I’m not a religious person. Frankly, the idea of organized religion as it currently exists inspires defensiveness in me like nothing else can. The pessimist that lives in my head views the whole thing as a perversion of otherwise peaceful moral guidelines conceived under the belief that humans are capable of living in harmony with one another.

Now, with the multitude of wars being fought in the name of one god or another, it appears that religion is having the exact opposite effect of its original purpose: bettering the lives of its followers. Something needs to change.

Just as you can blame most human mistakes on ignorance, so it is with religion.

Lack of real understanding pervades much of the information we’re fed about faith, be it from news sources, Hollywood or religious leaders themselves. It’s tainted by our failure to seek a more complete truth.

Consider a few of the prevalent, and widely accepted, beliefs concerning major world religions that we encounter in our everyday lives: all Catholic priests fuck little boys, followers of Islam either support terrorism or are terrorists themselves and Jews are greedy, media-controlling Christ-killers. These sweeping accusations are the offspring of power-hungry hate-mongers who use our fear of, and faith in, God to control us, and which couldn’t be supported by any rational, informed person.

Notre Dame’s student newspaper, The Observer, ran a piece last week discussing Harvard University’s inclusion of theology into its required core curriculum, thereby falling in line with Dartmouth and Columbia, who recently included similar requirements. It’s about time.

For a concept that has been the impetus of so much of the violence throughout human history, Americans seem unable to recognize that the importance of religion goes beyond spiritual fulfillment. In the real world, religion can be, and is, used by opportunists to start wars, validate atrocities, build fortunes and help scumbags like Jerry Falwell spread nonsense to ignorant, unsuspecting people who are incapable of realizing by themselves why it’s absurd to believe that their God hates homosexuals or wants them to blow up buildings in His name.

What people need are facts. They need an unbiased education in the history, practices and beliefs of every religion: how they work and how they have been represented.

Binghamton University prides itself on being a haven of multicultural understanding, yet in the past two years we have seen two separate hate crime incidents targeting Jewish students in the form of swastika-laden graffiti. Marching around campus in the name of religious tolerance is all well and good, but it’s time for a different approach. Mandatory courses that introduce us to theology would force us to see organized faith for what it is: an idea with the ability to inspire both the purest good and the most vicious evil.

The school needs to put its money where its mouth is on the issue of multiculturalism. As best as I can tell, separation of church and state is not at risk here. Besides, simply saying that you’re keeping religion away from government doesn’t make it true, as one can readily observe from any of the many speeches our president has given that are chock full of Jesus-y goodness. Placing religious studies in the proper historical and social context voids the worries of paranoid atheists fearing an invasion of a cult mentality, while simultaneously helping some of the more, ahem, fervent believers to take a step back and gain some perspective.

“At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before.” — Daniel 4:36

Matthew McFadden is a senior English and Arabic major.