Oppression in College Classrooms

Thisis the ideal. But the reality is that the world isn;t that simple. Some scientific principles will inevitably conflict with some religious beliefs. At that point, even while the teacher "ignores" religion, he/she is in effect discrediting a set of beliefs in a way that members of that religion will find offensive.Geology will of necessity discredit the idea of a young Earth or a global Flood. Biology will discredit special Creation. So on and so forth, and that's just the Judeo-Christian beliefs.It's unavoidable. We can't dictate acceptable scientific theories by setting boundaries from various and sundry religions - that violates the entire purpose of science.I'm not sure there's a good answer. But students need to understand that, regardless of whether they agree with the subjects being taught, they still need to understand the concepts. Science doesn't eschew disagreement, it simply follows evidence and accuracy - and teaching the concepts currently held as accurate in science is not itself a violation of anyone's faith.

The other problem is that contrasting scientific models with viewpoints that are not scientific has significant value. Students should know, for example, why Genesis is not in any way scientific, and why the Theory of Evolution is.The trick is to do so in a noncommittal way:"Science can only deal with that which is testable and verifiable. Religion is different. When Genesis says that God created the world in six days, we have no way to test or verify that. Oh, sure, evidence tells us that the Earth is old and that the processes that resulted in the world we see today took a lot longer than six days...but what if God created the world with the appearance of age? What if we all live in the Matrix right now, and there is no God? What if we're all just figments of God's imagination?Those are questions for your religious leader or your philosophy classes. Here, we will talk about what we can test, what we can verify, and what observable evidence shows us. Whether you think there is a great Truth that supersedes our human ability to investigate the natural world through our senses is a personal matter left to each of you; in this class you will be required to understand the concepts and principles we will learn about whether you agree with their implications and conclusions or not. Your English professors don't require you to like Pride and Prejudice, but they do expect you to read and understand it.The reason you need to understand these subjects is because they work. Even though we have some details wrong (and religious Truth or otherwise, we don't ever claim to know everything about anything; if we did, there would be no point to research), the principles you will learn here make predictions that have shown to be accurate in the real world. Whether you agree that evolution is the cause of human origins or not, the process is observable today and is the driving force behind understanding drug resistance, breeding, and a host of other real-world applications."Demonstrate the difference between scientific and religious methodology; show the difference between a scientific hypothesis and speculation; make it clear that nothing in class can really disprove that which is untestable, anyway; affirm that the intent is not to challenge religious belief, but to ensure competence in the scientific subject matter; show why the subject is important to understand.