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Apr 29, 2024
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T3 4104 - God and Science in the Western World
This interdisciplinary course examines the relationship between religion and science in the Western world, with a particular focus on the era from sixteenth until the late nineteenth century. It is a subject which has vexed historians for nearly a century and a half. Historians originally conceived of religion and science as inherently antagonistic forces which were necessarily at war with one another. The so-called “warfare school” argued that the history of modern science was the history of the science’s gradual, indeed, inevitable victory over religion. Others, however, have countered that religion and science were often allies. Still others have contended that the relationship between religion and science cannot adequately be described in terms either of conflict or harmony. Their relations were, instead, complex and can only be appreciated properly when considered in their particular, contingent historical contexts. Students will be forced to grapple with these conceptual models as we cover the broad sweep of religio-scientific development in the Western world, with particular emphasis on the period from 1500 until 1900. We shall also zero in on particular topics Galileo’s trial, Newton’s alchemical experimentation, Hume’s attack on the miraculous, Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the Wilberforce-Huxley debates, for instance, which illuminate the distinctive relationship between religion and science in the Western world.
Requisites: Sr only
Credit Hours: 3.0
General Education Code: T3
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Eligible grades: A-F,WP,WF,FN,FS,AU,I
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