A column at Inside Higher Ed by Portland State philosophy instructor Peter Boghossian raises a good question: Should faculty challenge the religious beliefs of students?
Here’s how he opens his essay:
Until two weeks ago, I had been laboring under the naïve assumption that one of the primary goals of every academic was to change students’ beliefs when they were based on inaccurate information. I was awakened from this dogmatic slumber at an interdisciplinary faculty meeting by colleagues who reacted with dismay to my confession that I had tried and failed to disabuse one of my students of Creationist beliefs.
Like I said, Boghossian raises a good question. Unfortunately, he doesn’t choose a very good case to examine. While teaching a philosophy course titled “Science and Pseudoscience,” one of his students writes the following on her final exam, which Boghossian characterizes as “Creationist”:
I wrote what I had to ‘agree’ with what was said in class, but in truth I believe ABSOLUTELY that there is an amazing, savior GOD, who created the universe, lives among us, and loves us more than anything. That is my ABSOLUTE, and no amount of ‘philosophy’ will change that.
If you know much about the Creation-Evolution-Intelligent Design controversies, you will recognize that the student’s statement is hardly “Creationist” in any sense beyond the broad assertion that God created the cosmos. It’s extremely disappointing that Boghossian has apparently left the student with the impression that “philosophy” rejects the idea that God, the creator of all things, loves us and lives among us. As a discipline, of course, philosophy makes no such claims. Further, many contemporary academic philosophers would, in fact, affirm this student’s statement. Perhaps she made additional statements during the course that revealed a narrower “Creationist” point of view, but Boghossian doesn’t share any of those, if they exist. [Read more…] about Should Faculty Challenge Students’ Religious Beliefs?