Religion and Science

Catalog description

The diverse interactions of religion and science from the Renaissance to the present. The profound transformation of premodern science by seventeenth-century revolutions and nineteenth-century discoveries; in turn, the transformation of society, including religion, by modern science. Some consideration of physics and astronomy, but major focus on the impact of Darwinian anti-teleology and modern biology, especially animal studies, on 'natural theology' and traditional arguments from design. Thinkers to be considered include Francis Bacon, Montaigne, Spinoza, Thomas Huxley, Albert Einstein, and E. O. Wilson. Topics include evolution, human consciousness, human identity, and the human-animal boundary.