Atheism and the Case for God

Catalog description

Over the past twenty years several best-selling authors have mounted a concerted attack on religion, advancing an argument that is, purportedly, so fresh and compelling as to earn them the title, "The New Atheists." The more important and enduring cultural phenomenon affecting religious practice today is the secularism that has increasingly dominated modern civilization, religious belief and practice became significant options rather than cultural givens. This course deals with the question of whether secularism arose in reaction to religion, or as one of religion's greatest success stories. Much of the analysis will be historical: When and how did the secular movement arise? What notion of "God" did it reject? But the course will also address questions that are more philosophical and theological in nature: Has natural science disproved religion? And is secularism properly understood as necessarily concurrent with scientific advance?