Blending science education and religious education

Mochtar Buchori, Educator, Legislator, Jakarta, mbuchori@indo.net.id

The Islamic schools or madrasah that have opted for the inclusion of science education in their curriculum have complained of the difficulty in making science and religious education blend into one meaningful whole. This difficulty has come from the habit of looking upon these two programs as being incompatible.

Education in science has been only associated with merely implanting into students' minds knowledge about this world, whereas religious education has been looked upon as primarily concerned with preparing students for life in the hereafter.

What has often been forgotten is that both science and religious education are concerned with guiding students into knowing the laws of life and understanding the meaning of these laws. Both science and religious education are thus concerned with the art of living. Here we can find common ground for both science and religious education.

It was thought in the beginning that problems arising from the dichotomist view could be solved by regulating the time allotment ratio between these two programs. So each of these two programs was to be allotted 50 percent of school time.

It was later felt, however, that this policy did not give students sufficient command of the materials stipulated for both science and religion education in the madrasah curriculum.

The time allocation ratio was later changed -- 70 percent for science education, and 30 percent for religious education. After a while, this policy brought about complaints among teachers in charge of the various subject matters in the field of religion.

They have asserted that this time-allocation system has caused a drastic deterioration in students' knowledge about religion. They also contend that in this way madrasah can no longer be considered an institution for religious education.

What must be done to solve this problem?

To make science and religious education blend or fuse is not a matter of time allocation. It is primarily a matter of creating an interactive relationship between the two. This means that we must devise measures that will make some science education capable of reinforcing some parts of religious education, and vice versa.

Such an educational strategy, however, can be developed only if we are willing to set limits on what students must learn about religion and about science. If we just teach religion and science without setting their respective limits, these two educational programs will never meet, and blending or fusion will never take place. Time for school education is a constant factor, but program content is not; it is a variable factor.

What we can and must do is to set, in a realistic manner, the limits of materials to be covered in both science and religious education. And within these time and program limits, we must then lay down the foundation of students' learning capability. It is this learning capability that will enable students to gain more knowledge later on about science and education on their own, if they so wish.

Another principle is the essential difference between science education and education in religion. Science education is about guiding student into "knowing" whereas religious education is about steering students into "believing" or having faith. We need both in our life.

To paraphrase Einstein -- or was it another genius? -- knowledge without faith is lame, and faith without knowledge is blind. We must believe in what we know, and we must know what we believe.

The question is how to make science education and education about religion interactive. Some knowledge about the basic features of science and religion will be of great help in this case.

Science has taught us that with regard to knowledge or knowing, there are three things in life, "the known", the "unknown" and "the unknowable". The latter is something that we cannot possibly know through our human senses. According to a physician friend of mine, how dogs communicate with cats is one example of "the unknowable". But that dogs do communicate with cats is a "known" fact. Derek Freeman, the great Australian anthropologist, once said that whether there is life after death is "unknowable" However, the fact that most people belief in the existence of life after death is "known"; this is "knowledge".

So if we encounter an "unknowable" factor what do we do? Religious people would turn to God, and pray, "Guide me, oh God ..." Here is thus an opportunity where a science education teacher can reinforce one's basic teaching in religious education, i.e. faith, or trust, in God.

Science education provides opportunities for teachers with religious minds to reinforce some of students' achievements in religious education. Conversely, religious education also provides opportunities for teachers with a scientific mind to motivate students in their pursuit of knowledge.

As a child a prayer sustained me in my efforts to know and understand something. Two teachers of religion used to lead us into saying the following prayer, "Give us knowledge, oh God, and guide us into comprehending that knowledge." (Rabbi zidni 'ilman, war zukni fahman.) This prayer always gave me the power to persist in my efforts to understand what I was learning, no matter how difficult the topic or subject was.

The reality of all this is of course more complex; but my point is in the indivisible role of educating, i.e. to guide the young in cultivating or bringing out their innate capacities.

Science and religious education should not tear apart the souls of teachers and students alike.