On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:50:43 -0700, Michael S wrote: >[snip] >While teaching intro at a school in Daytona some of the Middle >East students thought that psychology was anti-Koranic
I have no doubt that in class you probably said something like this: "That may be the case but have you considered that some things in the Koran or in sacred texts that other religions use may be inconsistent with the facts that have been developed by science? For example, in the Catholic Church, the Pope had tried to control all knowledge including how the physical world operates. As the empirical sciences developed, they posed threats to this view because of what these sacred texts claimed, such as the earth was the center of the university or being only a few thousands years old. Wisely, the Pope and others have realized that maybe they have knowledge about morality and theology but they do not have adequate knowledge of artronomy or geology or astrophysics or quantum mechanics or that human behavior may be influenced by many of the same factors that affect other species. In a religious context, one may think that their sacred texts provide all they need to know of the world and of other people such that, if people drink alcohol or abuse drugs or commit crimes or excell in business or sports, they are either bad or good, according to their character or soul. From this perspective, the effect of the environment one grew up in or the types of experiences they had or did not have or their genes probably won't be seen as playing important roles in how they behave or what they believe -- free will drives choice and good choices come from good character and bad choices come from bad character. But character is not sufficient to explain one's behavior as social psychology has shown, the power of the situation will influence what one does or says. Thus, to know others we must observe them, hopefully under controlled conditions such as experiments and other research settings, so that we can understand why one behaves as one does. For example, why does a person in a crowd not come to the aid of a person in need such as when that person drops to the ground in an unconsicous state? Is it because the onlooker (a) is of poor character or (b) is affected by the presence of a crowd that produces a reduced sense of responsibility to aid the person because one expects someone else to do something. There are many things that are not discussed in sacred texts from the nature of subatomic particles to what causes people to behave in the ways they do. We need our experience of the world, our sources of validated knowledge, and our humility to appreciate the complexity and vastness of existence. No single book or books can encompass all that, only the process of continued learning, studying, and thinking will help. And our focus should be on the logic and validity of research and theories and not the ethnicity of the persons involved. >and it certainly did not help introducing jewish theorists in the class. If students have problems with the ethnic identity of researchers in an scientific area, it should be pointed out that (1) in general, labelling a branch of science as "[insert ethnic group] science" is misleading especially since experimental results and theories are supposed to be provide knowledge and understanding that is universally true and not just for an ethnic group and (2) the Nazi's distinguished between "Jewish" science and "non-Jewish" science not because such a distinction divided the invald science from the valid science but simply because of bigotry. An interesting case is presented in a paper on how the implementation of Nazi policies affected the practice and development of gastroenterology in Germany; see: Cappell MS. (2006) The effect of Nazism on medical progress in gastroenterology: the inefficiency of evil. Digestive Diseases and Sciences,51(6),1137-58. PubMed PMID: 16865585. Quoting the conclusion from the article's abstract: |In conclusion, the Third Reich severely retarded and reversed medical |progress in gastroenterology in Germany. The inefficiency of Nazism, |as herein documented, is attributable to the Nazi commitment of so much |human, economic, and social resources to the military to wage wars of |aggression, to the secret police (Gestapo) to pursue and exterminate |perceived internal enemies, and to the Party to control and regiment civil |society. Most inefficient is the incarceration, exile, or murder of Germany's |most trained physicians and talented researchers because of religion or |race, sociological parameters that are irrelevant to productivity. Intimidation |and repression stifle scientific scholarship and creativity. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16865585 No doubt, one can, by analogy, point out how any system that systematically discriminates against a particular group of people is likely to have negative consequences on progress in science. Such bigoted distinctions do not aid the progress of science, only the nonscientific agendas fueled by hate and antiscientific beliefs. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=1873 or send a blank email to leave-1873-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
