Skepticast #145: Should Biology Students Pass the Course If They Don't Understand the Science?

 
Steven Novella (photo) is a skeptic and a neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine. He publishes a podcast called Skeptics Guide to the Universe. In the April 30th edition he discusses the proposed Florida Laws on "Academic Freedom" with Bob Novella, Evan Bernstein, and Jay Novella [Skepticast #145].

About one quarter of the way into the podcast they turn their attention to the issue of educating creationists at university. They discuss my views on the subject as described in Do Fundamentalist Christians Actively Resist Learning?. Here's what I said ...

Keeping all these cautions in mind, it is still quite remarkable that some significant percentage of fundamentalist Protestants can go to college and still reject the basic scientific fact that humans evolved. Note that in all of the other groups the college educated subset are more inclined to accept evolution. (Do most of those "college" educated fundamentalists go to some cheap reproduction of a college run by a religious organization?)

As we've seen time and time again on the blogs (and elsewhere), the Christian fundamentalists have erected very strong barriers against learning. It really doesn't matter how much they are exposed to rational thinking and basic scientific evidence. They still refuse to listen.

This is one of the reasons why I would flunk them if they took biology and still rejected the core scientific principles. It's not good enough to just be able to mouth the "acceptable" version of the truth that the Professor wants. You actually have to open your mind to the possibility that science is correct and get an education. That's what university is all about.

Of course, we all recognize the problem here. How do you distinguish between a good Christian who is lying for Jesus and one who has actually come to understand science? It seems really unfair to flunk the honest students who admit that they still reject science and pass the dishonest ones who hide their true beliefs.

I stand by this statement.

Let's take a simple example. Imagine that you are teaching a course in history and you assign readings about the holocaust. On the exam you ask students to describe the history of Nazi occupied areas of Europe from 1940-1945. Imagine that a student describes all of the historical facts that you have taught in class but then rejects them by denying that the holocaust ever happened. The student claims that belief in the holocaust goes against the student's religious convictions. Should the student be given a passing grade in order to avoid discriminating against religious beliefs?

What if you are a Professor of Medicine at Yale University? Imagine teaching a course on basic neurology and the treatment of, say, Parkinson's disease. What would you do about Scientology students who can recite correctly all of the data on effective drug treatment but then reject it all because it conflicts with their religion? Should they still get an M.D. degree? Is evidence based medicine a requirement or can it be sacrificed when it conflicts with sincerely held beliefs?

Imagine that you are teaching a geology class and as part of the exam you ask students to give the age of the Earth and explain the evidence supporting that age. Let's say a student describes the radiometic data correctly but then goes on to reject the 4.5 billion year old Earth because it conflicts with the Bible. This student insists that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old in spite of the scientific evidence. Should that student get a passing grade on the exam on the grounds that flunking them would be religious discrimination?

I'm sure you can make up similar scenarios involving the common ancestry of humans and other apes.

Here's the question. We flunk students who cannot demonstrate that they understand the material and the scientific facts. Should we make an exception for those students who claim that their ignorance is part of their religion?

Listen to the debate between Steven Novella and his friends. Part of the problem is their concept of what "understanding" the material really means. They think that as long as you can correctly regurgitate the words of the textbook then you have demonstrated understanding. That should be sufficient to pass the course. Do you agree with them?

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{Hat Tip: BigHeathenMike]