Otherwise, fewer and fewer people will be able to distinguish between the methods of science and those of creationism or other pseudoscience. And we scientists will have contributed by failing to understand and properly propagate the scientific method. We frequently tell our students that a distinguishing characteristic of science is its reliance on rational interpretation of empirical evidence, rather than on appeal to authority, as the pathway to truth. How ironic, then, that we expect students to accept on authority the conclusions that we or the textbook present. Charles K. Scharnberger Millersville University Millersville, Pennsylvania Cheers to Mano Singham for his article on teaching and propaganda.
Science is a framework built around observations in nature.
Scientists, including graduate students such as myself, are continually testing and evaluating this framework, but it is still a framework of reality and not necessarily reality itself. Religion and philosophy have as much to say about reality as science does, just not as much about measurable phenomena. Kudos to the students, faculty, scientists, clergy, and philosophers who keep a decent perspective. The laboratory is an important part of the modern physics course, especially as it differs so much from other first-year lab exercises. Of my students who profess problems with cosmology or evolution, none seems to have any problem with chemistry.