FORUM Science, religion, and constructivism: constructing and understanding reality Bhaskar Upadhyay Received: 24 February 2009 / Accepted: 2 March 2009 / Published online: 22 May 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract There have been debates about the place of religion in science and in what ways knowledge that is produced through religion can aid in the learning and teaching of science. The discord between science and religion is mainly focused on whose knowledge is better in describing and explaining the reality. Constructivist epistemology seems to give some scholars hope in the possibility that the discord between science and religion can be ameliorated and that their expressions of reality can co-exist. In this forum contribution I present some Hindu perspectives to re-interpret how science and Hinduism explain reality. I have used only few Hindu perspectives based on selected Hindu writings, particularly Vedanta, to expand on objectivity and reality. Finally, I recommend that social con- structivism may be a better framework in keeping science and religion discord at bay. Keywords Science & religion Á Reality Á Constructivism The discord or debate between science and religion is not new. People in every major or minor religion have debated about the true nature of knowledge and whether knowledge gained from science can better explain how the world works than knowledge gained from religion. Science and religion attempt to answer these questions in different ways using different methods. In other words science will look for empirical evidence for a possible answer as science does not claim its findings about the natural world as the truth. On the other hand religion seeks its evidence in revelations that are from God. The revealed truth is irrefutable and, since that truth came from the Supreme Being, it exists. This discord in what it means to practice science versus what it means to practice religion is the major underlying conflict. Even though I have not studied religion as a part of my scholarship, I have engaged in personal and sometime professional discussions about what it means to practice or to be identified as belonging to a particular religious faith or religion. On the B. Upadhyay (&) Curriculum and Instruction, University of Minnesota, 125 Peik Hall, Minneapolis, MN, USA e-mail: upadh006@umn.edu 123 Cult Stud of Sci Educ (2010) 5:41–46 DOI 10.1007/s11422-009-9206-5