Okay, so, let’s do a little thinking about the practical application of some of the things you’ve been learning in this course. Hypothetically, let’s say you begin your college experience like this: you walk into the first day of your Biology 101 course, take your seat and the professor begins right off with the following statement.

“Welcome to Biology 101. I am Professor Gilpins and I will be teaching you the science of living things. To establish some ground rules in this course, let me start by saying that as you get more and more educated, you will see how important science is to determine what you can trust to be true. I have found that with a greater knowledge in science, I don’t need to trust superstition and risk trusting what I cannot see. I can navigate the challenges of life with more certainty and control that comes from good objective knowledge. This gives me an advantage over those who rely on religion and other means of faith that have no proof for what they believe. I teach science to freshmen in college like you so you can have this same confidence.”

When the professor finishes with these introductory statements, he encourages responses and comments with the following invitation: “Anyone have anything to add to this before we move on?”

So, how might you respond? Let’s explore three different possible ways you could respond.