Truthology in your classroom
This page gives an overview of what the Truthology team will teach if they come into your lessons. The Truthology curriculum consists of 5 lessons. Each of the 5 lessons considers the nature of truth and reality and examines the truth claims of different worldviews/religions. Students will never be told what the truth is but rather be presented with different accounts of truth and reality. Each lesson investigates a different ultimate question. Since Truthology is a Christian project, each lesson will include the Biblical truth claims that relate to the ultimate questions posed in the lesson. Below is a sample lesson plan and the accompanying PowerPoint.
 SampleLessonPlan.doc
 SampleLessonPowerPoint.ppt
The Truthology classroom curriculum
The Truthology classroom curriculum is based on the cutting edge ‘critical religious education model’ pioneered by Kings College London which introduces a new, innovative aim for religious education: the pursuit of truth. The model has an underpinning ‘critical realist’ philosophy based on the concepts of ontological realism, epistemic relativism and judgmental rationality. In layman’s terms, the model is founded on the beliefs that:
- Reality and truth do indeed exist and our beliefs about reality and truth do not affect reality and truth (If you believed with all your heart that the earth was flat it would not make it flat)
- We are not all knowing and thus our knowledge of reality and truth must be incomplete
- We have the ability to discern and judge truth and therefore we can move from a place of less truthful understanding to more truthful understanding
Andrew Wright (2000) developed the critical religious education model as an alternative to the current trend in UK Religious Education of promoting the belief that truth is relative. The Truthology curriculum applies this model so as to offer an alternative to a pluralistic, secular or postmodern belief system. It achieves this by focusing on the unique truth claims of Christianity alongside the unique truth claims of other religions and worldviews without attempting to indoctrinate students into a particular worldview. Moreover, through students exploring ultimate questions such as ‘what is truth and reality?’, ‘what is justice?’, ‘what is morality?’, ‘what is the meaning of life?’ and ‘who did Jesus claim to be?’ students are drawn out of comfortable ‘fence sitting’ as they are confronted with different and often contradicting religious and secular answers to these fundamental questions. Below is an overview of Truthology's lessons:
Lesson 1: What is truth?
The first lesson introduces students to the question “What is truth?”. The lesson offers students an opportunity to:
- Analyse their own worldview so as to:
- Become more aware of their own beliefs about truth and reality
- Identify where these beliefs came from
- Become more aware of the diversity in beliefs about the nature of truth within the class and throughout the world.
- Understand the significance of the question “what is truth” from the point of view of the major religions and from the perspective of what Jesus taught. Understand that if any religion is teaching THE TRUTH…the eternal destiny of our souls will be either affected or determined by our accepting or rejecting THAT TRUTH.
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Lesson 2: Does God Exist?
The lesson offers students an opportunity to explore 3 arguments for the existence of God:
- What is the chance that such a complex creation could just be the result of chance?
- Why do we have the sense that our lives have meaning, purpose and value if God does not exist and life's just a accident?
- Why do we have the sense that certain actions are absolutely wrong if God does not exist and we are just animals?
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Lesson 3: Can we trust the Bible?
This lesson offers students an opportunity to consider the validity of the Bible through looking at four common questions:
- Isn't the Bible just a myth?
- Hasn't the Bible been changed and changed?
- Isn't the Bible just written by men?
- Isn't the Bible full of contradictions?
The students work in groups and meet 4 different "experts". They spend 10 minutes with each "expert" and then rotate to meet the next "expert".
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Lesson 4: Who is God?
The fourth lesson introduces students to the question “If God or Gods exist…who is He/She/It/Them?”. The lesson offers students an opportunity to:
- Learn some of the Islamic/Christian/Hindu truth claims concerning the nature of God.
- Learn the specific Christian truth claims concerning the divinity of Jesus.
- Consider the enormity of the Biblical truth claim that God came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ by considering how they would feel if someone now came with such a claim.
- Explore why Christians put their faith into Jesus’ claim to be God incarnate.
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Lesson 5: Why is there suffering?
The fifth lesson introduces students to the question “Why would a good God allow suffering?”. The lesson offers students an opportunity to:
- Learn different religious perspectives on the meaning/purpose/cause of suffering.
- Understand the impact suffering has on faith
- Explore the Biblical explanation for suffering and reflect on the message of Jesus’ sufferings on the cross.
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