Worldview Conflicts in Education: Origins and the Basis of Science Education
By Dr. Robert Acuff|Published Date: August 09, 2010
“The wonder of life arising from nonliving matter, from rocks and water and a few basic molecules, is life itself. Is life miraculous? According to our understanding of the origins of information and how we make scientific decisions, life’s emergence fits the description. Science and a miracle in a single sentence. There was a time when that would have been seen as an obvious oxymoron.” – Gerald L. Schroeder, PhD.; in, God According to God
Critical to every purpose of life discussion is the ‘origins’ question: ‘Where did I come from?’ - It sets the stage for all other inquires of the world we experience and the conclusions we reach regarding our purpose. Choosing to eschew a Creator, Intelligent Designer, or God as the Mastermind behind all of creation, leads to a roll of the dice (chance), aliens, or the primordial soup of evolution. The later choices leave little hope and purpose for life and certainly will impact how we view and interact in every other worldview sphere. In the Science and Technology Worldview Sphere, the divide relating to origins couldn’t be greater.
In sorting through the issues of origin, most secular institutions of higher learning stand firmly in the Darwinian and Neo-Darwinian camps, having arrived at that conclusion decades ago; this is what will be taught in the biology classroom. In fact the lines of demarcation are so deeply drawn and job security and academic tenure so dependent on towing the evolution party line, no other view point is entertained or welcomed. Students enrolled in these institutions are taught evolution, regardless of the gaping holes in the theory; however, why are the large majority of biologists incapable of pointing to the very conclusion Schroeder declares above – “Science and a miracle in a single sentence”? What about Christian institutions of higher learning? Are the instructors bringing a Christian worldview into the classroom? Are science faculty in Christian institutions different than their secular counterparts or have they been compromised in adopting a “real view” presented by science and a “moral view” by Scripture? How are Christian institutions encouraging promising students to enter the sciences without compromising their Christian worldview in the process?
Dr. Bruce Gordon, Associate Professor at The King’s College (www.tkc.edu) in New York City and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, Washington (www.discovery.org) will be our guest on the Forum as we continue our series on Worldview Conflicts in Education. Dr. Gordon has a rather eclectic path to science, first pursuing a degree in piano performance at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto before moving to a bachelor degree in applied mathematics and philosophy from the University of Calgary. He holds a masters degree in analytical philosophy at Calgary and a masters of arts in religion from Westminster Theological. His doctorate from Northwestern University is in the history and philosophical foundations in modern physics focusing on the implications of statistical phenomena in quantum theory for the metaphysics of possibility and necessity. Join the discussion on Monday, August 9, at 8 pm EDT.
