Religion & Interdisciplinary Studies
Course topics will rotate to incorporate the study of religion in a variety of other disciplines. Focus will be on the influence or application of religious teachings and traditions in the fields of healthcare, politics, education, etc.
Outcomes: Describe the ethical implications of the religious beliefs and traditions of at least one religion for the primary field of study.
Faith, Science, Common Good
Course topics will rotate to incorporate the study of religion in a variety of other disciplines. Focus will be on the influence or application of religious teachings and traditions in the fields of healthcare, politics, education, etc.
Outcomes: Describe the ethical implications of the religious beliefs and traditions of at least one religion for the primary field of study.
Engaged Learning
Tier 2 Theological Knowledge
This class satisfies the Engaged Learning requirement in the Undergraduate Research category.
Science denial threatens the common good by undermining public confidence in the ability of science to comprehend our world and create effective solutions for urgent social problems. This course explores the threat of science denial through a series of three questions. First, what exactly is science denial? Second, what motivates science denial? Third, what mitigates science denial? Insofar as some science denial stems from the presumption of an inevitable conflict between faith and science (e.g., a presumed conflict between faith and evolutionary science), this course considers the merits of models that instead envision a peaceful co-existence between faith and science.
This course explores the threat of science denial through a series of three questions. First, what is science denial? This first phase will analyze science denial as the unwarranted rejection of scientific consensus on a range of issues (e.g., evolution), identifying some of the faulty rationales used for rejecting consensus. Second, what motivates science denial? The presumption of conflict between science and faith motivates much (but not all) science denial, so this second phase explores the "Conflict Model," using detailed case studies of "creationism" and "scientism" to illustrate how the assumptions, methods, and rhetoric of these two views work to perpetuate conflict and facilitate science denial. Third, what mitigates science denial? If conflict facilitates science denial, then peaceful co-existence between science and faith can mitigate the problem. So the final phase of the course will propose the late Stephen Jay Gould's model of "Non-Overlapping Magisteria" (NOMA) as a viable public model for framing a relation between science and faith that all civic stakeholders can endorse and support for the common good. The "Undergraduate Research" E-L designation of this course aims (1) to understand, analyze, and evaluate science denial, (2) to understand, analyze, and evaluate Gould's original NOMA model and its reception and (2) to revise Gould's NOMA into a more effective analytical tool.
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