Download How to Teach Issues

How to Teach
Issues
And SURVIVE!
The Scopes Monkey Trial
• Tennessee versus John T.
Scopes (1925)
• Contravened the Butler Act
prohibiting the “teaching of the
Evolution Theory in all the
Universities, Normals, and all
other public schools of
Tennessee, which are
supported in whole or in part
by the public school funds of
the State, and to provide
penalties for the violations
thereof.”
Evolution
Intelligent
Design
Climate Change
Educational
Reform
Genetic
Engineering
Euthanasia
Genetically
Modified
Organisms
Food
Production
Inclusion
Anatomy of Most Hot Button Issues
• Strongly polarized sets of ideas (not always faith
vs science!)
• Often an established position over against a
minority position
• Imprecise use of language or in-commensurate
use of language
• Background agendas and power struggles
• Incomplete knowledge sets
• Nature of Science – misunderstanding of
The Importance of Conversation…and
Establishing Sound Ground Rules
• Respect others and the views of others
• Avoid inflammatory rhetoric
• Try to establish what the key issues are (this is
sometimes/often where the problem lies)
• Explore and use consistent use of terms
• If possible – have an impartial 3rd party to
mediate conversation
• Avoid debate – strive for conversation
Climate Change
and Contrarian
Positions
• Possible “scenarios”:
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Why should I believe this when there are lots
of scientists who doubt it?
We can’t even predict the weather next week
so why do you want me to believe we can
predict the climate?
It’s obvious that climate change occurred in
the past – your data shows it and we weren’t
around to cause it!!
Climate change is occurring but it is not
caused by humans – it’s the sun and
sunspots.
My dad said it is all baloney! It’s just theory.
It’s part of a conspiracy that is driven by
economics and has nothing to do with
science!
• Strongly polarized sets of
ideas (not always faith vs
science!)
• Often an established
position over against a
minority position
• Imprecise use of
language or incommensurate use of
language
• Background agendas and
power struggles
• Incomplete knowledge
sets
• Nature of Science –
misunderstanding of
– Why should I believe this
when there are lots of
scientists who doubt it?
– We can’t even predict the
weather next week so why
do you want me to believe
we can predict the climate?
– It’s obvious that climate
change occurred in the past
– your data shows it and we
weren’t around to cause it!!
– Climate change is occurring
but it is not caused by
humans – it’s the sun and
sunspots.
– My dad said it is all baloney!
It’s just theory.
– It’s part of a conspiracy that
is driven by economics and
has nothing to do with
science!
Creationism and ID
•
•
•
•
•
The Bible says that the world was
created in 6 days
Evolution is anti-Christian
My mom says Charles Darwin was an
atheist
You can’t believe in evolution and the
Bible
Intelligent Design is a new way of
thinking about science that
recognizes the role of God
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School
District Argued September 26,
2005-November 4, 2005,
Decided December 20, 2005
Teaching intelligent design in
public school biology classes
violates the Establishment Clause
of the First Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States
(and Article I, Section 3 of the
Pennsylvania State Constitution)
because intelligent design is not
science and "cannot uncouple
itself from its creationist, and thus
religious, antecedents."
On the Other Hand
• “We are survival machines - robot
vehicles blindly programmed to preserve
the selfish molecules known as genes.”
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
• “I think ... that faith is one of the world’s
great evils, comparable to the smallpox
virus but harder to eradicate. Faith,
being belief that isn’t based on
evidence, is the principal vice of any
religion.”
Richard Dawkins, Humanist in Canada, Winter 1999
• “Man knows at last that he is alone in the
universe’s unfeeling immensity, out of which he
emerged only by chance”
Jaques Monod, Chance and Necessity
The Parable of the Three
Umpires
…or three different views of reality
Umpire Number One
• The naïve realist
I call them as they
are!
Umpire Number Two
• The critical realist
I call them as I see
them!
Umpire Number One
• The “quantum” realist
They ain’t nuthin
until I call them!
We may believe in the existence of
an external world but the real
question is how do we acquire
knowledge of this world?
•
•
•
•
Naive realist
Critical Realistic
Other forms of “realist” positions
Anti-realism
Creationism, ID and Dawkins
• Share the same naïve realist position!
• Share a common perception of how
science and religion are related
According to Ian Barbour there are 4 different “doors” we can go through
Conflict
• the struggle between scientific
materialism and biblical literalism is like
a fight between a Boa Constrictor and a
Wart Hog. Each tries to swallow the
other whole. The fight can be avoided if
they occupy different territories or if they
pursue more appropriate diets!
Ian Barbour, Religion in an Age of Science
In “the end, science as we know it has two basic
types of practitioners. One is the educated man
who still has a controlled sense of wonder before
the universal mystery, whether it hides in a snail's
eye or within the light that impinges on that delicate
organ. The second kind of observer is the extreme
reductionist who is so busy stripping things apart
that the tremendous mystery has been reduced to
a trifle, to intangibles not worth troubling one's head
about. The world of secondary qualities - colour,
sound, thought is reduced to illusion. The only true
reality becomes the chill void of ever streaming
particles.”
Loren Eiseley, "Science and the Sense of the Holy"
Independence...
• science and religion occupy completely
separate territory. As soon as a
physicist realizes that her “language” is
not the same as a theologian’s
“language” the conflict evaporates and
they can become civil once again! It
was all a big misunderstanding.
Dialogue and Integration
• science and religion make potentially
overlapping claims but the claims can
refer to complimentary aspects of the
same reality.
Dialogue & Integration
• Reductionist methodolgies have proven
extremely useful in understanding some aspects
of natural phenomena but can reductionism
function as the sole method of acquiring useful
knowledge.
• Is it necessarily true that all complex
phenomena can be understood in terms of
simpler underlying parts or does complexity
impose its own top-down structure that is not
reducible?
The Durability of Religious Belief
• many scientists maintain a belief in a
personal God and participation in a religious
community
• religion exists and is practised in all cultures
• religion is a “real” phenomenon in as much as
it can be studied historically,
anthropologically, sociologically ....
• religion contains objective practices and
ideas
How Science Informs Religion
• Lessons of physics and the shift from naive
realist to critical realist positions has led to the
realisation that reality is “seen through a
glass darkly”. This challenges us to begin to
understand the extent to which a particular
religion (Christianity, Islam, etc) is a model
about God and our relationship to God.
• The laws of nature challenge our
understanding of how God acts within the
universe (the problem of divine action and
primary and secondary causes)
How Religion Informs/Transforms Modern
Science
· Religion
provides a the corrective lens to
re-focus scientific questions and
concerns to human ends.
· Religion challenges science to be aware
of its metaphysical underpinnings and
structural limitations
Some Advice…
• Religion/Science Hot Buttons are usually symptoms of some deeper
underlying “disconnects” as just described
• Try to get at these by carefully unpacking the statements – ie:
– Scientific literalism or Biblical literalism are opposite sides of the
same coin
– Can you shift from conflict  Dialogue?
• Don’t expect a quick resolution and be prepared to “disagree” – Stop
before further conversation becomes impossible!
• Don’t let the aggressive or domineering student set the agenda and
tone – encourage others to participate
• If this is a discussion between students then try to be the “impartial
mediator”
• Don’t forget – if you are dealing with a student there is a power
difference! You can easily intimidate a student without intending to
do so.
Major Task…
• Rather than try to tackle a hot-button issue
please select one or more of the topics
from the previous classes (active learning,
DLOs or Lab/activities) to be the focus of
today’s lesson.