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Re: Unorthodox science projects



Gonzalez-Espada, Wilson wrote:

I am writing a paper on science and non-science in science fair
competitions. Have you ever SEEN a science fair project from a
"Christian" perspective?

There are several different questions here.
-- The Subject: line asks about "unorthodox".
-- The first sentence asks about science versus non-science.
-- The second sentence asks about "Christian" perspective.

... and these are not automatically synonymous.

Also the questions are so vague as to have a very broad
range of possible answers. There is a continuum:

a) There are some students who believe that God gave us
a brain to figure stuff out with, and gave us a universe
governed by laws that are at least partially figure-outable.
This is taken for granted and will not be mentioned in the
write-up of the science-fair project.
b) There are some students who wear their regliosity on
their sleeve; they say we stick the litmus paper in vinegar
and a miracle occurs, by the grace of God it turns pink,
and then we stick it in ammonia-water and another miracle
occurs, by the grace of God it turns blue.
c) And then there are those who believe insects have four
legs because it says so in Leviticus.
*) et cetera.

And yes, I've seen projects in each of those categories.

> If you judge it, how the student defended
> his/her project? Whas was his/her rationale in making the project?
> Probably you do not agree with these type of projects, but I need to
> know how common they are?

Well, that kinda depends, doesn't it? Category (c) is
less common than category (a). And I would tend to judge
category (c) rather unfavorably compared to category (a).