2009/12/13
What my freshmen think.
Based on their final papers–which had to discuss the relationship between science and religion–here’s what I learned about how my students see the world:
- There is very little common ground for religion and science to meet. This idea comes from both sides: the religious students and the non-religious students simply don’t see any way for the two perspectives to meet.
- College is full of political correctness, especially when religious beliefs are being ignored/rejected/laughed at. (These kids are Freshman: how much of this have they experienced in their first 15 weeks of university???)
- Global warming has been officially discredited. (Apparently they are referring to the recent exposure of scientist’s e-mail, which by the time I was grading the papers had been shown to be mostly a non-issue.)
- Religion is really a matter of personal belief and not of actual truths. (Yes, many of the texts we read talked about it this way. But the students who went this route didn’t really question whether the texts were correct in describing religion that way.)
- The Bible truly disproves evolution, etc. (On the other hand, one student claimed that science had proven the Bible, the date of Adam & Eve, the Star of Bethlehem, etc.)
It was an interesting set of papers. I had to set aside my own beliefs and simply look at whether the students were making bona fide arguments (as opposed to simply summarizing texts), whether they were using the texts fairly, and whether they were thinking very deeply about the issues.
Interesting, indeed.
I wonder what I’ll learn from my Spring course on world scriptures?
