Science and Religion
A History from Oxford
- Course Code
- HIST 0982
- Course Type
- Seminars
- Subject Credit
- Course Availability
Each seminar runs only subject to sufficient student demand. What is the relationship between science and religion? Is religion intrinsically incompatible with science, as often believed in popular culture? If they are not incompatible, are they independent of each other? Can science and religious belief be compatible with one another? This course answers these questions from a historical perspective, i.e. by looking at how previous scientists have answered them. For that reason, students will read the works of Galileo, Charles Darwin, and other scientists who found themselves at the nexus of science and religion, most often at Oxford. By the end of this course, students will be able to critically analyze what is really at stake in science and religion debates; confront popular myths of history with real historical knowledge; understand how scientific theories change; and explain how religion played a central role in the making of modern science.
Sample Syllabus:
1. The Oxford Friars’ Science: From Robert Grosseteste to Roger Bacon
2. Was Galileo a Heretic? The Galileo Affair
3. The Christian Virtuoso, Robert Boyle’s Most Printed Book
4. Jesuit Science, For the Greater Glory of God
5. The Priest of Nature: Newton and Anti-Trinitarian Theology
6. Natural Theology: From Newton, to Paley, to Intelligent Design
7. Debating Darwinism at Oxford: Huxley, Wilberforce, and Evolution
8. Science and Religion Today: From Richard Dawkins to Roger Penrose