Teaching Science: A personal narrative about how to teach science to people with religious beliefs and why it is good for them.

When I teach Science in school, I start off the year making a list of things that are supported by science and things that are not supported by science. This is essential because some 10-year-olds simply aren’t sure the difference between reality and fiction. 

Question: Are unicorns real?              Answer: Can you see unicorns at a zoo?
Question: Did dragons exist?             Answer: Can you see dragons in a museum?
Question: Is Santa real?                     Answer: What do you think?

Now most 10-year-olds know that dragons and unicorns and Santa Clause is not real, but they aren’t sure about ghosts or angels or gods. Adults sometimes have these same problem.

Good to teach in Science Class?

The problem Science teachers have is that they have to teach Science even if it disproves religious stories such as creation myths. 

What do you tell a student when they say that evolution goes against his belief in the Hindu creation story about Rama growing out of a flower? I simply tell him that Science, which is based on evidence, suggests that the Earth was created by gathering space dust, and not a flower. We can see this by looking through telescopes.

 

Good to teach in Science Class?

A Mormon student will say “My family doesn’t believe in Evolution, but my family does believe you get your own planet when you die,”

I will have to respond “That’s great but according to Science the nearest planet is four light-years away, so how are you going to get there? And furthermore, how do you know you get your own planet. Do you have evidence?”

This is why I have to put religions and gods over in the “not-science” section of my chart, because without ignoring religious beliefs and superstitions, I wouldn’t be able to teach anything in my science class. I then proceed to play the song “Science is Real” by “They Might Be Giants” to drive my point home.



So is it worth it? Is teaching children science in school worth suspending their religious beliefs for forty-five minutes a day? Well let’s examine some of the things that science has given us…

-Modern Agriculture
-Electricity
-Modern Medicine
-Internal Combustible Engine (Cars)
-Satellites

It’s a short list, but these five items probably impact every second of your life. Let’s examine one -modern medicine-and see if we could have got there without science.

We all know that babies get vaccinations when they are born so that they won’t catch a deadly disease. And other people get flu shots. But scientists have to change the vaccinations, every time the bacteria or viruses evolve. Therefore, it is dangerous for us to deny that microorganisms evolve.

Good to teach in Science Class?

Similarly, farmers are going to have to accept global warming if they are going to have to factor-in global warming. They are going to plan for future crop planting. They can’t just pretend that global warming is going to go away. Governments are going to have to regulate emissions if we are going to slow or stop the impact of pollution on our environment.

At one point in history, people thought the Earth was flat. Through discovery and education we found out that it is round. We had to discard flat-earth myths, even when they appeared in holy-books such as the Quran.


My point is that some times we need to disregard unscientific beliefs to advance our culture. Unscientific beliefs, furthermore, can be harmful to us.

There are non-religious ones such as belief in the unluckiness of black cats or fear of the number 13 These beliefs are almost harmless, but can sometimes be disrupting.

There are religious ones including head covering of women, genital mutation, prejudice against gays and lesbians, and indoctrination of children that are most certainly harmful.

Now let’s finish with addressing the indoctrination of children. Isn’t teaching Science in school just another brainwashing method?

While it is true that students can learn misinformation in school (I once caught a

 teacher telling students myths about daddy-longlegs), teaching students reality is not indoctrination. 2 + 2 = 4 is not indoctrination. Teaching students the same information that you would find at a zoo or a museum or at an Academy of Physics is not indoctrination. Teaching students to experiment, question, and discover is not indoctrination.

There is truth in this world, but it isn’t found in holy books that were written thousands of years ago. It is found in constant exploration and testing and learning. This is a fascinating and miraculous and beautiful world. Teaching students that they were molded from dirt doesn’t work anymore.