Professor Buxhoeveden
!
Religion and Science: Human Questions
!
!
1.Course Overview
!
Religious Studies 472
Science is thought by some to have replaced all other forms of knowledge, including
transcendental religion. For many it has become the only source of valid information whereas
religion is ‘mere belief’ at best or superstition at worse. It may have a sociological reality but not
a factual one. There are many who argue that only science is rational whereas belief in a
transcendent God is a fabrication disconnected from human experience. On the other hand, there
are also those who do not accept anything from science if it contradicts their understanding of the
Bible. There is also criticism that reductive science has rendered existence essentially
meaningless and machine like. Given these views how can there be any meaningful dialogue
between science and religion?
!
Part one of the course surveys the major themes in the academic dialogue between religion and
science, and addresses the preeminent myths that have built up around the historical relationship
between religion and science. The second part of the class will consider the question of
knowledge in science: what does it mean to say something is scientific? What do we expect a
scientific theory to tell us about ultimate Reality? How do the methods we use affect the answers
we receive? What is the nature of proof and evidence and is there a distinction between
information and truth?
!
The last part of the class will focus on the concept of a transcendent God and how that affects the
relation with science. For example, is it an error in logic to consider God as a hypothesis within
science? Is reference to a transcendent possibly a more rational explanation of existence than
naturalism? Is it true that religion is disconnected from experience ? The class will focus on the
relation between science and Christianity because it is simply a fact of history that modern
science arose in the Christian West and this is where the vast majority of the interaction has
occurred. However, references to other traditions will also be included with special emphasis on
the Christian East.
!
II. Materials. The will be six books. In addition, there will be a few handout materials, a
powerpoint presentation, and video lectures.
!
Books:
1. Religion and Science: A New Introduction
!
Alister McGrath
Professor Buxhoeveden
2. Galileo Went to Jail and Other Myths about Religion and Science
!3. The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss
!4. A Sense of the Cosmos: Scientific Knowledge and Spiritual Truth
!5. Science and the Myth of Progress
!6. Miracles (a talk presented at Harvard)
!
!
Ron Numbers
David Bentley Hart
Jacob Needleman
Mehrdad M. Zarandi, Editor
John Lennox
III. Grading. Grades will be based on three exams, a final exam and class participation. Honors
students will participate in a panel discussion at the end of class and get credit for that as well.
Attendance is mandatory and expected unless there is good reason to miss class.
!
!IV. Learning Outcomes.
1. The student will acquire a basic understanding of the historical and contemporary relationship
between science and Christianity in particular.
!
2. The student will have a basic understanding of the complexities and nuances associated with
knowledge claims in science, what constitutes scientific theories and paradigms, and how this
affects the relationship between science and religion.
!
3. Students will be introduced to spiritual knowledge and knowledge claims in religion and how
that differs from those in science. They will also be introduced to ways of thinking that differ
significantly from those associated with modernity.
!
4. The student will attain an awareness of the relative ubiquity and nature of religious experience
in the modern age and the fundamental challenges that at least some of these pose to the modern
worldview.