Beginning of the Kernel Article by Joseph L. Flatley

In the year 1543, the Pope teamed up with Copernicus, the Church of England, and possibly Aristotle (who, inconveniently, had died in 322 B.C.) to convince unsuspecting Europeans that, despite the Earth’s obvious flatness, it’s actually a sphere, and that the sun is the center of the universe. In the years since, the usual bad guys—Catholics, Jews, and bankers—have jealously guarded the secret of the flat Earth. And with the birth of the space age, NASA (basically a joint project between the Freemasons and the Nazis) got involved. That, at least, is the story according to the Flat Earth Truthers, a small but vocal group who believe that the world is flat, and that this knowledge is the key to understanding who really runs the world.

My Thoughts

This is entirely why we need a better education system. Rather than try to reconcile Religion and Science, we ignore one and focus on the other, which leads to no one addressing the perceived contradictions people of faith believe are there.

1 in 4 Americans don’t know the Earth orbits the Sun (Article).

4 in 10 Americans believe God created the Earth just under 10,000 years ago (Article).

42% of American Citizens believe God created humans as we are (Article).

What academics refuse to acknowledge is how religion is not the problem; the problem is that academics refuse to explain and convince the majority of these people that the scientific discoveries of the last several centuries, let alone since the Pythagoras mathematically proved the Earth was round six centuries before Jesus Christ was even born. Why is it so hard for those of science to even try to address someone’s ignorance in a respectful manner? Ignorance is not something to be put down. Letting people remain ignorant and teach their ignorance to others allows the problem to run rampant.

I am Catholic. I understand why people of faith think science could disprove their religion, but if they are worried that the truth of the world contradicts what they believed and therefore ignore the world in its entirety, then I doubt the strength of their faith was ever strong to begin with. The two saints I encourage everyone of any faith to read are Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas. They were men who did not let their faith be shaken by secular science nor did they let their faith blind them from the implications of scientific inquiry.

If God created the World and the Bible, then any contradiction we find between them does not disprove one or the other but shows our own ignorance and our need to grow and learn from both together rather than keep them separate. Trying to argue that God could not or does not do something that science has discovered and proven only limits God’s capacity and power.

All professional scientists are expected to publish; if they do not publish, their employers, whether it is a university or a for-profit company, will look to hire more published specialists. The more published you are, the more desired you are.

This behavior has resulted in a the greatest amount of information on our world we have ever known. The cost for this, however, is having more data points than can be analyzed and too many papers being published with rushed or outright fabricated data. The problem becomes compounded by the number of trustworthy researchers seems to grow smaller every year when another esteemed specialist is found to have falsified their work. But, this does not mean the system is going to buckle under its own weight; it means the system has to grow and change.

Perhaps we should stop stressing the need for scientists to pump out peer-reviewed article after peer-reviewed article. Most of the fabricated data that gets released stems from the need of the specialists who think that is how the experiment would have turned out or should have turned out, and we only learn the data is fabricated when someone else decides to run the experiment. If we are going to base new research off the works of these men and women, why are we rushing them and always expecting conclusive results? We need to change how we think before we can see the system change to a better form.

What does interdisciplinary research mean?

Interdisciplinary research typically involves specialists from multiple backgrounds and fields offering expertise on a complex topic, like the causes and effects of global warming or why the function of a protein can change drastically when the structure is altered just slightly.

Why should people care?

Interdisciplinary research, since it involves people of many backgrounds, allows for multiple ideas for solutions.

My Experience.

I worked as an undergraduate assistant in a lab run by Dr. Emily Sarver from Mining and Minerals Engineering, Dr. Leigh Anne Krometis of Biological Systems Engineering, and Graduate Student Nicholas Cook of Biological Systems Engineering. The project focused on comparing the effects of run-off from mining sites to the untreated-sewage released into the watershed by residential areas. It was the summer after my third year at Virginia Tech, and my background was Biological Science. I would never have gotten this experience if it were not for the Scieneering Program which focuses on interdisciplinary research between scientists and engineers.

I clearly had no experience in their research fields, let alone the project, but it was amazing how they treated my opinion as if it mattered. As they put it, I was the biologist, so if there was a random question about the organisms being tested, they asked me to see if I had any idea. It was amazing. Taking classes only in the Biological Science Department had begun to bog me down with how I was no longer the top of my class like in high school nor was I getting as many opportunities to work in actual biology labs. It was demoralizing to say the least. But, working in their lab helped me realize that I had learned. I knew what I was talking about, and I quickly learned even more from them.

Interdisciplinary research is important for scientists and engineers in a professional sense for increasing our knowledge about the world, but it is even more important in academia for students to experience working with professionals and other students of drastically different backgrounds. Too many of my peers think they will not have to work with people outside their fields. Times are changing, and that means how students are taught to research needs to change too.

More on the Scieneering Program at Virginia Tech here