Religious outlook and students’ attitudes towards school science

Science and religion both describe the way things are, and both refer to the source of authority behind ‘truth’. Personal beliefs about science and religion can affect attitudes towards science and the learning of science. This paper reports the results of two exploratory studies: a qualitative study and a quantitative survey study on the interactions between scientific and religious ideas, particularly the influence of descriptive and authoritarian beliefs on attitudinal differences among academic and social groups of high school students from a Hindu Himalayan region of India. These beliefs are not domain dependent and are less likely to be affected by an increased emphasis on the nature of science in school curriculum.