Christian Science and Biology

[lynnear]

Are there other Christian Science biology teachers out there? If so, how do you handle teaching about things like cancer, AIDS, and other diseases?
I may have the opportunity to teach a general biology course at the Community College level and I don't know how to handle teaching these topics. Ideally I'd like to keep them out of the curriculum (or at least not have the curriculum revolve around them), but if I can't make those changes, am I hindering my ability to grow spiritually by having to learn and focus on these things? It certainly doesn't sound like fun...

Any thoughts?

[livinglightly]

Can you add to the curriculum? Like offering different views on the nature of illness? I have a book about the history of science. It doesn't include anything medical. It says, medicine is not a hard science. It has theories that come and go. Unlike, say geometry. Might be interesting to broaden the discussion.

Are these theories really science?


shelly

[Courtenay]

Hi Lynnear,

Good question... I did biology to Year 12 level (end of high school in Australia), before I knew about Christian Science - which left me with a lot to unlearn. :( But even as we were being taught all the standard stuff out of our textbooks, especially about DNA and genetic determinism, something in me kept saying that this COULDN'T be right... not only was it monstrously unfair, but I could see so much evidence that a matter-based view of life just could not explain everything. I even read some books by real biologists who are starting to question, quite seriously, the views that have been rigidly held by this discipline for so long - especially that genes are an unchanging blueprint that determines every aspect of how an organism lives, behaves, and dies. Not that any of this questioning came into our course at all, but I knew it was there - and it helped me accept a better Science when I found it! :D So certainly your students will have this innate capacity to know that there's something deeper than biology that governs us. :)

If you do have to teach biology, perhaps you could look for and include some of these alternative views? Encourage your students to think for themselves and question what they read. Biology and the other sciences don't actually have all the answers at all... the problem is they're thought of as if they do. (An Indigenous Australian lecturer I once had called Western science a form of fundamentalism.) It can be hard, though, if you're given a curriculum to teach and you're ordered to stick to it.

There was an issue of the Christian Science Sentinel just a few weeks ago - March 3 - on "Do your genes really define you?" That had some very helpful ideas in it. Also, the best article I've ever read on the whole science-vs-religion debate was in the Sentinel of Jan. 9, 2006: "Creation Controversy: taking the questions deeper". I highly recommend that one - it makes these issues so much clearer by taking a spiritual standpoint. It's a brilliant article.

Perhaps the best thing you could do is to pray about this issue. God won't let you do anything that impedes your spiritual growth! However it works out, there WILL be an answer. Just trust the One who's really in control! ;)

With love,
Courtenay

[lynnear]

Thanks for your comments - they are helpful. I do think that biological principles could be discussed without always having to refer back to diseases etc., but the tricky part of the job is that I would be coordinating the course for 4 other instructors - and we all would have to agree on what was taught. If it was just me, I would feel more at liberty to add/delete portions of the course. This, however needs to be a collaborative effort. I certainly would hope any science teacher would teach students to look at the evidence before them when coming to a conclusion...that is the process of science. And I also thinks its important to help students know that we are all constantly learning. Scientists are constantly reevaluating based on new information.

Sometimes I feel like you could make the case for or against teaching almost anything. Even taking a sociology or anthropology class that looks at people's cultures could be viewed as unscientific if by studying the culture you are limiting an individual or judging their acts unfairly.

Is it hypocritical to teach about mitosis/meiosis, DNA replication etc. and mentally be denying this as the base of our identity? Maybe the question is getting bigger...how do we live in the relative while cherishing the absolute? Are there different degrees of relative that are OK and those that are not?

Thank you for the references to the sentinel issues...I'll go find those.

[Kate]

hey,

I would stay out of it! If something is going against your principles, and it is a fundamental part of the job, then perhaps it's not right for u.

[Starlight Rider]

Mary Baker Eddy wrote somewhere, I forget where, that physics are slowly yielding to metaphysics, and her words were most accurate. About that same time, in 1887, the Michelson-Morley experiment (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment) opened the door to the theory of relativity and modern quantum physics. Many of today's physicists are open to, and some are even promoting, the idea that a universal consciousness underlies the entire structure of what we perceive as a physical universe. They say it is the only way to explain the seeming paradoxes of quantum physics.

Modern biology hasn't yet caught up to modern physics yet, and still takes a matter based approach. You might see if you can find a way to bridge the gap between modern biology and modern physics. That approach could satisfy the scientific need, while keeping open the possibility of a greater cause, without resorting to religious terminology. A good place to start might be a book called The Self Aware Universe by Amit Goswami, a physics professor at the University of Oregon.

[Courtenay]

You know, I've just been thinking - there's Principia, the school and college in the US run entirely by and for Christian Scientists (not affiliated with the church). They teach the standard curriculum, as far as I know, and don't explicitly teach Christian Science in the classroom - but all their teachers and students are required to be adherents of Christian Science. I know they teach biology at the college, so they must have some way of doing it! Their website is www.prin.edu/college. Maybe you could check it out and e-mail someone there with your concerns? I'm sure they'd be happy to share some ideas. :)

[Courtenay]

hey,

I would stay out of it! If something is going against your principles, and it is a fundamental part of the job, then perhaps it's not right for u.

Hi Kate (is that Kate Marr? ;))

I was thinking much the same thing, I admit... sometimes it's not so easy, though, to just bail out of a job. Maybe it's best to just keep turning to God and knowing that you'll be shown the right answer, Lynnear. Either there'll be some way you can teach this class without feeling you're doing the wrong thing, or you'll be led to a better way of exercising your talents for good. You'll know what's right. :)