essay
When we look at the heavens on a clear moonlit night, the twinkling stars and the silvery moon seem to be staring at us. Some acquaintance with astronomy might make us reflect on the incredible distances that separate us from the celestial bodies. We may have heard, for example, that the Pole Star, which is…
Limits of Language and Common Sense We all are realists. If we were not, the surrounding world would soon destroy us. We must take seriously information given us by our senses. If, when crossing the street, we looked for extrasensory inspiration instead of watching the traffic lights, we would have been very quickly eliminated from…
People often say that physics is a science of matter or of material world, but while most books on theoretical physics contain lots of mathematics, few mention anything about matter. This is because physics develops by constructing mathematical models of the world and then by confronting them with empirical results. One may say that the…
For many years, I looked forward to reading The New York Times science supplement all week long. Come Tuesday morning, I was sure to learn of some intriguing discovery or elegant theory that would set my pulse racing with that rush of pleasure all scholars secretly seek, and which natural science provides in a particularly…
‘The Science and Religion Debate is the name given to discussion and reflection on the historical interactions between science and religion, on how science and theology have both shaped cultures and been shaped by them. It explores human interactions with the world, and ways in which we search for truth.’ (Bews 2005, 24) I wrote…
A new project for “Science and Religion in Schools” must start from the position of existing curricula and the way in which issues on science and religion are now taught in the context of religious education and other subjects.
We hope the UK project will encourage others around the world to embark on their own project, inspired by ours.
In his 1924 book on The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science, Edwin Arthur Burtt wrote this perceptive passage: “An adequate cosmology will only begin to be written when an adequate philosophy of mind has appeared, and such a philosophy of mind must provide full satisfaction both for the motives of the behaviorists who wish to…
…those who know binary and those who don’t. Russell Jacoby knows binary and likes it! For Jacoby, there are two kinds of people: those, like Jacoby, who think in binary oppositions, and those who think that things are (or ought to be made) more complicated. Here’s an example of what we’re talking about: In the…
Why is school science, especially chemistry and physics, so unpopular in wealthier countries, and what can we do about it?