Re: [asa] dialog with YEC brethern

>>> "Roger G. Olson" <rogero@saintjoe.edu> 09/08/06 9:04 AM >>>writes:
My experience has been that students (97% in the 19-21 yo range) don't
care to engage at all in the origins issue. This frustrates me. I'm
also
aware that more than a few of these students come from Fundamentalist
backgrounds and do believe implicitly the YEC propagandist screed,
but are
unwilling to talk about their beliefs in an open forum.

Ted replies:
My experience has been just the opposite. I can't find enough spaces
in my
science/religion courses (which deal substantially or even entirely with
origins) for the students who want to be in them, and many of those
students
want to talk about the course material. Perhaps that's b/c nearly
all of my
students are from conservative Protestant backgrounds (although we do
have
some mainline students and a few RC students) and they have heard
about this
in their churches & schools, or even at home. I also structure my
courses,
however, to begin directly with the biblical and theological issues, not
with the science. I've found that this particular pedagogical move
makes
everything else go much better. I also give those issues significant
space
in the course, at least one-third of the course in fact. Much less than
that and it doesn't go very well and students don't want to talk as
much.

ted

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Received on Sat Sep 9 13:52:59 2006