FASTLY - Faith & Science Teaching

Cosmic Zoom

In Brief

This activity engages students in examining the structure of Psalm 113 and considering how its picture of God relates to the expansion of our picture of the universe brought about by modern science. It asks students to reflect on how they see the relationship between the language of the Bible and modern scientific descriptions of the world. This activity would fit well with the activity The Pillars of Creation.

Goals

Students will understand ancient Hebrew cosmology as the context for Psalm 113, and consider its relationship to modern science.

Students will understand that reading texts that reflect an older cosmology in light of modern science need not lead to the conclusion that those texts no longer speak truly.

Students will engage with the text of the Psalm in rich and varied ways, moving beyond a cursory reading.

Thinking Ahead

Psalm 113, a festival Psalm, has a structure that first zooms out into space and then zooms back in to focus on a vulnerable individual.

The first verse begins on a specific occasion in the temple in Jerusalem—this is a Psalm used at the beginning of the festival. The Psalm then expands our view out across time to now and all past and future festivals, and then across space.

In verse 2, the reader’s eye is drawn to the horizon, bringing the rest of Israel into view. We zoom out to encompass the surrounding nations in verse 3. Even the nations recede by verse 4, as we move beyond the sky. The vantage point becomes so lofty, that even the all-seeing God has to stoop down to take a closer look, as it were, to catch a glimpse, in verse 6, not only of the earth, but of the sky.

The picture of God offered here is of one so transcendent, so beyond the scale of our imagination, that our whole cosmos is a tiny speck that God strains to see.

At this point, there is a sudden reversal. We zoom all the way back down to ground level, and find the same God lifting poor people from the dirt, paying attention to the least conspicuous and lofty people in the least glorious environment. Then God’s attention comes to rest on a single childless woman, echoing Hannah’s prayer from 1 Samuel 2.

Spend time considering how this Psalm intends us to see God and the world, and how to engage students in this way of seeing. The Psalm was written in the context of an ancient cosmology—we now see the universe as vastly bigger than the way it was imagined in the mind of an ancient Israelite. Reflect on how that relates to your reading of the Psalm. In preparation for this activity, it will be important that you have thought through the discussion questions at the end.

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Copies of the handout Cosmic Zoom or Bibles

• Presentation slides from Cosmic Zoom Slideshow

Teaching the Activity

First, familiarize students with the text of Psalm 113, using Bibles or copies of the handout Cosmic Zoom; or display the text from the first slide in the presentation file Cosmic Zoom.

Since one of the goals of this activity is to have students engage deeply with the text of the Psalm, consider how you would like to conduct a first reading. For example, you could have the class read the Psalm aloud together and then read it again silently.

Once students have read through the whole Psalm two to three times, ask the class whether anyone has ever looked up into the sky and tried to imagine how far it goes. Does it end? What is beyond that? And beyond that? If you ever did this as a child or more recently, you could share your own experience. Allow a few students to voice their own questions or thoughts about this, if they are ready to offer them.

Next, show students a video sequence in the “cosmic zoom,” “cosmic eye,” or “powers of ten” genre. There are many of these available through a search for these terms on the internet. For example:

• Cosmic Zoom (High Quality)
• Image Worth Spreading: Cosmic Eye
• Powers of Ten (1977)

It is important that the part shown includes a sequence that begins in a specific spot on the face of the earth, and gradually zooms out into the far reaches of space, before returning to earth.

After students have watched the video, ask them to look at the Psalm again in pairs, and discuss what the Psalm has to do with the video. Allow a few minutes for discussion and for taking some suggestions. Then use Slides 2 through 8 to narrate the progress of ideas in the Psalm.

The process of zooming in continues as we arrive at the barren woman who becomes a happy mother. It is tempting to read this as a general promise, but pause at this point to ask students if they know the name of the barren woman here.

Allow a moment to see if any students remember earlier Old Testament stories of barrenness. Then show Slide 9 (1 Samuel 1:10-11) and see if students can identify the story. Using either Slides 9 through 11, or Bibles, recount the story of Hannah, who prayed in anguish because she was childless and humiliated even within her own family, and read her prayer in 1 Samuel 2. Invite students to spot the connection between Psalm 113:7-8 and 1 Samuel 2:8, suggesting that we should have a specific barren woman in mind here. The image of God stooping to see the skies has switched to an image of God hearing the prayer of one childless woman, a figure of marginal status, and an object of ridicule in her society. Allow a few minutes of discussion for students to articulate what this dual picture of God is claiming about what God is like.

Finally, show Slide 12, and ask students which of the responses to the Psalm, read in the light of modern science, they find most plausible and why. Use some or all of the following questions for class discussion as time allows:

• Were the Psalms intended to offer their original hearers a science lesson about the size of the cosmos, or a theology lesson about God’s relationship to the cosmos?
• If our picture of the cosmos has become massively bigger as a result of inventions such as the telescope and advances in science, how does that change our view of Psalm 113?
• Does modern science make the Psalm old-fashioned and irrelevant, or does the Psalm’s confession that God transcends the cosmos, yet cares for each creature, become still more awe-inspiring as our sense of the cosmos expands?
• If there had been knowledge of DNA and atomic structure in ancient Israel, do you think the second half of the Psalm would have continued zooming down into cells and atoms, or would it still have ended with God’s care for the poor and marginalized? Why?
• Does science demand that we view the Psalm as outdated? Is that a more “scientific” view? Or is it an act of faith, just like the alternative response of viewing God as even more worthy of praise? Are both responses compatible with respect for science?

Optional Extra

As an optional closing activity, have the class read the Psalm aloud again using Slides 13 through 19. In preparation for this, you will need to find photographs of your school, area, and region to add to the slides. This will allow students to connect the Psalm to their own context.

Explain It!

In Brief

This activity engages students in exploring the concept of cultural accommodation and its relevance to understanding how the Bible speaks about the natural world. Students will watch videos of modern processes and attempt to explain them for an audience from a “prescientific” culture.

Goals

Students will understand the concept of cultural accommodation and how it is applied to explain apparently unscientific assertions in Scripture.

Thinking Ahead

Internet debates about faith and science can descend into arguments about whether particular biblical texts are scientifically accurate or inaccurate. This may reflect a simplistic approach to the text of the Bible, as if all language that is true must also be scientific and aim at technical communication.

Previous activities have explored the role of figurative speech, and the appeal to everyday experience, in understanding biblical language about the natural world. This activity takes a closer look at cultural accommodation and the purposes of Scripture.

As you work through these activities, consider your own use of Scripture with students—when you cite Scripture, are you ever tempted to push the language of the text into saying something that may not have been intended?

Related Book Review: The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins by Peter Enns

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Bibles or copies of Explain It Handout

Teaching the Activity

Show students in class, or assign them to watch for homework, a video explaining how a recent technology works. Choose a video that includes scientific references—not just how to operate a device. Some examples that you could use include:

• Automatic Transmission, How it works? – This video explains an automatic transmission, and depends heavily on an analogy to a heliocentric planetary system.
• AC vs. DC – This video explains the difference between alternating and direct current, and presupposes that we know what electricity is and what electrons are.
• What is a Diode? (Interactive!) – Electronics Basics 6 – This video explains what a diode is and assumes that we know about current, circuits, and electronic components.

There are many others. Try searching YouTube for “how it works,” or look for a video connected to a topic that students have covered recently.

As students view the video, ask them to make a list of concepts that it assumes we already know about and, therefore, does not explain (such as the planetary system or the idea of electric current).

Assign students to small groups, and ask them to come up with a short presentation that explains how this technology works to a new audience. Specify that the audience is made up of members of a prescientific culture, who live in an agricultural village with basic hand tools and a simple social structure. They are not familiar with any of the background concepts in the video. The presentation must be understandable to the audience, and so should not make explanatory use of any terminology or concepts that have emerged since the rise of modern science. The explanation should make sense to the audience, and offer them a basic way of understanding what the technology does and how it works.

As students work on this, circulate and check to see if they are using any modern scientific concepts or terms. Give students some time to wrestle with the problem of how to represent scientific information in non-scientific language, and then have a few groups present their explanations to the class.

When the class has heard several, or all, of the presentations, if class size and time allow, discuss the kind of language they used and their strategies for translating concepts. Ask students to consider:

• Did they use any figurative language, such as similes (describing something as like something else) or metaphors (talking about something as if it were something else)?
• Did they find themselves having to approximate, giving a general sense rather than a precise one?
• Did they try to use concepts and ways of arguing that would make sense within the audience’s mental world, even if they were not the best fit for the scientific information?

Return students’ attention to the question of whether the Bible can be the “Word of God” if it does not provide modern scientific accounts of how things work. Raise the question of why God would not avoid all of the debate around science and faith by making the Scriptures offer a clear and definitive scientific account of how everything works. Is it reasonable to expect modern scientific accounts of the world in Scripture?

Ask students:

• Even if God had wanted to provide an account of how the natural world works, what kind of communication might have been needed in a text first addressed in a prescientific context?
• If God wanted to speak to people across different ages and cultures, would an attempt to explain future scientific findings be a good strategy? Or would any resulting communication be more likely to appeal to everyday experience?
• Is the goal of the Bible to provide a manual on how the material world works?

Explain that one approach to certain details of the biblical text is to suggest that God was accommodating a particular time and culture. The Scriptures, according to this line of thought, do not contain modern, scientific language, and were not trying to give technical, scientific explanations; rather, they were aiming to communicate in ways that made sense to the recipients.

Finally, ask students to read the following passages in groups, using Bibles or copies of Explain It:

• Genesis 1:14-18 – This passage implies that the moon is an independent source of illumination, rather than reflecting the sun’s light.
• 1 Kings 7:23-26 – This passage implies the value of pi to be 3.
• Revelation 6:12-14 – This passage speaks as if the stars, which we now know to be much larger than the earth, could fall from the sky to the surface of the earth.

Ask the groups to identify why modern scientific thought might be at odds with these passages. Have them explain how the idea of accommodation—that this information makes sense in its own cultural context, and is not intended to reflect modern scientific knowledge—might offer a way of understanding them. (For the second passage, simple approximation may be a better explanation.)

Discuss with students:

• Why does the Bible not take these opportunities to give a clearly correct lesson in science or mathematics?
• Would it be better if the Scriptures were written like a science book?

Close by referring students back to the other approaches to biblical language explored in the activity The Pillars of Creation—the use of figurative, literary language and the use of phenomenological language that intends to describe only how things appear, rather than how they work. Discuss whether either of these approaches fits the passages students considered, either in addition to, or instead of, accommodation.

Where is Wisdom?

In Brief

This activity engages students in comparing current cultural images of wise people with the concept of wisdom presented in Proverbs 8. It also invites them to see how the understanding of wisdom in Proverbs 8 might connect to possible motivations for learning and practicing natural science.

Goals

Students will explore the concept of wisdom and how it differs in the biblical wisdom literature and popular imagery, which often equates it to solitary withdrawal from the world.

Students will understand that delight in the natural world can be connected to both biblical wisdom and to natural science.

Thinking Ahead

In popular cartoons, the wise person is frequently pictured sitting alone atop an inaccessible mountain, separated from normal human tasks and relationships and thinking deep thoughts. Seeking wisdom seems a lonely and solemn affair. The biblical wisdom literature situates wisdom in the midst of human affairs, and ties it to joy as well as to holiness.

As you prepare for this activity, consider your own unconscious assumptions:

• Do you picture wisdom in a way that connects it to taking joy in creation?
• Do you see scientific fascination with the natural world as overlapping with the joy in creation called for in Proverbs?
• How do the practices of your classroom model wisdom?

Related Book Review: God in the Lab: How Science Enhances Faith by Ruth Bancewicz

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Copies of Where Is Wisdom Handout

• Presentation slides in Where Is Wisdom Slideshow

Teaching the Activity

Display the first slide of Where Is Wisdom, which shows the word “wisdom” and the phrase “A wise person…”

If students have internet access, have them conduct an image search for “wise man,” “wise woman,” and “wise person,” and look for commonalities in the kinds of images that appear. If students do not have internet access, you could show your own search results on the screen and look for commonalities.

Discuss what these images suggest about how our culture views wisdom. Focus on the following questions:

• Are the people mostly old or young?
• Are they mostly alone or in interaction with others?
• Are they down-to-earth and practical, or mystical and otherworldly?
• Are they solemn or joyful?

You could explore what happens if the search is limited to clipart:

• Why are wise people in cartoons so often sitting atop mountains alone, outside of all everyday tasks and relationships?
• What picture of wisdom does that suggest?

Ask students to discuss in pairs how they might complete the phrase “A wise person…”

• What do they think of as the key characteristics of wisdom?
• What does a wise person do, or what qualities does he or she possess?

Ask pairs to share their examples, and discuss any commonalities in the class’s picture of what is involved in wisdom.

Next, hand out copies of Where Is Wisdom and display the text of Proverbs 8 using Slides 2 through 5 of Where Is Wisdom. Each slide has a section of a text and shows three oppositions based on the above questions (Practical/Mystical, Alone/Relationships, Solemn/Joyful).

As you display each slide:

• Read the section of text aloud.
• Pause and ask students to read it over again silently.
• Ask a student to read it aloud a second time.
• Ask students to make a few notes on any details in the passage that describe wisdom more as a practical or a mystical matter, more about lonely meditation or life with others, and more solemn or more joyful.

Once this is complete for all four sections of text, discuss the picture that has emerged. How does it differ from the images found in the initial search? Make sure students notice the connections of wisdom to the city gates (a public place for meetings and transactions), government, justice, the natural world, and pleasure in the company of others.

Next, focus on verses 30 and 31, and ask students to identify what wisdom, here personified, enjoys. These verses present wisdom as taking delight in God, in the natural world, and in other people. Ask students to consider why each of these would be wise—why might it be wise to enjoy God, to enjoy the natural world, and to enjoy other people?

Show Slide 6, which presents a quotation from Walter Brueggemann about the biblical wisdom literature.¹ Explain that Brueggemann is a prominent Old Testament theologian, and that he is describing here the characteristics of wisdom books such as Job and Proverbs. While the books of the law state the boundaries of the covenant revealed by God, and while the prophets speak out with a “thus says the LORD,” the wisdom literature invites us to go and observe ants or to consider the fate of the lazy.

Give students time to read the quotation and ask them how it connects to the Proverbs 8 passage.

Finally, remind students that they have been exploring (through other activities in this map) unexpected points of connection between the Bible and science.

Ask what the Brueggemann quotation might suggest about the relationship between wisdom and science.

Present Slide 7, which shows a quotation from the book God in the Lab by Ruth Bancewicz. Explain that Dr. Bancewicz is a scientist who writes about science and religion, and that here she is describing the start of her doctoral studies.

Ask students how this passage relates to Proverbs 8:

• What is wise about this response to zebra fish?
• Surely, being excited about zebra fish is not the whole of wisdom, which also includes things such as virtue and the ability to make good choices, but could it be a part of wisdom, or a response that reflects wisdom in some way?
• Can natural science, with its more disciplined forms of observation, be approached in a way that makes it a part of becoming wise?
• Can combining scientific investigation with a sense of wonder and gratitude be a part of becoming wise?

Conclude by asking students to write a reflective journal entry considering the following two questions:

1. How is the picture of wisdom in Proverbs 8 similar to or different from your ideas about wisdom at the start of this class?
2. In Proverbs 8, wisdom includes finding delight in God, in the natural world, and in other people. Can you identify times in your past week that reflected wisdom or lack of wisdom? How could you respond to the call in Proverbs 8 to “not neglect” wisdom?

¹Walter Brueggemann, The Creative Word: Canon as a Model for Biblical Education (Fortress Press, 1982), p. 105-106. Used by permission of Fortress Press.

Asking Around

In Brief

This activity actively engages students in considering different perspectives on a biblical text by having them interview readers with different training and interests. It aims to help them see how readers with different perspectives, including perspectives more rooted in science, the arts, or theology, can connect in different ways with the same Psalm.

GOALS

Students will interact with a range of community members around interpretation of a Psalm.

Students will explore how the training and interests of a range of community members can affect their interpretation of a Psalm.

Thinking Ahead

This activity engages students in investigating biblical texts within the wider community, and in getting a concrete sense of how different community members read the same Psalm.

Since students will need to interact with other teachers and with parents or other adults, obtain the cooperation of your colleagues before assigning the task, and consider informing colleagues and parents when the task is assigned. Be sure to allow enough time, with reminders, for students to complete the interviews.

If you plan to regularly involve parents and other adults in homework activities, it is advisable to communicate with them early in the school year about why this is happening, so that expectations are clear. (See the Activity Map on Engaging Parents.)

Notice that the activity asks students to engage in community interaction around the Psalm on two levels: their interaction and accountability within the group, and their engagement with other community members. As you teach the activity, help students see that you are interested both in what they learn as they investigate and in how they learn as they interact with others in community.

Related Book Review: The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution by C. P. Snow

Preparing the Activity

Needed:

• Copies of Asking Around Handout

Teaching the Activity

Assign students to groups of three for this investigation. As well as allowing interaction and making it easier for students to find people to interview, this will reduce the burden on other members of the school community as students conduct interviews.

Give students copies of the handout Asking Around, which contains the text of Psalm 139 and some interview prompts. Ask students to read the Psalm silently, and then tell them that they are going to be investigating how different people respond to the Psalm.

Explain to students that they are going to ask the same questions of people with different types of vocations, and that each group is responsible for covering the different categories listed on the interview sheet. Make sure that students understand that each student only needs to conduct two interviews, and that the group will pool their findings to complete the whole list.

The categories that they need to cover include:

1. A science teacher or professional scientist
2. An English teacher, or other person deeply engaged with poetry/literature
3. An art teacher, or someone involved in the visual arts
4. A parent (not necessarily your own)
5. A physical education teacher, or a doctor, nurse, physical therapist, or other medical professional
6. A Bible/religion teacher, or a pastor or other church leader

Students are to ask each of these people to read Psalm 139, and are then to interview them using the following questions:

1. What is your first reaction to this Psalm?
2. What most stands out to you in this Psalm? What seems particularly important in it?
3. What do you think this Psalm has to say to you as a science teacher/artist/parent/etc.? How does it connect with your concerns?

Discuss with students that they will need to track which interviews their group has done to make sure that all of them are concluded by the time the information is due. Ensure that groups have strategies in place for successful completion.

Ask students to articulate the challenges that arise with a collaborative task such as this. Some challenges include one person ending up with most of the work, and one group member causing stress for the others by not meeting commitments. Have students name concrete strategies for dealing with these challenges. Make it clear that the task is not only about collecting the information, but also about practicing working in community and being responsible toward one another.

Allow a few minutes for groups to discuss strategies and commit to completion.

Set a date for completion; allow enough time for students to find people to interview and conduct their interviews.

When the interviews are complete, ask the groups to discuss the following:

1. What similarities do you see in different people’s responses?
2. What differences do you see in their responses?
3. Why do you think people noticed different things? Were any of the differences related to their particular interests or areas of expertise?
4. What do you think allows the Psalm to speak to people with a range of different interests?

When groups have spent time on these questions, bring the class back together to share their findings. Allow groups to use examples from their notes. As the discussion develops, focus on question 4 above and ask students whether they think the Psalm belongs more to one kind of interviewee than to the others:

• Is it more legitimate to read it through the eyes of a parent than a theologian, or of a scientist than a literary specialist?
• Is the Bible just for one kind of person?

Discuss also what each person might miss if they never heard from the other readers of the Psalm:

• How might any one of these perspectives bias our reading so that we miss things in the text?

To conclude the activity and check on what students have learned, assign each group to turn in a two-page written report that:

• Summarizes the similarities and differences they saw in people’s responses
• Discusses why they think the various people read the Psalm the way they did
• Draws some conclusions about how the Psalm can speak to us in our various callings