Lee Meadows
Posted on 11/28/2009 10:53:49 AM PST by Bodleian_Girl
Faith and science: UAB professor's book helps teachers present evolution without offense
UAB education professor Lee Meadows grew up in love with science, but his conservative Southern Baptist upbringing left him somewhat conflicted.
Lee Meadows
Meadows has written "Missing Link," a textbook on how to teach evolution without offending religious beliefs. "It's a book for teachers to help them deal with the issue of evolution with middle and high school students," he said.
Meadows said he knows the student's perspective from experience.
"Biology is my favorite subject," he said. "But evolution scared me off as a student. I was afraid of evolution from the first I heard of it. I don't know that I've reconciled it, but I've realized science has its own set of rules."
Meadows, now a member of a conservative Presbyterian Church in America congregation, remains an evangelical. But he's forged a way to study evolution on the terms of science without compromising faith.
"My faith is still important to me," he said.
Now he looks at the issue through the eyes of a teacher.
The key for Meadows, a former high school science teacher, has been "teaching by inquiry," a method he said encourages students to study the fossil record, tracing animals back through time and understanding scientific explanations of changes and apparent adaptations.
"Teaching by inquiry is hands-on science on speed," Meadows said. "It's giving them the evidence, then seeing how scientists interpret the evidence. Inquiry always says start with the evidence."
Meadows offers one cardinal rule for teachers: "Never challenge a kid's religious beliefs," he said. "I want teachers to say, 'What you believe the Bible says is really important.'"
Students should learn science on its own terms, not as a competing explanation to religion, Meadows said. "Science limits itself to natural evidence."
It's not necessary to mock anyone's beliefs to teach evolution, Meadows said.
"Science teachers in public schools have two legal duties: they have to teach science, but they also have to care for the kids, as if they were parents for that hour," Meadows said.
Public school science teachers are bound to teach the theory of evolution and the evidence that leads scientists to embrace it, he said.
"Their duty is to teach evolution," Meadows said. "In a public school, they are barred from teaching creationism, which courts have ruled is inherently religious."
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was explained in his book "On the Origin of Species," published in 1859. Because of the 150th anniversary of the book's publication and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth in 1809, there have been many commemorations of Darwin and his life and theories this year.
*There has also been backlash by those opposed to Darwin's theories. Filmmakers Jon and Andy Erwin, [sons of Senator Hank Erwin] of Birmingham-based Erwin Brothers Motion Pictures premiered their anti-evolution documentary, "The Mysterious Islands," on Tuesday at the Alabama Theater. They did their filming in the Galapagos Islands, reviewing Darwin's conclusions and siding with another member of Darwin's ship, Captain Robert Fitzroy of the HMS Beagle, who disputed many of Darwin's conclusions.
Meadows said that while many may object to Darwinian theories on theological grounds, it's important that students be given a solid science education.
In his book for teachers, he recommends lesson plans that go to source material on fossils.
Meadows recommends studying the work of J.G.M. "Hans" Thewissen, professor of anatomy at the Northeastern Ohio Universities, who has documented the evolution of whales. He directs teachers to the Web site www.neoucom.edu/DEPTS/ANAT/whaleorigins.htm.
"There is piles and piles of evidence for evolution, and scientists can explain that," Meadows said. "What the kids believe at the end of the day -- that's their choice."
The ONLY thing the so called evidence demonstrates is commonality of substances used to 'form'/'create' life. There is NOT one shred of evidence of human flesh beings creeping, crawling, swinging or hanging from one species to another. IT is a fantasy modeled much like the modelers of global warming have created.
The scientific method is the only model that produces reliable results.
In 1861 the French Academy of Science published a list of some 51 so-called scientific facts which apparently disproved the Bible. Today, there is not one reputable scientist that would stand behind any one of these so-called facts.
The library of the Louvre has 3.5 miles of shelving containing obsolete science books.
400 years ago, a leading scientist numbered the stars at 1056. People then assumed the Bible was wrong when it compared the number of stars in heaven to the number of grains of sand of our seas.
Jeremiah 33:22 says, “The host of the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea be measured.
I Corinthians 15:41 says stars differ in beauty and brilliance.
This was writen thousands of years before the telescope. The Bible was correct. The scientists were wrong. No error in The Bible. In fact, scientists proved the Bible correct.
We should not only consider scientific methods but also history. I don’t believe you could find many reputable historians that would deny that Jesus walked this earth. He has also had more impact on this planet than anyone.
Science has, in fact, strengthened my faith.
Heard a good analogy the other day..namely that evolution bringing “all this” about by chance is akin to a crane in a junkyard picking up random parts here and there and forming a fully built *working* PC.
“So you no long believe in physics, astronomy, biology, geology, chemistry...?”
- And how many of the above who have Ph.Ds actually buy into the scam that is global warming?
Step back from the bong. There is not one shred in anything I have posted to suggest that human flesh being anything other than human flesh. I have not addressed the creation of life either. I have only addressed the emergence of variety.
Hmmm...I think you meant to reply to the poster I replied to, not me. We’re on the same side on this one.
bookmark
Alot of studies in science came from the bible, some found in the book of Job. I don’t think you can have the science without the faith...
I love Blount co. We lived in St.Clair, another nice area of Al. Now we are in Madison.... I would love to go back to St. Clair.
You are sounding like BJClinton on the matter of what the meaning of the word is, is. Variety of what?
True story. I was helping my daughter with homework calculating the area of geometric objects. I wanted to refresh my own recollection and so looked at her textbook. The standard formulas weren't there. I went to a homework help website and gave them to her. Unbelieving it could be that easy, she confronted her "teacher" who sheepishly admitted I was right. Apparently, in an "inquiry" curriculum the students are to figure it all out on their own, as if Sir Issac never lived.
Yes, what a small world!
I was asking about Turkey Creek because I picked up a book in a used book bookstore for a dollar, a memoir of sorts, about a family who had a summer home at Turkey Creek.
They called their area of Turkey Creek "Bull Frog Bend." I knew it better as "The Blue Hole."
For years I wondered about the house on the hill across from the big rock at the blue hole.
Now I know. :-)
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