Science and Education #0
Over the next few months, I’ll be finishing up a lecture series called Science and Christian Education designed to give Christian educators a more effective paradigm for the training of children in the natural sciences.
Very few children educated in Christian Schools go on to become practicing scientists. A small number might go into technical fields, but very few ever find themselves on the cutting edge of a scientific field. Interestingly, many of the evangelical scientists that you hear about were raised with little effective religious instruction or were persuaded by the Gospel later in life—after they had already become successful in their respective fields.
I get a lot questions about school science curricula from people who recognize the extent of the problem, but the challenge we face can’t be solved simply by changing our textbooks (although that would probably be step in the right direction). What Christians need is a completely new paradigm for approaching the study of nature that treats science, not as a set of natural laws or mathematical relationships that must either be accepted or rejected as immutable truth, but rather an ongoing process of observation, synthesis, discovery and re-synthesis that best accounts for the data available to each generation.
Science does not (or can not) exist simply to confirm our worldview assumptions, nor can it be expected to support every traditional interpretation of Scripture. How could something as tentative and as dynamic as our scientific methodology possibly bear this apologetical burden without sacrificing the very qualities that make it indispensable to our technological progress? But on the other hand, how can science educators effectively respond to the uncomfortable questions that will inevitably arise when an honest treatment of nature’s data paints a portrait of creation that is theologically unsettling? Should we abandon the science used in laboratories all over the world in favor of a “science” that can only be found in Christian bookstores—just to avoid difficult questions that teachers are unprepared to answer?
As our ability to observe the world around continues to increase, the scientific consensus will continue to shift. This will happen whether Evangelicals are part of the process or not. But if we fail to teach our children how to correctly apply the only paradigms capable of integrating the observable data as it we understand it today (even those paradigms that seem contrary to our Christian worldview), we are effectively denying them access to the very community of professionals responsible for ensuring that this process called science continues to work.
And what will become of those students with natural giftings and inclinations toward the study of nature? Will we drive them to apostasy by forcing upon them false ultimatums? Or we will reduce them to whining outsiders who mistakenly blame their victimization on institutional religious bias—throwing stones at the hard-fought accomplishments of others while offering nothing constructive of their own. Our children deserve better!
This series will probably span many weeks as I try to keep each post short succinct. This series will also have its own category called “Christian Education” in case some readers want to read through the series without the in-between off-topic posts. After I have the opportunity to present the lecture a few times, I plan to have a DVD professionally made that can be used for teacher workshops, home school co-ops, etc…
As always, I heartily invite reader comments to help shape the final version of the lecture. Thanks!
-GJG
April 18th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Good stuff Gordon. Looking forward to the series.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:59 am
I’m looking forward to reading this as well. My two girls are 4 and 6 and are quite inquisitive about the natural world (much to my delight!) . Recently my 6 year old asked how God made the oceans. I told her God made the crust under the ocean more dense so that it didn’t float as high on the mantle, and being lower than the continental crust the water gathered down into it through normal gravity. When that confused her my wife chimed in “God just made it”, but I wasn’t happy with that answer at all. I want my girls to continue to probe and explore the natural world and understand it. I would be very pleased if either or both became scientists (especially in physics). I’m pretty easy going and will be happy for them and encourage them in whatever venture that might choose, whether house wife or CEO, whether scientists or artist, whatever. But I am certainly going to encourage them to study hard and appreciate mathematics and science and open doors for them that our culture sometimes frowns upon because they are female.
But back to your post, how to educate your children is of grave concern of mine. They have been taught about Adam and Eve; and we basically just present this as historical fact. I don’t’ know how to make that leap where I allow the reality of evolution to come into their education. But be sure of this, eventually I will. Because it is true. And I will not let my two girls go through a crisis of faith when they discover the truth for themselves. I’m going to try to teach them to accept what is reality if it doesn’t jive well with our religious beliefs; whether it is common descent or the JEPD theory of Pentateuch authorship.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Hi Pete. My girls are 12 and 6, with a son in the middle. All of them love science, but my 6 year old has the most promise in terms of science. She makes connections and draws conclusions that are will beyond her years. Not to brag about myself, but I did the same thing as a child. My mom did all she could to plug me into science-related activities, but there are few acceptable options for one being raised in a no-compromise creationist home. As a result, my scientific interests were steered into engineering (aka: “God-friendly” non-historical applications of science). And, yes — I’m still sore about it. Like you, I want to allow my kids every opportunity to pursue their gifts.
I’m not against giving children “age-appropriate” facts. Yes, God did obviously make the oceans. For some kids at some ages, teleological accounts of nature are good enough. In fact, teleology was good enough for all of mankind for thousands of years (when mythology — function being a consequence of divine purpose — was the medium by which questions about the cosmos were answered). Just as science “evolved” from the mythological to the material — teleology is not a bad place to start for the wee ones who lack the faculties to consider the scientific acount.
The Westminster shorter Catechism begins with the question: “Who made you?” with the obvious answer being, “God made me” — knowing full well that we all came from our mother’s wombs after 9 months of gestating (the laws of nature acting on previously inantimate matter without supernatural influence). The very next question is, “What else did God make?” with the answer being, “God made all things”. My kids, being good smart a$$es like their dad, always wanted to know if God built our house when the houses down the street are being built by a bunch of sweaty guys? This silly, but true, story illustrates the problem. We mistaken allow teleology to compete with science for the same territory.
In some ways, science education (in a Christian context) can follow the historical stages of scientific development — sort of an “evo-devo” approach to scientific education. The key is to NEVER allow the teleological account to directly compete with the scientific account for the same territory. This is the topic of my next post — so I’ll leave it at that for now.
Also, what you or I would consider “Historical Fact” was not something that ancient Semetic people would have identified with. We really don’t even have to worry about classifying the Garden of Eden narrative according to literary generes that didn’t exist at the time of its writing (insert big sigh of relief here). What I said about not allowing the mythological to directly compete with the scientific for the same territory is also relavent here. Stay tuned for more on the Garden of Eden…