I do approach this task with initial apprehension and questioning where religion feature in my practice and workshop. In my experience with religious discourse, I associate it with quite negative connotations and oppressive history. It doesn’t sit well with me, the rebranding of religion without acknowledgment of the scars religious practices left in countries, communities, and people’s lives.
Not to say that is up to me to approve or not of religious practices and I truly believe in personal choices and freedom. What bothers me is how some religious groups consider themselves as having a free ticket to judge and point rules for all to follow. The sense of entitlement comes from a history that had for too long put religion above all.
As a scientist that runs science workshops in a laboratory, I have very little experience with dealing with religion. However, I do understand that some religious beliefs go against some core concepts of science and that might drive some students away. It is not up to me to force science onto the students work and they are free to come and learn as they see fit, it’s up to them whether they will go against some core beliefs to apply science or not, and not the other way around.
I always had the impression that most of our students come from a secular background or don’t bring their religion to their practices. However, Mark Dean pointed out some interesting statistics from CSM students where 50% of respondents claim to have religious beliefs regardless of that being an ongoing practice. This belief, as he reiterates, can come from following a structured religion or just a belief in some sort of spiritual life, not necessarily engaged with a set of rules and traditions. I question if part of belief in spirituality in a response to the fear of the after-life embedded in our culture by traditional regions, but it is not up to me to argue that.
Kwame interestingly points out that religion is not only a matter of beliefs, but also community and cultural backgrounds. One can belong to a community without believing in God or one can believe in scriptures without understanding them. I can resonate with this in my work as I don’t want students to approach their learning with blind faith in the subject or reading material. Critical thinking is important whether in science or religion, nothing should go unquestioned. Making sure the students understand the premises, limitations, and the scope of what is being thought is important. The freedom to question and challenge premises is the outcome I desire.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds
https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/higher-power-religion-faith-spirituality-belief/
Comments can be found on: https://relearning.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/05/29/learning-to-create-space-for-dialogue-and-understanding/
2 replies on “Reflections on religion, teaching and science.”
My views on religion are in complete alignment with what you have presented in your post. Alongside, the historical practices of organised religions, which have been harmful to societies that had their own established forms of spiritual practices, which often had harmonious relationships with the natural world, its reliance on ‘fear’ and the afterlife is one I find hugely problematic.
I don’t think I am clear on your understanding of Kwame’s lecture, ‘one can belong to a community without believing in God or one can believe in scriptures without understanding them’. My experience coming from an ethnic community group that has a high population of religious practitioners, has been that faith, community and cultural practices are so intertwined that it is impossible to describe oneself as Christian or Muslim without believing in God. The belief that there is a God is central to the practice of organised religion. What I understood from his lecture was that the practice of religion and its centrality on scripture shifts changes with time in the same way that cultural practices and languages change over time. Religion, like any other social practice, changes and mutates and the scriptures on which practices are based on now are unlikely to be those from millennia ago. My conclusion, religions have been socially developed from the beginning and are just another form of social organising.
I totally agree that fostering critical thinking and questioning in learning spaces is key for ‘navigating’ faith in the classroom. I say navigating because my position on faith will undoubtedly influence my approach as I’m not a neutral subject in the learning process. Your desired outcome, which is to support students to ‘question and challenge premises’, is surely what it means to teach critical thinking. Thanks for pushing my view on this further beyond my position of ‘creating the space for debate and understanding in the learning space’.
My understanding (or mis-?) of Kwame’s lecture is that the religious identities can sometimes be so ingrained in a community that even non followers will carry customs and practices without even acknowledging the existence of God. I do see it as a cultural setup that goes unquestioned and we grow accustomed to them. As you pointed out on your experience (if i understood correctly), the faith, community and cultural practices are very intertwined and i suppose even as an Atheist is quite difficult to separate the aspects of the culture that you practice and celebrate that are related to religion vs the ones that are not.
Of course upon reflection we can see where some cultural practices come from and reinvent them our way, but until we reach that level of understanding we can just replicate behaviour or traditions without even realising how deeply connected to the religion of others they are.
I say that based on my default upbringing in a mostly Catholic country. I’m an atheist and haven’t been to church in about 20 years, but looking back in my upbringing and things that I hold dear about my country’s culture, a lot of them are indeed religious related celebrations that now takes the shape of almost folklore. Let’s say Carnival, June and July festivities that are actually Saint dates and I miss the dearly. The music, food, dances, all of that for me without any link to faith, but came from a place of catholic festivities and evolved to be a holiday for all. So in a way my Brazilianess comes from a catholic place, whether I follow that or not.
Perhaps that’s not what Kwame intended to say at all, but it made me reflect on it regardless.