Caring For Creation: Physics, Religion and the Environment
General Information

Instructors:
Thomas F. Tracy
#1 73/75 Campus Avenue
Ext. 6310
E-mail: ttracy@bates.edu
John E. Smedley
332 Carnegie Science
Ext. 6323
E-mail: jsmedley@bates.edu

Class: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30 - 10:50, Pettingill G52.

Course Description: This course considers scientific and religious accounts of the origin of the universe, examines the relations between these accounts, and explores the way they shape our deepest attitudes toward the natural world. Topics of discussion include the biblical creation stories, contemporary scientific cosmology, the interplay between these scientific and religious ideas, and the roles they can play in forming a response to environmental problems, such as those associated with the development and use of energy.

General Education for students graduating prior to 2011: Due to the nature of its content and the spirit of the general education requirements, this course will serve as a third course for the natural science requirement, but will not fulfill the quantitative requirement and may not be used as part of a physics set.

Required Texts:
Caring for Creation Course Reading Packet (coursepack), Bates College.
Science & Religion: From Conflict to Conversation, by John F. Haught
The Origin of the Universe , by John D. Barrow
The Mind of God, by Paul Davies.
The Body of God, by Sallie McFague .

Supplemental Reading
Clearing the Ground for a Meeting of Science and the Christian Faith ,by Paul Wason

Course syllabus

Grading:
Exam #1 - 20%
Exam #2 - 20%
Final Exam - 20%
Final Paper - 40%

Links
Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences           Union of Concerned Scientists
Evangelical Environmental Network         Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
Metanexus Institute
The Tibetan Buddhist View of the Environment