The Relationship Between Science and Religion: A Contentious and Complex Issue Facing Science Education

Abstract

This chapter considers the relationship between science and religion and how this might impact on teaching and learning science. Whilst the teaching of scientific ideas about human origins to some student populations is recognised as a potential area of contention, there is a deeper underlying tension between different understandings of the nature of science and the worldview commitments of many of those holding religious faiths. Just as there are many religions and diverse traditions within major world religions such as Christianity and Islam, there are also different ways of understanding the nature (and in particular, the limits) of science. The core set of scientific values generally adopted by members of the scientific community is not inherently contrary to the worldviews of most learners from many religious traditions. There is more scope for conflict when science is understood to imply additional ‘scientistic’ commitments that see the supernatural as denied by science rather than – as the term itself suggests – being outside the range of application of natural science. Teaching that is perceived to be adopting such extra-scientific metaphysical commitments may be perceived as excluding students with religious beliefs regardless of whether or not they are open to considering scientific accounts of origins.