money, slaves, etc. The fact that people of outstanding talents, riches, and wealth have committed suicide has put a big question mark to this erroneous ideology that happiness could be achieved through material possession. What was wrong in the lives of those affluent and talented people who killed themselves contrary to all instincts of self-preservation? What was missing in their lives that none of their material acquisitions or achievements could satiate or afford? Man longs for lasting happiness. He has the capacity to conceive and yearn for infinite happiness. Hence, he does not want to be happy today and sad tomorrow. But how would he achieve that joy or happiness that has no end, which has always remained mans unrealized dream? No branch of discipline or knowledge has been able to provide an answer and a remedy to mans natural longing for endless joy, lasting peace, and happiness, but religion. Religion has an answer, a remedy, and a hope. In this book, I will demonstrate how religion provides an answer, a remedy, and a hope for mans ultimate search and yearning for lasting peace and happiness in his life and in the society in which he lives. I will explore the idea that man is a spiritual as well as a religious being. I will also delve into how his natural endowment with freedom, intellect, and will enables him to express his religiosity. I will further demonstrate how the misinterpretation and misapplication