Religion, nature, science education and the epistemology of dialectics

Abstract

In his article Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord, David Long (2010) rightly challenges our presumptions of what science is and brings forth some of the disjunctures between science and deeply held American religious beliefs. Reading his narrative of the conflicts that he experienced on the opening day of the Creation Museum, I cannot help but reconsider what the epistemology of science is and science learning ought to be. Rather than science being taught as a prescribed, deterministic system of beliefs and procedures as it is often done, I suggest instead that it would be more appropriate to teach science as a way of thinking and making sense of dialectical processes in nature. Not as set of ultimate ''truths'', but as understandings of processes themselves in the process of simultaneously becoming and being transformed.In his article Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord, David Long (2010) raises important concerns for science educators. Through his narrative of the opening day of the Creation Museum in Kentucky, he rightly questions the nature of the discourse concerning creationism within the science community, and who has a claim over what science is. It is thus that he intrepidly challenges our presumptions of what makes science science, and by extension, how it is taught.I agree with Michael Reiss' argument (2010) that in the short term as science educators we should aim to teach students with creationist worldviews at least an understanding of the scientific view of evolution and science. What is problematic I think is the epistemology that commonly frames such an understanding. Therefore, in this forum response I suggest that the significance of these discussions lies beyond conversations between science and religion as some write (Roth 2010), but in the discourse of what the epistemology of science ought to be. The strength of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution

Μουσειακή Εκπαίδευση Σε Πολυπολιτισμικές Κοινωνίες: Η Πρόκληση Της Θρησκείας

“…Ζ έξεπλα ηεο Bharadia (1999) (Peterson,1991: 196-198). Πάλησο νη πεξηζζφηεξνη αθαδεκατθνί, ηα πεξηζζφηεξα άηνκα θαη ε Δθθιεζία έρνπλ βξεη ηξφπνπο ψζηε ε επηζηήκε θαη ε ζξεζθεία λα έξζνπλ ζε ζπκθσλία, σζηφζν ε ζθνδξφηεηα ηεο ζχγθξνπζεο-φηαλ ππάξρεη-θαίλεηαη λα επηζθηάδεη απηή ηελ πξφνδν (Jones & Reiss, 2007), ε νπνία εηζρσξεί θαη ζην ρψξν ηεο εθπαίδεπζεο (Alexakos, 2010 (Reiss, 2007: 203).…”