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All throughout my education self-love and the teaching of humans as nobel creaters was emphasized. Not once did I experience a discussion that mankind was fallen and sinful, unless it was a historic footnote or an example of religious persecution.

So where would such a discussion be relevant? "The plays of William Shakespeare are great works of English literature, but just imagine how much better they'd be if he hadn't been fallen and sinful"? "The periodic table of elements was first laid out by Mendeleev, who incidentally was fallen and sinful, and so despite sometimes appearing quite useful to chemists and physicists, his work is inherently imperfect and flawed"? Most of any well-rounded education consists of the creations or deductions of humans, and I can't see how their state of grace or otherwise is an issue.

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Yet I think Christianity is not alone in its view of humanity.

Wasn't salvation by grace St Paul's idea? According to Wikipedia, the notion of even pious adherents still being full of sin isn't really the same in Judaism and doesn't exist in Islam. Buddhists' and Hindus' samsara isn't really the same thing either. Fallenness is AFAICT a pretty Christianity-specific concept, and not shared by all Christians at that.

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So if we are being religiously neutral, why do we only get perspectives opposite to that which a great many in our country profess? I think the reason is that it is impossible to be neutral. We all have underlying philosophies, and when one group must stifle theirs and not discuss it, those with "acceptable" philosophies will be heard.

I don't really see omitting any discussion of humanity's state of grace or otherwise, as being "opposite" to confirming our fallenness and sinfulness. The opposite would be "In addition to being a great playwright, Shakespeare was thought of by God as being well righteous". Nobody says that!

And after all, if all humans are fallen and sinful, surely it doesn't need mentioning every time?

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There is no such thing as "religous education lessons" in our public schools.

Oh, I hadn't fully appreciated that. So public schools aren't even allowed to describe the tenets of the world's various religions, even if there's no attempt at proselytisation? That does indeed sound like a worrying gap in those children's education.

Peter