Love Will Guide Us - Using Reason and Science

"Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here.  The two windows give different views, but both look out at the same universe.  Both views are one-sided, neither is complete.  Both leave out essential features of the real world.  And both are worthy of respect."  - Freeman Dyson, physics professor emeritus at the Institue for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, in a speech accepting the 2000 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

In today's RE session, children explored our fifth Unitarian Universalist Source:  The use of reason and the discoveries of science.  We shared some incredible discoveries of science, such as battery-operated flashlights, music and movies on DVDs, and the role that plant selection and genetics played in developing the potatoes we know today from the small knobby roots originally eaten by early people in South America. 

Children heard a story about how a 19th century discovery of a dinosaur skeleton in New Jersey helped prove the earth is older than claimed in the Bible, and they played a game to determine the differences between facts and beliefs.  The group talked about how beliefs are something we hold in our hearts and minds as true, but they cannot be proven as either true or false.  We also discussed that reason is a way we listen to what others say; pay attention to what we ourselves see, hear and feel; and use our minds to figure out what is true. We also discussed the radical ideas of natural selection proposed by Charles Darwin and how it upset the religious world, and we explored the idea that Unitarian Universalism affirms the use of reason and science as one of the Sources of our faith. 

We examined pictures of pterodactyls (dinosaur ancestors of birds) and pelicans, and noted the similarities.  We marveled at the differences between pelicans and indigo buntings even though they are both species of birds and have common ancestors.  Participants made fossil imprints in salt clay so they could experience what paleontologists find at a fossil site.

The session ended with the creation of a special UU Source constellation in our Night Sky display:  the constellation of "Science and Reason", shaped like an infinity sign.  We affirmed that both beliefs and science and reason can be important "guiding stars" in helping us determine the best ways to act and relate to others.