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Essay:Graduate level STEM education in fundamentalist Christian colleges
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I know almost everyone here knows about the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School's half ass attempt at making graduate level science programs. Fundie schools generally ignore all evidence contradicting biblical literalism and have almost no critical thinking involved in their science programs. Normally fundie/creationist schools have undergraduate level science, mathematics, engineering and science education programs. These programs do provide the basics of real science but integrate enough Bible courses to the point where there is a second major in Bible. Bob Jones University, Cedarville University, Liberty University and Pensacola Christian College are known for this. Now keep in mind that religious schools are not always bad. I will mention what programs relating to STEM education could work in creationist schools; I will also state how natural science programs could work in creationist schools.
Stating the problem with graduate level Natural Science programs at creationist schools[edit]
Little research relating to broad science topics at the undergraduate level[edit]
Undergraduate programs work in creationist schools because little research is involved. Creationist schools have qualified faculty with actual science credentials. These faculty avoid research relating to evolution/age of the Earth by researching separate and almost unrelated concepts. Biology research in creationist schools focus on professional applications such as education and medicine [1].
Low science education quality[edit]
With a creationist stance at Earth's natural history at the undergraduate level, this does not foster advanced critical thinking or further research. With the example of the ICR a student had to be strictly religious and believe in creation theology [2]. If a graduate school in science/science education limits itself to students who strictly believes in creationism then there is less capability to do effective research. Students also have to be Christian creationists. So a Christian student who wants a graduate science education with religious elements to it but is not a creationist is out of luck. Now Liberty University has a graduate level biomedical science degree with a non-discrimination policy relating to religion [3]. Professional science education at the graduate level such as public health and medicine work because evolution/age of the Earth is not relevant. Research based science education does not work as many creationist schools restrict admission to Christian students. There is the notable exception to this, Adventist schools which are creationist. They allow non-Christian students in and have staff who support theistic evolution [4]
In a nutshell[edit]
A school cannot do effective research if admission is limited to creationist Christian students; to compound this minimal educational quality, all science research has to be done in a specific biblical interpretation framework. This does not foster critical thinking.
Mathematics and Engineering[edit]
There is no actual problem with graduate mathematics and engineering degrees as those academic disciplines have nothing to do with evolution and the age of the Earth. Physics requirements don't need to cover evolution as physics relates to movement of objects. Mathematics does not need evolution at all as it is based on formal reasoning and not natural observations. Not much needs to be said about this.