The Learning about Science and Religion (LASAR)
Project
LASAR is a collaborative project for the Faraday Institute
for Science and Religion (based at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge) involving
researchers from the University of Reading’s Institute of Education (Dr
Berry Billingsley; Helen Newdick) and the University of Cambridge’s
Faculty of Education (Dr Keith S Taber;
Fran Riga).
The premise behind LASAR was the conjecture that many school age children
would have little idea of the range of views taken on the relationship between
two of the major areas of human culture, science and religion. Moreover,
it was suspected that a common perception might be that science and religion
are somewhat exclusive ways of looking at the world.
The basis for such assumptions were (a) the findings reported from some
previous research projects from various parts of the world; (b) awareness
that the arguments typical of those who seek to find commonalities or accommodations
between scientific ideas and religious belief tends to rely on high-level
abstract thinking that will not be available to younger learners; and (c)
a perception that where such issues are tackled in high-profile media the
notion that the scientific worldview is an atheistic one seems common.
With some seed funding from the John Templeton Institute, we have been
able to undertake a small-scale pilot survey of year 9 students (13-14 year
olds) in a small number of English schools. We found that among our sample
there were students who considered aspects of common religious belief (e.g.
a creator God) to be contrary to the scientific worldview. We also found
that proportions of students who, for example, believed in the power of prayer,
considered that science excluded such a possibility. It would seem from
this initial work that many pupils have a limited view of science which ascribes
a particular set of metaphysical values (about the possibility God acting
in the World for example) that are claimed by vocal atheist scientists to
scientists in general. It also seemed than quite a high proportion of our
sample held equally simplistic notions of religious understandings – for
example considering that the scriptural accounts of the creation of the world
needed to be read literally (although this is not a position that is not
taken by the main Churches).
These are important issues for at least two main reasons. For one thing,
many students clearly have a restricted and unrepresentative understanding
of how science and religion may be understood to relate, which is clearly
of itself a concern. In more pragmatic terms, the finding that students from
faith backgrounds (which most of our sample claimed) often thought that
‘good scientists’ signed up to particular views on matters such as a creator
God, prayer, miracle etc. that were contrary to their own personal values
and beliefs is clearly likely to be a factor when these students consider
science options for further education and careers. There is the potential
here both to reduce the possible poor of future scientists (which is already
a major concern) and to fuel a viscous circle where science primarily attracts
only those young people who reject those aspects of religious belief considered
incompatible with scientific work.
The LASAR project will be taking this work forward in two distinct ways.
Part of the project will be concerned with collecting further research
evidence to develop the understanding of this issue. We will be looking to
compare the perceptions of students at different secondary ages to consider
any age-related shifts. We will also be looking to explore student
thinking in more depth, to find out more about the source of information
available to them, how they interpret and understand the ideas they meet,
how they weigh different sources of information, and the extent to which
such ideas influence both their own thinking about the issues themselves
and their degrees of aspiration to study and work in science. This project
strand will allow us better describe and understand the current situation.
What did Y9 (13-14 year old) students tell us?:
Parallel with this, and based on what we have already found out,
the project also has a resource development strand, which will support students
and teachers by making available to learners opportunities to find out more
about a wide range of views about how science and religion are understood
to relate, and so to offer a more balanced view of the different approaches
to the issue in contemporary thought.