Raising Children in a Scientific Age

Description

It’s good to get children talking about how science and religious faith interact. However, pressures and influences on young people lead many of them to suppose that the two are mutually exclusive. Timetables and examinations reinforce this impression. Science and religion in school are kept very separate from each other. Science teachers – even if they have faith – are not comfortable with addressing questions that relate to religion in their lessons, as this goes beyond the scope of the subject. Teachers of the humanities often don’t feel at home with scientific concepts and language.The way that scientists characterise science is very different to the way that science is portrayed in school. In school, science seems to be able to address every kind of question and to progress from one experiment to the next, producing answers that seem to be ‘facts’ supported by evidence. This is misleading. When scientists talk about science it seems to be a gentler business, tentative, sometimes moving forward and sometimes sideways or backwards. The questions science can answer are outweighed by the questions it cannot - and it is beyond science ever to tell us whether or not God (or any other supernatural being) exists.What do children really think about how science and religion relate? Professor Billingsley has researched this topic extensively. Finding that many young people see science and religion as conflicting was not a huge surprise – but what was surprising was that they seemed to think there was nothing they could do about this. One of the interviewees said she felt like a spectator, waiting for science and religion to battle it out and come back with news about which side had won. What are the barriers that prevent young people from examining a range of possibilities – including the position that science and religion are in harmony?The challenge for a parent or carer who wants to talk about Big Questions with children is where and how to begin. The answer depends on the age of the child, and the secret is to know what kinds of questions children are in the habit of asking. To help parents and carers have conversations about Big Questions with children, Professor Billingsley explains how education works and what kinds of topics children study at different ages.Professor Berry Billingsley is an enthusiast and advocate of science education, and another aim of the book is to nurture children’s intellectual curiosity and interest in science. Many of the chapters have activities that are quick and easy to do at home. These activities can also be ways to seed conversations about bigger questions and lead into a discussion about faith.Topics include: What children think about the relationship between faith and science; where to begin; working with the child’s imagination; helping children to think across boundaries; what science does and doesn’t say about God; the laws of science and the place of miracles.