>So are you saying religion is not appropriate in the classroom.
>At all?
Personally, i would not say that... in my Methods class, I try to get this
point across:
By the book (although we all know this is not always the case), science is
objective and willing to change. Religion is not. So, when we try to
understand the natural world, we should use objective measures, be they
psychological, astronomical, geological, etc. What we SHOULD NOT do is use
faith-based texts like the Bible to tell us about human nature or the age
of the universe.
>Like it or not, many Americans are quite theistic and tend to use religion as
>a means to understand and live in the world. Why not engage people in
>religious discourse? Challenge their ways of knowing? Get them to analyze
>religious and scientific explanations for the same phenomena?
Agreed. I do this as much as I can, often at the expense of a few student
evaluations.
Steve
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Stephen W. Tuholski Ph.D.
Asst. Professor
Dept. of Psychology
Southern Illinois U. at Edwardsville
Edwardsville IL 62026
Phone: 618 650 5391
Fax: 618 650 5087
http://www.siue.edu/~stuhols
"Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so."
- Bertrand Russell
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