SCIENCE
AND RELIGION: A NEW PERSPECTIVE
-Honors 3501H 1002; BIOL 3510H 6003;
RELP 3577H 5603
Seth Holtzman
office: 313 Administration Bldg,
hours: MW 3:30-5 (2nd &
4th Mondays); TTh 11-12 (if no
meeting); F 2-5; & by
appointment
phones: 637-4229
office; 636-9666 home; 637-4428 dept. office
email: sholtzma@catawba.edu
Bob Voelker
office: 100 Shuford Hall,
hours: MW 3:30-5:00;
& by appointment
phones: 645-4508
office; 704-279-2898 home; 637-4490 dept. office
email: rvoelker@catawba.edu
SYLLABUS
Course summary:
With the development of modern
science and a scientific worldview in the modern West, people have felt more
and more that religion is challenged and even imperiled. By the end of the medieval era in the West,
religion was central in people's lives and in the culture, the Catholic Church
was the dominant institution, and theology was hailed as the highest academic
discipline. Needless to say, religion
has lost ground in many ways since then.
Many people in the West have felt deep logical tensions between their
scientific and religious commitments.
Since both areas of thought are important in human affairs, it is not
easy to dismiss this tension. Nor has it
been easy to resolve. Worse, many people
have been confused about what the problem is between science and religion. Still others deny that there is any problem.
Our course will examine the relationship between
science and religion. We will consider
how pre-modern worldviews were in fact compatible with religion, and how the
modern era saw the birth of a radically new worldview, a scientific worldview,
that seems incompatible with religion.
We will consider what about modern science has caused problems for
religion and how religion has responded.
Central to the course will be an examination of
some new developments in religion and science that offer new ways to understand
the relationship between science and religion.
Can religion be understood in a way that can acknowledge any empirical
fact that science affirms? Are religion
and science really in conflict at all? If so, in what way?
Are there developments within science that make it more compatible with
religion? Ways of understanding their
relationship involve changing our conception of self, world, and/or Ultimate
Reality.
This is a cross-disciplinary course
even more than its title suggests. One
cannot explore the science/religion interface without involving
philosophy. We will therefore address
religion (mostly through theology), science, and philosophy. Further, one of our readings is an academic history
of the science/religion issue. Do not let the division of the course into
sections mislead you. This material in
this course is systematically connected; this is no topics course. The course tells one more or less
comprehensive intellectual story. Class
format will be mostly lecture.
Requirements and grading:
We expect that you are prepared to attend
class always, to listen well to lecture and take considerable notes, to read
with comprehension on your own, to demonstrate a conceptual grasp of the course
on tests, and to demonstrate sustained inquiry into a topic through a
paper.
1. Attendance is required; you cannot learn the
course on your own. we
may choose to elicit some material from you in class, such as your grasp of the
readings, lecture, and course. Also,
your participation by questions and in discussion is important. You need to be present, mentally active and
prepared. Class participation counts 5% of your grade.
2.
Occasional writing assignments on the readings, generally one page. These essays force you to wrestle with the
readings and help us gauge how much you are absorbing. You may work on readings with classmates. But on written assignments, come to your own
thoughts. we
will drop your lowest essay. Late essays
will not be accepted. Missed essays
count as an "F". Together,
they count 15% of your grade.
3. A take-home, cumulative midterm,
testing your grasp of the readings, issues, and problems in the course. Questions will be handed out in advance. Tentatively, given Oct. 8
and due on Oct. 15. 25% of your grade.
4. A 10-12 page paper, on a relevant
topic of your choice. Clear the topic
with us. Due Dec. 3rd,
the last class. 25% of your grade.
5. A cumulative, essay final exam,
testing your overall grasp of the course, not your memory of specific
facts. Questions will be handed out in
advance; you will write in class on those questions. Exam date: ..Friday, Dec.5, 3:30pm. 30% of your grade.
Complete
your assignments in a timely fashion.
Other expectations about your writing: on the topic, typed, paginated,
tidy (including bound), standard margins and fonts, and dark print.
Criteria employed in evaluating written work
include these:
**
How well do you understand the complexity of the issue or problem? To what extent have you made good use of the
relevant concepts, distinctions, positions, and reasons found in course
readings or brought out in lecture or in discussion?
**
Is your work clearly written? Are its
claims precise? Is it clearly structured? Does it have an explicit overall
direction? Would it be intelligible to
an interested student?
**
Is your work supported by good reasons?
Are your claims and reasons throughout the paper consistent with each
other? Have you anticipated and responded
to any reasonable objections to your reasons or to your position?
Here is what the grades mean:
"A"
"B" Good mastery
"C" Satisfactory achievement
"D" Less than satisfactory achievement
"F" Unsatisfactory achievement; failure to achieve minimum
competency
---------------------------------
A+ 97-100 B+ 87-89 C+ 77-79 D+ 67-69
A 93-96 B 83-86 C 73-76 D 63-66
A- 90-92 B- 80-82 C- 70-72 D- 60-62
(A+ is not a final course grade.) Grades measure achievement, not effort per
se.
Texts:
1. Science and Religion: A Historical
Introduction, ed. Gary B. Ferngren
2. In Face of Mystery by Gordon D. Kaufman
3. handouts and websites.
Readings on the
schedule at the end of the syllabus are for that class (not the following
class).
Reading and taking notes:
There is a
substantial amount of reading in this course.
We expect you to do all of the reading; to do well in the course you
will need to. Some material is easy and
so accessible on your first attempt.
Other assignments are quite taxing and will probably require multiple
readings. Try the following strategy for
difficult readings: read it once quickly
simply to get the gist; then read it carefully for details, not worrying about
the overall picture; then read it normally, fitting the details into the
overall picture.
The
lectures will sometimes stick close to the readings but will also range far
afield. You should come to class already
having done the readings. You will be
responsible for all of it, and the final exam will be frightening if you have
not read everything. Since lectures can
cover material not in the readings, this is another reason to attend each
class.
For
some reason, most students take very sketchy notes. Perhaps they think that they cannot both take
notes and listen at once or perhaps they do not appreciate the value of taking
notes. Learn to write while you listen;
it not only can be done, it usually enhances your grasp of what is being said. Take as many notes as you can, without losing
too much of what is being said. You
cannot get by with noting only key terms and definitions. Your notes are an invaluable resource for
understanding the course and for the final exam.
Absences and violations:
After
2 absences, further ones lower your final grade incrementally. Missing more than 7 classes for other than an
emergency is automatic grounds for an "F" (or an "I",
depending), regardless of your other grades.
Sleeping or other forms of mental non-attendance count as an
absence. Missing class the day before or
after vacation counts double.
When
absent, you are responsible for missed assignments and classroom material. Get notes from a classmate. If you still have questions, contact one of
us.
Cheating,
as well as falsifying an emergency to skip class or to skip an assignment,
violates the Honor Code. So does
plagiarism, the act of employing a writer's ideas (and even words) without
giving the writer due credit. See one of
us if you have any question about borrowing someone's ideas or words for your
use.
Honors Science and
Religion: Tentative schedule
Mon.,
Aug 25
hand out syllabus; review any parts of it deemed necessary; discuss aspects of team-teaching; sketch of the course: felt inconsistencies and possible avenues of resolution; present my conflict thesis: clash of world views; consider what a world view is (not "world" in the sense of "Earth")
READING: Ferngren, Part I
Berman, "Introduction", The
Reenchantment of the World, pp.1-11
-----------------
Wed.,
Aug 27
what a humanistic world view is; generated from a humanistic conceptual system; what is a conceptual system; what are humanistic concepts? source, function, and scope; H concepts used literally to describe and explain a subject matter
READING: Ferngren, chapter 3
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Mon.,
Sept 1
basic human needs: materialistic versus humanistic; civilizations address both, but which gets priority (and why even prioritize)?; pre-modern civilizations were humanistic (examples); trace implications for knowledge/understanding, and present examples; episteme vs. techne
READING: Ferngren, chapter 4
-----------------
Wed.,
Sept 3
what a humanistic world view is; grounded in basic philosophical assumptions about how we must think about reality & knowledge; extension of humanistic concepts from self to the world; emphasis on meaning and value as categories; examples (including present-day); implications for wholism
READING: Ferngren, chapter 5
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Mon.,
Sept 8
religion as a humanistic way of thought; what it is, how it works; meets H needs (especially w/r/t religious consciousness); wholism and Ultimate Reality; the Ultimate must be ultimate in meaning and value, thus a Divine Reality; religion employs a view of self and world view to account for self-in-world and our relation to Ultimate Reality (via our feelings about this); religion needs an H world view
READING: Adams, chpt 1 "Religion and Culture", Religion & Cultural Freedom, pp.1-25
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Wed.,
Sept 10
premodern science (not as in scientia, organized knowledge); science not originally a separate area of culture; in service of H needs as much as M needs (examples: astronomy in service of religion, physics in service of ethics); science was humanistic originally
READING: Artz, "Science and Technology", The Mind of the Middle Ages, pp.232-53
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Mon.,
Sept 15
in pre-modern civilizations, unity of thought; same H conceptual system was used to account for all of reality; science and religion were conceptually compatible, so no real conflict
READING:
Jones, Preface, Introduction: "Jumping High and
to the Right", and "The Crisis
of Contemporary Culture", The Sciences and the Humanities, pp. 1-25
---------------------
Wed.,
Sept. 17
transition from pre-modern to modern; change of priorities as medieval civilization collapsed, not while it flourished; evidence of transition;
READING: Ferngren, chapters 7 and 8
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Mon.,
Sept. 22
new modern view of nature; Reformation in science occurs to produce the new knowledge sought, knowledge of nature newly conceived; new meaning of concepts such as science, knowledge, description, explanation, cause, change, fact, object, etc.; examples of physics (Galileo) and astronomy (Copernicus, Kepler)
READING:
Ferngren,
chapters 12
Berman,"The Birth of Modern
Scientific Consciousness", pp.13-35 and
"Consciousness and Society in Early
Modern Europe", The
Reenchantment of the World, pp.37-55
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Wed.,
Sept. 24
new naturalistic world view; its underlying philosophical assumptions; the need for a new conceptual system to yield the new knowledge; division of our conception of reality; science and religion part ways;
READING:
Ferngren, chapter 11 and 25
Adams, "The Metaphysics of Modern
Western Culture", Religion & Cultural
Freedom, pp.93-109
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Mon.,
Sept. 29
empiricism, atomism, nominalism (in science: extended to biological and "human" sciences; and in culture generally)
READING:
Ferngren, chapters 9, 10, 13, and 14
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Wed., Oct 1
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Mon., Oct. 6
Darwinism, Evolution and the Modern Synthesis: Darwin formally consolidated and presented the notion of evolution, but a biological mechanistic understanding awaited the discovery of modern genetics and population genetics.
READING:
Ferngren Ch. 15, 16, 17
Darwin, Charles – MSN Encarta (encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp?ti=761574327)
Darwin, Charles – The Origin of Species
(www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-origin-of-the-species).
chapter 1
1Up Info – Darwinism, Genetics and Genetic Engineering (www.1upinfo.com/encyclopedia/D/Darwinis.html)
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Wed., Oct. 8
Population Genetics and Evolution: Evolution (descent with modification) involves changes in allele frequencies in populations.
READING: http://home.att.net/~dorak/indexevol.html : A Brief History of Life, Human Evolution, Molecular Clocks, Basic Population Genetics (through section entitled “The implications of the HWE”) and Speciation.
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Mon., Oct. 13 VACATION
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Wed., Oct. 15 – Continuation of Oct. 8 material
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Mon., Oct. 20
Reactions to Biology’s adoption of Evolutionary Biology: Scientific Naturalism: The non scientific world, especially Christianity, had varying reactions to the notion of biological evolution
READING: Ferngren, ch. 19, 20, 21, 22
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Wed., Oct. 22 (start section 3 of course)
Christian’s attempts merge or blend traditional Christian and evolutionary understandings gave rise to the Intelligent Design Argument and The Anthropic Principle.
READING: Ferngren ch. 26, 27
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Mon., Oct. 27
Development of Religion and Traditional Theology:
READING: Kaufman, ch. 1, 2, 16
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Wed., Oct. 29
Rethinking Traditional Theology:
READING: Kaufman, ch. 3, 4, 5
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Mon., Nov. 3
The Monotheistic (Christian) Categorial Scheme: God, Humanity, World, (and Christ)
READING: Kaufman, ch. 6
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Wed., Nov. 5
Kaufman’s proposals for understanding The World and Humanity
READING: Kaufman, ch. 8 & 9
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Mon., Nov. 10
Kaufman’s proposals for restructuring the concepts of God and Christ
READING: Kaufman ch. 19, 20, 21, 22
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Wed., Nov. 12
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Mon., Nov. 17
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Wed., Nov. 19
New scientific discoveries: The possible roles of Chaos and Chaos Theory in scientific understanding
READING: Chaos Theory and
Fractals: http://www.mathjmendl.org/chaos/
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Mon., Nov. 24
Barry: Process theology: Another attempt to incorporate modern scientific understandings and Christian theology into a comprehensive world view.
READING:
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Wed., Nov. 26 VACATION
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Mon., Dec. 1
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Wed., Dec. 3
felt conflicts between science and religion; not so much empirical facts (since religion can accommodate these), but rather underlying conflict of world views
the philosophical challenge we face
READING:
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final exam: Friday, Dec 5, 3:30pm