Caring For Creation: Physics, Religion and the Environment
General Information, Winter 2003
Instructors:
Class: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30 - 10:50, Carnegie 113.
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: 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 one course in 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
Interdisciplinary Lecture Series on Science, Power, and
Difference
Science and the Spiritual Quest
Union of Concerned Scientists