From An Ordinary World, by Todd Duncan: http://scienceintegration.org/books.htm

The purpose of this excercise is to make you more conscious of your own current beliefs about how the universe is set up. This will help you to focus your efforts, taking out of the class the ideas that are most meaningful to you. You'll be better able to see where the "scientific universe" connects with your own. The idea here is not to see who is "right" or "wrong" in their beliefs. The most important thing for this assignment is that you be honest and as clear as possible about what you really think.

Describe, as carefully and clearly as you can, what you think are the essential properties of the universe you live in.

If you get stuck on what to start writing about, you might imagine what you would see if you close your eyes and float out away from earth. What would you see as you moved farther and farther away? You can describe anything you think is important, but here are some possibilities to discuss: How big is the Universe? Does it have an edge somewhere? How is it arranged? (e.g. are things spread uniformly throughout, or are some parts of the Universe very different from others?) How many stars do you think are in it? Has it existed forever, or if not, how old do you think it is? Are there other planets? Are there other creatures besides those on earth? What are the most important laws that control what happens in your universe? Can events among the stars foretell what will happen on earth? How do humans fit in to the scheme of things: are we important, not important, do we have a specific role to play?

The idea is simply to spell out your own "worldview" about how you think the universe operates and what you think are the most important features and properties of our universe. Have fun and see what you can discover!

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last modified 2/19/02