Majority of Higher Education Institutes indoctrinate students with Anti-Theistic Beliefs

I will start this round with an opening statement, and then move onto some key rebuttals. However, I will leave rebuttals mostly till the final round. Opening Statement It is my sincere hope that this argument does not boil down into a semantics debate about what the word majority means. In fact, I hope my opponent can agree that a majority is a number above 50 %. It is my position that the majority of Higher education Institutes do not promote an anti-theistic agenda. This said, then I should elaborate on why I believe far more than 50 % of higher education institutes do not promote anti-theistic belief. This can be done easily by looking at the numbers. Theology: the study of religious faith, practice, and experience : the study of God and God's relation to the world. (1) Divinity: the formal study of religion, religious practices, and religious beliefs. (2) Here is a list of the top ten higher education institutes in the world. (3)The "yes or no" next to their name indicates a school of theology or divinity. Surely not what would be expected from institutes that are promoting anti-theistic belief. In fact the only two universities that do not have a theology department are those that are purely science based i. e. Caltech and MIT. However, even these universities promote religion and MIT has a chaplain on staff. (4,5) Worlds top ten higher education institutes:1) Caltech - no2) Oxford - yes 3) Harvard - yes 4) Stanford - yes 5) MIT - no (but do have a chaplain on staff for beliefs of students)6) Princeton - yes 7) University of Cambridge - yes8) University of California, Berkeley - yes 9) University of Chicago - yes10) Imperial College London - yes Additionally, multiple universities in the USA are state universities. This means that do not prohibit and cannot prohibit against religion against as it would be a violation of the constitution. So all these state universities are not anti-theistic. Obviously, then we should look at the private universities, as these higher education institutes can discriminate if they so wish. Below is a list of what some people consider the top private universities in the USA. (6) Again this list shows that discrimination is not prevalent , as all these universities have a school of theology and/or divinity. USA top ten private universities. 1) Brown - yes 2) Colombia - yes 3) Cornell - yes4) Dartmouth - yes 5) Duke - yes 6) Harvard - yes 7) Princeton - yes 8) Stanford -yes 9) University of Pennsylvania - yes 10) Yale - yes So whats left? Maybe a sample of other Universities in the world that are not based in the USA. So below is a continuation of the top ten universities in the world from different countries to see if they also have a theology or divinity school. The number indicates the rank. Worldwide trend14) ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich - No (Science School) 20) University of Toronto - Yes 21) University College London - Yes 23) University of Tokyo - Yes26) National University of Singapore -Yes31) University of British Columbia - Yes32) London School of Economics and Political Science - Yes 34) University of Melbourne - Yes35) McGill University - Yes36) Karolinska Institute - No (Medical School) If you will look at all these lists, the one thing you will notice is that the only universities that do not have religious studies are specialized higher education institutes. This be expected as they do not have a multitude of other departments like music, art or acting. I believe the numbers talk for themselves to show that higher education institutes are by no means anti-theistic as my opponent claims. Key Rebuttals The majority of my opponents arguments rest on the fact that science is anti-theistic. However, even if this is true (my opponent has not sufficiently proved this) it is not relevant to this debate as I have shown that the majority of universities are not purely science based. Additionally, if science is so anti-theistic then my opponent needs to explain why the majority of scientists are not anti-theistic "41% of scientist do not belief in God or higher power". In other words to win this debate, my opponent has to show that the majority of higher education institutes do not promote theology in anyway. I do not believe this is possible as I have pointed out above. The argument that science is anti-theistic is a red herring, as according to my opponent only 41 % of scientists are atheists and not anti-theists. Additionally, attacking evolution is a another red herring, as it does in no way show that higher education institutes are anti-theistic. Finally on a side note, agnosticism is not a position of faith (or weak atheism) agnosticism is purely a position on the validity of claims. As such I can be a gnostic theists or an agnostic theist, depending on how strong my belief in a deity is. I now hand the debate back to my opponent. (1) . http://www.merriam-webster.com...(2) . http://www.merriam-webster.com...(3) . http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk...(4) . https://admissions.caltech.edu...(5) . http://studentlife.mit.edu...(6) . http://collegeapps.about.com...