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IntroductIon

Secularism and Science in the 21st Century

Ariela Keysar & Barry A. Kosmin

A s this book went to press in early 2008, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board was weighing a request by a Bible-based creationist

institute to offer online master’s degrees in science education. The Institute for Creation Research aims to challenge the standard teachings of evolution and (according to its website) “equip current and future Christian leaders with practical tools to effectively influence their world with the truths of Scripture.” Its goal is to staff classrooms with science teachers sympathetic to religious fundamentalism, educators who believe in the Biblical account of the world’s creation. This is an open challenge to the normative model of Western science, which is based on the secular principles of free inquiry and empiricism.

Evolution, once again controversial, is only one of the fields of science that has become freshly embroiled in conflict between religious and secular segments of society. Stem cell research, cloning, neuroscience, and paleontology are others. Emotions are strong and the stakes are clearly high. And not for the first time, for in today’s battles there are echoes from centuries past. What is surprising is that this “culture war” is fiercest in the United States, the world’s first secular state and its oldest and most powerful democracy.

As the eleven essays in the present volume demonstrate, the nature of the conflict over science at the dawn of the third millennium has metamorphosed in important respects. A new divisive factor is the emergence of post-modernist and cultural relativist ideas with a critique that also challenges scientific rationalism. Much has changed since the great battles of the past were fought. This is not the era of Socrates, or of Galileo and the Inquisition, or of the Scopes monkey trial. New thinking is required.

The most important change is that the conflict matters more now than it ever has before given a highly competitive and inter-connected world. Science is a bigger prize today. It is the foundation and sine qua non of today’s high-tech

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global economy, which has produced greater material wealth than has ever been seen before. In light of this sweeping achievement, many secular individuals, even those who are not scientifically adept, feel that faith-based challenges to the primacy of scientific reason are deeply threatening to the health and progress of modern society.

Many religiously minded people, for their part, often feel uneasy and even threatened by the growing importance and power of science in society. While scientists claim that their research is value-neutral, religious conservatives assert that scientific advances have made it possible for people to “play God” in such fields as genetic screening and enhancement. What is more, scientists are actively seeking to explain phenomena that were long thought to belong to the realm of religion and the spirit. They are searching for a brain chemistry basis for altruism, for example, and evolutionary origins for belief in a higher being and the supernatural.

Secularism and Science in the 21st Century grew out of work done under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC) of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. ISSSC is a non-partisan and multi-disciplinary institute established in 2005 to advance understanding of the role of secular values and the process of secularization in contemporary society and culture. In May 2007, ISSSC organized a workshop and a roundtable discussion on “Science Education and Secular Values.” Leading scientists from various universities in the U.S. contemplated topical issues such as the competing influences of secularism and religion on science education as well as scientific literacy in a postmodern world. Simultaneously, during the academic year 2006-07 ISSSC faculty fellows designed new undergraduate courses, as part of the ISSSC curriculum development program, under the theme: “The Secular Tradition and Foundations of the Natural Sciences.” And in the winter of 2006-07 ISSSC sponsored a unique essay contest among Connecticut high school students asking their opinions of why most American students are not interested in science education.

This book has three parts. The first contains four essays with differing approaches to dealing with the ongoing conflict over evolution vs. creation. The second part offers strategies for the pedagogical challenges of teaching science. The book concludes with a public policy concern, scientific literacy, an issue which has major political and economic consequences for society and culture.

Jon D. Miller and Robert Pennock, in addressing the conflict over evolution vs. creation, say the “center must hold” in order to sustain the democratic system of government. Their political strategy is a call for centrists to resist the attempts of what they call “the religious extreme to undermine sound science

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education.” Daniel G. Blackburn maintains that creationism represents the most public

manifestation of a broad-based and well-financed effort to replace secular society with a theocratic state. For creationism to be true, he claims, most of what was learned in natural sciences, and much of what was learned in humanities and social sciences, would have to be untrue. Thus it is, he says, “an assault on knowledge and on rationality.”

Austin Dacey finds merit in the arguments of one of the most militant atheists, Richard Dawkins. He identifies what he calls “the Dawkins effect,” which by highlighting the conflict between science and religion actually raises awareness of messages of science-religion harmony and encourages the moderate middle to try to solve the conflict.

Frank L. Pasquale observes that wholesale conflict between advocates of “religion” and “science” is more intense in the United States than elsewhere. It is largely absent, for example, in Asia. He bemoans the tendency for each side to take a monolithic and unyielding approach, and suggests that many forms of religiosity are compatible with science.

In teaching science, one of the challenges is if, and how, to present both sides—evolution and creationism. William Cobern criticizes “philosophical secularism,” which is difficult for religious students to accept, and advocates instead “methodological secularism” as a tool to defuse the controversy over science education in public schools. He calls for teaching science, not scientism. Cobern suggests that students be allowed to explore their own ideas even though he realizes that this approach might open the classroom door to creationism, and might be counter to standard science.

David E. Henderson reflects on his experience developing college science courses and implementing methodological secularism in the classroom. His detailed examples of a new pedagogy, Reacting to the Past, demonstrate how the rules for teaching science proposed by Cobern could be put into practice in college courses.

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi reviews the historical struggles and culture wars to secularize the American education systems, from the ivory tower of academia to the public schools. He discusses why evolution became the contested issue between what he labels as “warm religion” and “cold science.”

Juan Antonio Aguilera Mochón contributes an international perspective to the volume by exploring the teaching of science and religion in Catholic Spain, arguing strongly against mixing the two domains. His purist approach is to keep the doors firmly closed to accommodating unscientific teaching in public education.

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Jeffrey Burkhardt challenges the Science Establishment, arguing that its members have a “vested interest in Scientific Literacy.” He argues that one ought to respect the right of others to believe in creationism, astrology, and Scientology, even if these are all (scientifically) wrong.

In debating the role of scientific literacy, Barry A. Kosmin and Juhem Navarro-Rivera assert the close relationship between secularism and democracy particularly regarding crucial decisions related to the common good. Kosmin and Navarro-Rivera claim that only well-informed citizens can fulfill their responsibilities in a democratic society when the public is asked as voters or jurors to weigh in on issues such as bio-medical treatments, DNA evidence, the environment, and energy consumption. In this they disagree with Burkhardt, who cites an imaginary “Ralph the barber” who is happily—and successfully—ignorant of science. Burkhardt poses a philosophical question: will having more knowledgeable people make America a better place to live? This is a critical dilemma. In an economically developed U.S. there is a division of labor and division of skill of expertise and indeed many “Ralphs” can live a productive life.

In addition to their point about “holding the center,” Miller and Pennock claim that the poor performance of U.S. high schools in teaching science and mathematics contributes to American adults’ minimal understanding of biological education. Americans, they claim, are unprepared to progress in scientific research and so maintain the nation’s technological advantage into the future.

Ariela Keysar and Frank L. Pasquale focus on individuals. They make use of the rare opportunity to hear directly from young people, potentially the next generation of scientists, expressing their ideas about their own generation’s lack of interest in science education. Some of the critical observations that the high school students make shed light on the perceptions of contemporary young people regarding science and science education. The students’ blunt criticism directed towards their own generation as well as the educational system ought to be seriously reviewed. For those who are interested in brainstorming some alternatives or options for the U.S. to compete internationally in science education, the students’ opinions and suggestions are enlightening.

The current contest between secular and religious values raises a number of questions. How can science education serve a population of students with diverse values, concerns and life experiences? What educational and pedagogical tools are needed to introduce such a model to the classroom in the 2�st century? What should research scientists and educators do to assume a leadership role in debates about the values of science, and the value of science to the well-being of

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individuals and society?The reader will find liberal religious responses and a range of “soft” and

“hard” secular responses presented in this volume, and the voices and insights of both Americans and non-Americans, trying to reconcile to various degrees faith and reason. While not necessarily agreeing with each other, the scholars offer useful intellectual frameworks as well as advice and practical solutions in all three of the areas covered by this book: ideology, pedagogy, and public policy. We hope that the reader finds each essay a provocative and positive contribution to important on-going debates, and that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.