What should be the role of religion in science education and bioethics?

Michael J. Reiss

pp. 127-139

in: Simen Andersen Øyen, Tone Lund Olsen, Nora Sørensen Vaage (eds), Sacred science?, Wageningen, Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2012

Abstract

In much of Europe the importance of religion has been waning for at least a hundred and fifty years, probably much longer. However, somewhat to the surprise of many people, religion continues to be important in much of European social life and politics. In certain areas, including aspects of education and bioethics, it may, if anything, be increasing in influence in some countries. This chapter will concentrate on the relevance of this to science education and bioethics. What role, if any, should religion play in these matters and how should we decide this question? I shall argue that science education and bioethics need to respond quite differently to the issue of religion, and that the reason for this difference stems from the different aims of science education and bioethics and the different ways in which the two disciplines arrive at their claims about valid knowledge.