Some wonder whether blending religion and science in college classrooms
crosses the line

Rick Wilson and Charles Honey / The Grand Rapids Press
04/07/2001
The Grand Rapids Press
All Editions
Page B1

Professor Doug Kindschi has no problem mixing religion and science. In
fact, he has built a class around the topic at Grand Valley State
University. As a Christian and dean of GVSU's science and mathematics
department, Kindschi likes to explore the questions, contradictions and
connections between the science he teaches and the faith he holds dear.
Likewise, the class allows students to examine the lofty questions that
often put religion and science at odds. "If Charles Darwin was right,
where does the basic human tendency toward altruism come from?" Kindschi
asked a recent class.

Kindschi developed the class with Professor Theresa Castelao- Lawless, and
they are offering it for the first time this semester. Designated as
Science 321: Science, Mathematics and Religion: Different Ways of Knowing,
the class is among a group of broad- themed courses that upper-level
students must take. "We have evidence of evolution," Kindschi said. "And
yet, we know historically that long before theology and long before some
of our most basic scientific theories were developed, there was this sense
among ancient human beings of something else out there -- a sense of
connection to some greater being and each other."

"We're trying to get people to look at a topic from different
perspectives. A lot of our students come to us from very conservative
backgrounds, and what we would like them to see is how various scientists
put together their own religious beliefs.

"We want them to see that just because we may disagree, we don't have to
just butt heads and call each other names."

The class is an example of how educators try to bring religious
perspectives to bear on science without crossing the constitutional line
separating church from state.Legislature enters the debate Where that line
should be drawn is under the microscope of public opinion. A bill pending
in the Michigan Legislature would allow public middle- and high-school
teachers to offer "purposeful, intelligent design" as a theory of how life
was formed. The same bill characterizes evolution as an "unproven theory."

Several West Michigan Republicans are co-sponsors of the bill -- Wayne
Kuipers of Holland, Barb VanderVeen of Allendale, Jerry Kooiman of Grand
Rapids and Joanne Voorhees of Wyoming. The issue is not as hot in higher
education. But some observers see academia as often hostile to bringing
religious ideas into nonreligion classes -- especially science classes.

Faculty at other area colleges say religion and science generally are and
should be kept separate. But they credit GVSU for a creative attempt to
examine the inter-relationships of the two. They also say questions from
religious students should not be barred from science classes. "Make the
most fertile environment you can for them to ask those questions," said
Gregory Forbes, a biology professor at Grand Rapids Community College. "If
you don't, we've failed as educators."

Forbes is education director of the Michigan Scientific Evolution
Education Initiative, which trains K-12 teachers on how to teach
evolution. Many college students have not learned scientific evolution
because their high school teachers did not teach it properly, Forbes said.
Science teachers should not teach religion any more than trigonometry
teachers should teach about the Holocaust, Forbes said. It is not only
unconstitutional but an inappropriate mixing of disciplines, he added.
When students raise religious issues in science classes, Forbes said,
professors should not squelch them but explain the difference between
science and religious belief systems.

"Many teachers don't feel comfortable in mediating such a discussion,"
said Forbes, director of the Science Education Center at GRCC. He praised
GVSU for designing a course that addresses the apparent conflicts between
science and religion. But he worries some professors could use such a
course to advance their religious agendas. "If these are done well, the
student is armed with more information with which to make their own
decision. If the power of the podium is abused, we have a very serious
problem."

Another area scholar sees many scientists and educators warming to the
idea that religion deserves serious discussion in college classrooms.'It
was systematically ignored' "For a long time, religion was something
thought to be so unworthy of thinking about seriously. It was
systematically ignored," said E. Thomas Lawson, chairman of the
comparative religion department at Western Michigan University. "I don't
think that's any longer the case."

At WMU, between 800 and 1,000 students a semester take courses in
religion, said Lawson, who has taught there for 40 years. Although none of
the school's courses compare religion and science, Lawson said he and
other religion faculty study religion from scientific perspectives. "We
put a scientific focus on religious ideas and practices, but we don't try
to argue religious concepts or scientific concepts are equivalent." Lawson
has students explore how the mind produces religious ideas and how they
influence behavior. But WMU's religion courses do not presume to offer
religious explanations for scientific phenomena, he said, adding religious
explanations for creation almost always come from a Judeo-Christian
perspective.

"If you realize there are thousands of religions in the world, there's no
way in a public university you can privilege one religion. What about all
the other stories of creation? Are they compatible with science or not?"
Too often, faculty at public colleges and universities shut out serious
discussion of religious ideas from their classrooms, a local Christian
academic says.

"There are faculty who simply are hostile to religion, and there are
faculty who are personally very respectful but believe it's very important
to separate religion from intellectual life," said David Hoekema, a
philosophy professor and former academic dean at Calvin College.

The gap has been particularly tough to close in religion and the sciences,
Hoekema says. But he sees the GVSU course as a example of a growing
openness about the link between religion and other areas of learning.
"There's a renewed recognition that science is a human activity, and it
takes place in communities shaped by social and cultural and religious
attitudes."

The GVSU class covers elements of physics, chemistry, biology and math,
all taught within the context of the prevailing religious beliefs when
important scientific theories emerged. Kindschi and Castelao-Lawless bring
in other faculty each week to lecture on specific topics.

In regard to evolution vs. creation, Kindschi teaches that people ask a
faulty question when they presume it must be one or the other. The point
of the class, after all, he says, is to look for elements of science and
religion that confirm each other. "It's a false question when you're
dealing with something that has a very different context," Kindschi said
of biblical accounts of creation. He notes that the Bible was written at a
time when Babylonian theology was popular, which suggests the Earth is
evil, humans are a slave to the gods and creation comes about through some
cataclysmic upheaval. "We wouldn't expect the Bible to give us reasons for
the second World War," he said. "It may give us some of the reasons why
men go to war, but we can't expect it to deal with the current details of
science or history."

"The theory of evolution is so strong in biology because it has this
tremendous explanatory power," Castelao-Lawless said. "But so often,
science and religion are thought of as mutually exclusive. We wanted to
show students the connections. "Students weigh in on class Students say
the class offers a broad perspective they do not often get in classes that
exclusively teach science or religious philosophies.

Jamie Grefe, a 21-year-old sophomore from Alpena and a liberal arts major,
said it offers him some tangible solutions to questions he had growing up
in a private Christian school. "Religion has always been an important part
of my upbringing, so I guess it was the religious aspects of the class
that drew me to it," Grefe said. "It covers the complete density and the
history of science and religion. So it lets you ... see all the different
kinds of thought that have gone on throughout the years."

Grefe is one of only eight students in the class, which did not get listed
in the university course catalog this school year. The small group makes
for intimate discussions with faculty from various university departments.
But Kindschi and Castelao-Lawless hope attendance will increase next year
when word of the class spreads.

"Certainly in this community, people take religion seriously -- as they
should," Kindschi said. "The question becomes how do they incorporate into
their world view both religion and the discoveries of modern science."
Kindschi and Castelao-Lawless expect GVSU will fund the class next year.
This year, it is being paid for by a $10,000 competitive grant from the
Templeton Foundation's Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences.