Science vs. religion : what scientists really think - File PDF

114Society and Broader PublicsEthan thinks that religion can help scientists deal with controversial issues.In his role as a professor, he is interested in teaching graduate students “how tothink about what science is and how to do science.” He compared his approachto science education at his university with that of some of his colleagues, indicatingthat his approach is different from just “distributing facts to [students],”which his colleagues seem to focus on. He went on: “Because it’s not really thatdifficult to find any sort of fact you want nowadays. Anybody can go learnabout a topic pretty quickly on their own, but actually thinking about the disciplineand what you’re supposed to be doing in science is a very difficult problem.”Ethan gave the analogy of an engineer who wants to build a bridge. Theengineer, if he has the plans, the materials, and the people to help him, knowswhen he is finished. But the work of a research scientist is different; it’s extremelyopen-ended. There are no clear-cut blueprints for building a bridge. There arenot even exact bridges in need of building. Instead, science at a universityinvolves teaching students to think beyond their own research. For Ethan, thisincludes teaching them how to apply science, how to communicate it to abroader audience, how to think about science from “some sort of moral andethical standpoint.”But the biology department where Ethan works does not seem so interestedin these broader issues of public science. He thinks his department ought tochange and make faculty take more responsibility for teaching students aboutcommunicating science to the public. But because he is only an assistant professor,he feels particularly constrained, unable to give his true opinions. Hetries instead to effect change in more subtle ways. For example, he will notdirectly give students or colleagues his opinions on embryonic stem cellresearch. But he might direct them to a lecture on campus, perhaps by a lawprofessor who deals frankly with the issue. When I asked Ethan why he feels soconstrained, he said that it’s because his campus is an “amazingly homogeneousenvironment.” When I asked Ethan what he meant, he responded ratheremphatically: “Everything. Politically. Religiously. Everything. It’s amazing. Itreally is. I never would have believed it, but it really is. You certainly have pocketsof people [who are different] on any big campus, but overall, particularly atthe faculty level, the homogeneity is just amazing.” Ethan talked about being ina faculty meeting and other faculty making comments about politics or religionwith “just the assumption that everybody there absolutely agrees with them,and they really have no idea.”So instead of rocking the boat, Ethan simply invites his colleagues andstudents to attend lectures about public science with him: “It gives the studentsa chance to see how some of the real basic research has very big policy implications.”Ethan cares a lot about helping students understand the different