They're a general way of contemplating and expressing various phenomena. Always tentative. Never claiming to be "the truth" whether held by communists or Christians.
So why is it not important that the theory you call "the truth" holds sole reign in the classroom where my children should be taught "maybe, maybe not?"
Because the evidence doesn't support "maybe, maybe not". If you want your children to be taught a falsehood by being taught that it does, so be it. But please don't presume to impose that upon mine.
I was listening to CSPAN while running errands the other day and caught a bit of my buddy Vine DeLoria speaking at the 2002 National Book Festival, an event sponsored by the Library of Congress and apparently Hosted by laura Bush. The main topic was a new book of Vine's, titled:
Library of Congress Book Festival, 2002
Vine is a former president of the National Council of American Indians, and the best known native American author of the last century or so. Several of his books are standard university texts on Indian affairs. He views all western religions as things to be avoided and hence is more than a little bit difficult to write off as a Christian fundamentalist.