Teaching school-going students time and space encapsulation from a young age to promote a scientific temper

 

The origin of the Universe has baffled many thinkers over the ages. In the pre-scientific age, several myths ruled the roost in different parts of the world. Christian creationism has its roots in the Old testament, and the book of Genesis. For example, the Genesis creation narrative (Genesis 1–2) describes how God created the universe in six days and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Genesis flood narrative (Genesis 6–9) describes how God destroyed the world and all life through a great flood, saving samples of each form of life in a ship known as the Noah's ark. In recent decades, there have been attempts to recast Biblical evolutionism as a science; theories include old earth creationism, creation science, progressive creationism and intelligent design. These have attempted to impart the Bible with more legitimacy. Old biblical theories have still some currency; these form a part of young earth creationism. 

Therefore, all traditions subscribing to creationism which are clearly anti-science, must be castigated in textbooks, and their origin, and fundamental flaws must be clearly explained. For example, many devout Christians believe the earth was created on 23 October 4004 BC based on work by Archibishop James Ussher tracing this date from Biblical events (John Lightfoot of Cambridge University added the time of 9 AM), while Hindus subscribe to a melange of theories under the umbrella of Hindu creationism. While the belief in the former has largely diminished, Hindu creation myths still have a large following among religious Hindus, even though enlightened Hindus may be more scientifically minded. Likewise, many Hindu scholars still present conjectural dates for several events basing them on concepts such as archeoastronomy, and these are eagerly lapped up by the laity.

Hinduism comprises many viewpoints about the origin of life, and evolution. There are many views on creation in Hinduism, due to its diversity, and these are derived from different sources like the Vedas, the Brahmanas, and the Puranas. According to the archaic Rigveda, the Hiranyagarbha or golden womb is the source of the creation of the Universe, and this is similar to the egg story found in the creation myths of elsewhere in the world. Some Hindu creation myths, have also been traced to other Indo-European sources as well. On the other hand, texts such as the Nasadiya Sukta, hold that Gods were created much after the creation of the Universe, and this represents an agnostic view. In the Puranic texts, the creator god Brahma is described as having created the Universe; He is also known as Svayambhu, and Vasiga, and the four Vedas are believed to have emanated from his mouth. Many Hindu texts also mention the cycle of creation and destruction. The Shatapatha Brahmana states that the current human generation descends from Manu, as the sole survivor of great deluge  This legend is similar to the other flood legends, such as the story of the Noah's Ark mentioned in the Bible and the Quran. Other Hindu creationists believe in devolution in accordance to one’s Karma where higher species can devolve into lower. Others believe in an ancient universe with humans having existed for billions of years. Some creation myths such as the Dashavathara and those involving Prajapathi are also found. Thus, different approaches such as grounds up or practical needs approach (practical needs of society as starting point), counterbalance approach (science is used as a countervailing force to negate the negative effects associated with religious derived constructs and dogma), complementary approach (This approach seeks to complement popular tradition wherever learnings and takeaways from such tradition are inadequate or insufficient) and supplementary approaches (In this approach, Religious inspired approaches (or other approaches inimical to science) are stopped completely and replaced by scientific approaches) ) can be adopted for presentation of concepts and ideas to students as discussed in our paper on Anthropological Historiography.

Christian creationism is by no means the only school of creationist thought, and there have been several etiological explanations for the creation of the Universe in different parts of the world. According to an ancient Chinese myth, Phan Ku, a giant creator emerged from an egg, and shaped the world with a chisel, along with all the heavenly bodies, dying soon after completing his work. The Taoist view on creation states that Tao was the principal force behind creation, giving rise to yin, yang and everything else. According to the myth of Pangu,  God resided in a cosmic egg, and the egg broke into two halves forming the sky and the earth. According to the Korean Cheonjiwang Bonpuri creation myth adhered to by mudangs or shamans, the Earth and sky were born as an empty void. Then, a gap formed in the void, and the lighter elements moved up to form the sky and the heavier elements came down to form the Earth. According to the Icelandic epic myth Prose Edda, creation began with a contrast in the realms of Muspell and Niflheim, until the heat of Muspell melted the snow and ice of Niflheim, creating life in the form of Imir the giant. According to a legend believed in by the Krachi people of Togo, a giant, the vast blue God Wulbari, lay just above the earth, and a woman poked him till he awoke. Gradually, Wulbari moved higher and higher till he was out of reach of humans. According to a legend believed in by the Yoruba people of West Africa, Olorun owned the sky. He asked another diving being to take a snail shell down to earth which was then a marsh. The shell contained a pigeon, a hen, and some soil. The soil was then sprinkled on the marshes, with the pigeon and the hen scratching on it, until it formed solid ground.

Hinduism has its own elaborate cosmology. Brahma is the creator according to Hindu mythology. He is also known as Svayambhu, and Vasiga, and the four Vedas are believed to have emanated from his mouth. The Rig Veda which was compiled between 1650 BC to 1380 BC too has speculated on creation, and its ideas on creation can be found in Mandala 10, hymns 129 and 130. According to the Rig Veda 10, 129:

Then was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? And what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water? Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day's and night's divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever. Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit. Thereafter rose desire in the beginning, desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart's thought discovered the existent's kinship in the non-existent. Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? The Gods are later than this world's production. Who knows then whence it first came into being? He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.

Pre-scientific theories have barely been eradicated from the human consciousness, particularly in places such as India. In a series of interviews conducted by the author in three locations in India, most respondents (including students who had studied till twelfth grade) thought that the earth was two thousand years old. Some thought it was five thousand years old. Many people doubt evolution and basic scientific paradigms, even educated one’s. Almost no one had any idea about the size of the universe. It is not their fault. It can be traced to faultlines in education and science communication.

However, science has a different story to tell as we shall soon see. Even though scientific theories are widely accepted to be correct as far as current evidence will allow us to determine, students must still always be taught to cross-question and cross-examine all current scientific knowledge. Only this will instill a scientific temper in students. We want to put it in tongue in cheek, science and not “science fiction”, as a prominent Hindutva influenced writer stated some twenty years ago. Concepts must be explained as simply as possible, and all assumption must be clearly stated and explained. These were at the crux and the heart of our many papers on the philosophy of science. Interdisciplinary knowledge must also be imparted so that students can compare concepts in many fields of science. But before we can make meaningful progress in this department, interdisciplinary research must also be promoted. Scientists must also make all aspects of their research open to the public, including methodology; science communication also needs a boost.The practical and real world implications and applications of text bookish knowledge also needs to be imparted to students. This is something that is not done today. [1][2][3]

The most widely accepted model for the origin of the universe is the Big Bang theory which is also compatible with the theory of general relativity. According to the Big Bang theory, the earliest state of the universe known as the Planck epoch, was an extremely hot and dense one, and that the universe subsequently expanded and cooled down. Therefore, there was an initial singularity from which the universe originated, and cosmic inflation occurred. This model is nearly one hundred years old now, and replaced other theories on the origin of the universe. This model was proposed by George Lematire, and was inspired by earlier work done by Edwin Hubble on the expansion of the universe. Most researchers consider the universe to be roughly 13.8 billion years old. The causes for the rapid expansion of the early universe is not known, as it happened in less than a second. Most researchers also equate the occurrence of the big bang with the birth of time. The initial universe was hot and dense and consisted of hot plasma; the first stable atoms were formed only after around half a million years.

The history of earth has been understood and laid bare with advancements in various fields of the sciences such as geology and the study of fossils, and through an interdisciplinary approach.Most experts now think that the earth is around 4.54 billion years old, and that would make it approximately one third as old as the universe itself. Another widely used technique is the geological time scale; the geological time scale correlates stratigraphy or layers of rock to geological periods of time. The time scale is used by geologists, palaeontologists and other types of earth scientists to date events on Earth. There are distinct epochs or aeons on earth, and these include the Hadean period before life began to form on earth. The Hadean period ended some four billion years ago, and was followed by the Archean and Proterozoic period which marked the beginnings of life on earth: the earliest reliable evidence of life on earth comes from some three and a half billion years ago, with earlier claims remaining at best highly controversial. Multicellular forms of life probably emerged some three billion years or so ago. Then, came the Phanerozoic eon with three eras, namely the Palaeozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic eras. The Palaeozoic era was an era of arthropods, fishes, and the earliest forms of life on land; the Mesozoic erais associated with the dinosaurs; the Cenozoic era saw the rise of mammals.

The Cambrian explosion took place some five hundred and thirty million years ago, when a large number of complex organisms came into existence. Dinosaurs became dominant only after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event some two hundred million years, ago, and dinosaurs themselves perished some sixty five million years ago when a meteorite struck the earth. The story of the origin of our own species is complex, and sometimes contested. It may even have been the outcome of complex processes of interbreeding between archaic hominins, though we may never know for sure. We have theories such as the old Out of Africa theory, and the more recent and much more likely. multiregional hypothesis which can also beget many complex forms. The basics of the origin of life on earth (even mundane concepts such as biogenesis and abiogenesis) is not known to even educated people in many countries given the fact, that subjects such as evolution, geology and anthropology, and astronomy are scarcely ever taught. We even have highly educated people who are suspicious of science and scientific constructs. So, what is wrong?

Over the past two decades, scientists have found evidence for over five thousand extrasolar planets. These are planets orbiting a star other than over sun. It is believedthat there are some four hundred billion stars in the milky way galaxy alone, and a possible one trillion planets. There are probably a million galaxies in the observable universe. Therefore, the universe in very vast indeed, and there may be life in many places. Therefore, imparting this knowledge to students is important to edge out pre-scientific beliefs, and we have given this entire process a theoretical and a conceptual structure in some of our papers such as the structured apperception techniques for sociocultural change. Alas, this is scarcely ever done in most education systems. In the human psyche, religious and non-scientific paradigms and frameworks prevail. Scientific theories need not therefore be taught as absolute certainties; theories can be taught as theories, and the pros and cons of different theories taught. Students must be encouraged to evaluate and even question theories. Thus, critical and analytical skills must be imparted to students, yet alas, this is scarcely ever done. We are, we believe at the beginning of a long journey, and pedagogical reform can be one of the most important issues in the twenty-first century. Pedagogy must also be problem-driven and solution-driven; it must also be driven by objectives, just as we stated historiography should be.

The author had done a series of surveys and interviews spanning over several years. Most students even after completing high school, thought that the earth was only a few thousand years old. They were not even aware of the size of the cosmos. We had reproduced the results of our survey and interviews in a previous paper. Teaching time and space encapsulation – i.e. providing students with a fair idea of the coordinates of time and space from a young age, can change all that. That is indeed the only way out.  

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[1] Boss, Alan (2009). The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets. Basic Books. Bibcode:2009cusl.book.....B. ISBN 978-0-465-00936-7 (Hardback); ISBN 978-0-465-02039-3 (Paperback).

[2]Bartel, Leendert van der Waerden (1987). "The Heliocentric System in Greek, Persian and Hindu Astronomy". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 500 (1): 525–545. Bibcode:1987NYASA.500..525V. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1987.tb37224.x. S2CID 222087224

[3]Wall, Mike (21 October 2011). "The Big Bang: What Really Happened at Our Universe's Birth?". The History & Future of the Cosmos. Space.com.