Why?

It is now possible to teach the history of the universe, the evolution of life, and the rise of human civilizations as an integrated, single semester course or series of integrated courses.(1) Typically science is taught as separate specializations and history taught in different periods and regions. Unique in Our Common Story is the integration of all these different specializations into a single, narrative account of the development of the universe, the evolution of life, and the history of humanity.(2)  Some call this new integrated story told by science and history “the New Cosmology” or “the Epic of Evolution.” Others call it “the History of Nature,” or simply “Big History.” We are calling it Our Common Story, because for the first time humans have an origin “myth” that transcends all of our regional, religious, and tribal differences.

The advantages of teaching general science and world history as an epic narrative are many:

1. The integrative narrative provides a mnemonic for students and adults alike to understand and remember the details of science and history.
    
2. This approach helps to inspire students and adults to appreciate the awesome grandeur of the new sciences and the human adventure.
    
3. This approach helps students and adults to understand the unique environmental, political, economic, and technological challenges of the twenty-first century global civilization.
    
4. This approach helps to address profound existential questions of meaning and purpose, virtues and values, in ways that are respectful of science, supportive of progressive religion, and conducive to civil societies.(3)

Our Common Story is an increasingly factual narrative that transcends and includes all of our different stories. We see this curriculum, and exploratory dialogues about how to interpret this story, as an important component in addressing the challenges of culture wars and clashing civilizations, as well as a productive context to solving many of the great political, economic and environmental challenges in the world today. We seek to incubate such courses in undergraduate colleges and universities, book clubs, religious congregations, and ultimately in age-appropriate ways in K-12 education, here in the United States and around the world.

What?

Our Common Story is the narrative account of our 13.7 billion year history of the universe, the 4.5 billion year evolution of our planet, the 200,000 year rise of our species, and the 10,000 year accelerating drama of human civilization. We are calling it Our Common Story, because for the first time humans have an origin “myth” that transcends all of our regional, religious, and tribal differences. Every time we log on to the Internet or pump two hundred million year old fossil fuels into our cars, we affirm this story in deed, if not in thought or understanding.

The grand scientific metanarrative is quite new and still evolving, so much so that we do not really have an adequate interpretative tradition surrounding it. This history, like all histories, is open to many plausible interpretations, so long as we are faithful to the text, in this case new “Book of Nature” as discovered through multiple scientific disciplines over the last century. In brief outline, this omnicentric universe began some thirteen billion years ago as something like infinite heat, infinite density, and total symmetry. The universe expanded and evolved into more differentiated and complex structures—forces, quarks, hydrogen, helium, galaxies, stars, heavier elements, complex chemistry, planetary systems. Some 3.5 billion years ago, in a small second- or third-generation solar system, the intricate processes called life began on at least one small planet. Animate matter-energy on earth presented itself as a marvelous new intensification of the creative dynamic at work in the universe. Then some two million years ago, as if yesterday in the enormous timescales of the universe, protohumans emerged on the savanna of Africa with their enormously heightened capacities for conscious self-reflection, language, and tool making. Ten thousand years ago agriculture begins and with it growing populations of humans living in ever larger and more complex societies. And this unfolding leads us all the way to today, almost seven billion of us collectively transforming the planet and ourselves. The wonder of it all is that each of us is a collection of transient atoms, recycled stardust become conscious beings, engaged in this global conversation, brought to you by ephemeral electrons cascading through the Internet and bouncing off of satellites.

It is tragic that we do not teach this epic narrative of science to our children and ourselves in all of its glorious grandeur and fascinating details. That we do not discuss and debate the meaning of this new cosmology, seeking to integrate it with our different religious and cultural traditions, helps fan the flames of unnecessary conflicts. That we do not seek to apply these insights to solving the great economic and environmental challenges of the twenty-first century may be our species’ downfall.

How?

Our Common Story is primarily a matter of education at all levels of our society here in the United States and around the world. Virtually no adult living today was formally taught Our Common Story, because our educational institutions have promoted specialization and the division of labor. While we have gained much through this specialization in academics as well as at work, we miss out on something profound and important if that is all we do. Today, there is a new core curriculum in science and history that should be required of every competent citizen in our twenty-first century global civilization. Without understanding this science and history, which means also the history of economics, technology, conflict, and culture, we cannot appropriately understand the world around us, nor address the many challenges which humanity faces in the twenty-first century.

Universities and colleges: We seek to promote new undergraduate courses, team taught and otherwise, that teach Our Common Story and engage students in thinking critically and existentially about our common future. We need to develop standards and assess the results. These experiments then need to then be adapted and best practices promoted. See the curricula and bibliography.

Book Clubs and Adult Education: You do not need a college classroom to begin learning about Our Common Story. A number of excellent books exist for this purpose. Consider creating a reading group or book club to read and discuss these books with friends. See the curricula and bibliography.

Speakers and Lectures: A number of speakers are available to give lectures at your community group, congregation, or school. Consider hosting such an event. Put together a seminar with your colleagues.

Television, Film, and New Media: We need to harness the power of television, film, and other new media to popularize Our Common Story, harnessing not only the power of the spoken word, but the incredible beauty of images from contemporary science.

Seminaries and Adult Religious Education: Far from being anti-religious, the new science and the new history of Our Common Story provide a powerful and productive context for re-interpreting traditional religious insights in ways that promote a new realism about religious intuitions. Consider creating a reading group or adult religious education series in your congregation. Clergy and seminarians especially need to understand Our Common Story and the interpretation thereof.

Internationalization: Even as we seek to promote Our Common Story here in the United States and other English-speaking countries, we need to begin translation projects and educational initiatives around the world. Our Common Story is an antidote to regional chauvinism and religious extremism and a powerful way to promote international conflict resolution and pragmatic collaboration in solving the great challenges of the twenty-first century.

K-12 Education: The end game is to eventually transform science and history education in primary and secondary schools. In ten years, we envision an educational system in which we can eventually take it for granted that every graduate would already be well acquainted with the basic outline of Our Common Story and many of the details thereof.

Sign the Resolution: Please sign the resolution and solicit the endorsements of your organization. By debating this resolution in your local congregation, your community group, and your local school board, we already accomplish many of our goals. In the end, Our Common Story must become a question of public education policy before legislative bodies at all level of our society.

Read and Discuss ∞ Pilot Courses and Programs

Measure Results ∞ Proof of Concepts

Adapt Best Practices ∞ Promote and Advocate ∞ Legislate

(1) David Christian, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004). Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition (New York: Broadway Books, [2003] 2005). Cynthia Stokes Brown, Big History : From the Big Bang to the Present (New York: New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton, 2007). Eric Chaisson, Epic of Evolution: Seven Ages of the Cosmos (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006). Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams, The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (New York: Riverhead, 2006), J. Robert McNeill and William H. McNeill, The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003). Michael Dowd, Thank God for Evolution! (New York: Viking, 2007). John Haught, God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000).

(2) For examples of Big History curricula, see Christian, David, Edmund Burke III, and Ross Dunn. "World History for Us All." San Diego State University, http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu. SETI Institute. "Voyages through Time." SETI Institute, http://www.voyagesthroughtime.org/. Note that teachers make trade-offs between how much time to spend teaching the history of nature versus the history of humanity.

(3) See William J. Grassie, "Teaching the History of Nature: Towards an Integrated Science Curriculum," Metanexus Institute, http://www.metanexus.net/magazine/tabid/68/id/10326/Default.aspx .