From God to Darwin to Black Holes and Back:
The Struggle for Truth in Science and Religion

Spring 2001

Syllabus

Star Day-Sun Day

Class members

Links

Nicenet

Observatory Time

Murray J. Haar

Department of Religion, Philosophy, Classics
Humanities 210, phone (274-) 5484
E-mail haar@inst.augie.edu
Office hours: 1:00-3:00 MThF or by appointment

Arlen Viste

Department of Chemistry
GSC 256, phone (274-) 4813
E-mail viste@inst.augie.edu
Office hours: 7:30-8:30 AM MTWThF or by appointment

Capstone class home page

http://inst.augie.edu/-viste/capstone2001/

Course Description:

This course examines how and why religion and science struggle to discover the truth. We will wrestle with certain important questions. Is there a God? What are we doing on a planet that is floating in space? How did we get here? Are we here by accident or design? Are we humans (at) the center of the universe? Should we or can we speak of God in an age of Science? Are there or should there be moral limits that constrain both religion and science as they search for the Truth? These and other questions will be explored in conversation with the professors. The course invites us to reflect on the place of ourselves, our learning, our past, and our future in a universe of chaos, order, and mystery; on scales vast and minute; in relationships cosmic and personal, contingent and purposeful. What does it mean to be a faithful child of God (people of God) in a scientific age? Particular attention will be given toward constructing imaginative and creative responses to these and other questions.

Class schedule

8:30-9:50 Tu Th (GSC 201)

Disabilities

Any students with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation in this course are encouraged to speak with the instructors as soon as possible.

Attendance

Regular class attendance is expected. Excessive absence will affect your grade adversely. Class begins at 8:30. Please make every effort to be here on time.

Classroom style

The methodology of the class will include: some lectures, free-for-all discussion as an entire class, small group discussion, online discussion among students and faculty. There may be some limited use of films, art, music, local field trips, etc. Students are responsible for reading all the books listed. The exams will cover the readings. Professors generally will not be lecturing on the books. If you have questions or comments on the readings feel free to include them in our class discussions. The exams will include long and short essay questions dealing with the readings, lectures, and discussions of the class.

Note: anyone in class should feel free to raise any questions at any time. Feel free to interrupt.

Texts

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Harper Perennial, New York, NY, 1932, 1946, 1998.

Stephen Jay Gould, Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life, Ballantine, New York, NY, 1999.

Ian G. Barbour, When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, Partners? HarperCollins, New York, NY, 2000.

Kitty Ferguson, The Fire in the Equations: Science, Religion, and the Search for God, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1994.

John F. Haught, God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 2000.

Warren S. Brown, Nancey Murphy, and H. Newton Malony, Eds., Whatever Happened to the Soul? Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1998.

Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, South End Press, Boston, MA, 1997.

Larry Rasmussen with Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, "The Reform Dynamic: Addressing New Issues in Uncertain Times," Chapter 8 in The Promise of Lutheran Ethics, Karen L. Bloomquist and John R. Stumme, Eds., Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN, 1998. (On reserve in Mikkelsen Library)

Leon R. Kass, "The Moral Meaning of Genetic Technology," Commentary, 108, 32-3 8 (Sept 1999). Available online through Expanded Academic ASAP.

Russell Stannard, Ed., God for the 21st Century, Templeton Foundation Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2000.

Barbara Brown Taylor, The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion, Cowley Publications, Boston, MA, 2000.

Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, Penguin Books, New York, NY, 2000.

Point distribution

Exam 1                                                       150
Exam 2                                                       150
Term Paper                                                 150
Star Day-Sun Day observational exercise     100
Capstone Portfolio Web Page                      200
Participation, including Nicenet                       50
Final exam                                                   200

Total                                                1000

Grade lines

A/B      90%
B/C      80
C/D      65
D/F      55

+ and - grades extend + 3% from these borderlines.
Thus A- is 90.0-92.99%, B+ is 87.0-89.99%.

In case a student chooses S/U grading, the Registrar translates C- or better as a grade of S, and D+ or lower as U.

Star Day-Sun Day observational exercise

Instructions are posted. Begin the observations promptly, and reflect on what you are observing. You are welcome to discuss your results with other class members. The report is done individually, and is posted on your web site. Due March 13.

Term Paper

Choose a topic, issue, or theme which is related to science and religion, and develop it into a substantial term paper. Length should be the equivalent of 8-12 pages, double spaced. This is a research paper, in that your sources of information should be thoroughly documented through detailed footnotes or end notes. Bibliographic citations must be done consistently. State explicitly which style you are following, and stick to it. Recommended styles include MLA, The Chicago Manual of Style, the journal Zygon, or one of the journals published by the American Chemical Society. To use some other style, get the approval of the instructors. This is also a reflective position paper.

By March 1 submit your Term Paper topic and 3 references for the instructors' approval. Post the completed term paper on your web site no later than May 1. Drafts identified as such may be posted as you develop them, and you may request instructors' comments. . You are welcome to hand in a printed copy of the final paper if you wish.

Capstone Portfolio Web Page

One of the requirements of this Capstone is that each student develop a Capstone Portfolio Web Page, as part of their individual home page.

The nature and objectives of this web page can be tailored to your own particular interests, through specific agreement with the instructors, but there are several expected components.

The Capstone Portfolio Web Page should pull together your activities in this course. In it, document.your growing understanding of and reflections on issues related to the concerns of this science and religion Capstone. The Portfolio as a whole should be more than the sum of its parts.

AV will create an overall General 492H Capstone home page for this course, with links to each class member's home page, at URL http://inst.augie.edu/~viste/capstone2001/ Quite a number of students in this Capstone already have developed a Home Page of their own in some form. If this is new for you, speak with your knowledgeable classmates and with AV. Some suggestions for getting started on a web page are available at URL http://inst.augie.edu/~viste/webstart.html We recommend that you work on your web page using simple tools such as Netscape, rather than excessively fancy software packages such as Front Page. We expect that you should understand the structure of your web site quite thoroughly, through having constructed it, rather than letting a fancy software package proliferate files and subdirectories all across creation.

You may also want to incorporate some of your personal, career, or avocational interests, particularly as they intersect the concerns this course. Certainly the web page should reflect your own personality. It should be obvious that this needs to be your own work, in consultation with AV as necessary. Using a "hired gun" to create a flashy web page for you would be worth zero points. Thus the web page should include a statement of authorship, and a virtual signature of some sort.

Your web page should include at least the following:

Star Day-Sun Day observational exercise
Term Paper
Essays rewritten from Exams 1 and 2
Links to interesting web sites related to this Capstone course
Essay on your own perspective on relationships between science and religion
You are welcome to add more.

Academic Integrity

We expect that this class will embody and live up to appropriately high standards of academic integrity. An unpleasant and very partial way to say this is that we expect you to avoid cheating on exams and plagiarism in your writing. But we would rather look on the positive side. One of the fruits of this course is intended to be reflection on the question, "How then shall we live? " Our hope is that this will be so deeply ingrained that your faces will be radiant with the light of integrity! If there are situations which are fraught with uncertainty, please discuss them with the instructors or with the class as a whole. Certainly there are frequent occasions, such as small group discussion, where group work and interaction are strongly encouraged and expected.

Participation and Nicenet

Your active participation throughout this course is expected and valued. This may take a variety of forms, including class discussion based on keeping up with the reading, sharing personal points of view in and out of class, and making steady progress on your web page.

It is also manifested in your involvement in class interaction through Nicenet. This Virtual Communal Space will be implemented using Nicenet, with ICA software (Internet Classroom Assistant). At least at the beginning, the instructors (AV and MJH) will pose a weekly question or topic for conversation and discussion. Each class member is expected to make at least one contribution each week (Sunday - Saturday). However we hope that this conversation takes on a life of its own, with new conversation topics (threads) arising out of the class discussion as well.

To get started, use a web browser (typically Netscape or Internet Explorer) to connect to this URL: http://www.nicenet.org/
The instructors (AV) have set up a "class" on Nicenet, called "Capstone2001". You have already been added to the class roster. Log in, but do not attempt to jin the class a second time. In most cases your Usemame is the same as your e-mail login at Augie. Thus Ole N. Viking is onviking. Your Password is your student ID (6 digits). The instructors' Usemames are simply viste and haar (just as on the e-mail system at Augie).

Some other sources

The following books are not assigned as scheduled reading. However some of them may offer starting points for your major term paper in this course.

Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition, Counterpoint, Washington, DC, 2000.

David Bohm, Basil J. Hiley (Editor), The Undivided Universe, Routledge, 1995.

David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge, 1996.

S. Chandrasekhar, Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987.

Paul M. Churchland, The Engine of Rreason, the Seat of the Soul, MIT Press, 1999.

Dennis Richard Danielson, ed., The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking, Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, MA, 2000.

William A. Dembski, Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1999.

Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design, W. W. Norton & Company, 1996.

Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist, Perseus Books, Reading, MA, 1998.

Langdon Gilkey, Nature, Reality, and the Sacred: The Nexus of Science and Religion, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1993.

Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial, Intervarsity Press, 1993.

Phillip E. Johnson, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, Intervarsity Press, 1997.

Kenneth R. Miller, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 1999.

Nancey C. Murphy and George R. Ellis, On the Moral Nature of the Universe: Theology, Cosmology & Ethics, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1996

John Polkinghorne, Belief in God in an Age of Science, Yale, New Haven, 1998.

John Polkinghorne, Science and Theology: An Introduction, SPCK/Fortress Press, 1998.

John Polknghorne, Searching for Truth: Lenten Meditations on Science and Faith, Crossroad, New York, 1996.

Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Vintage Books, 1993.

Larry L. Rasmussen, Earth Community, Earth Ethics, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, 1996.

Chet Raymo, Skeptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection Between Science and Religion, Walker and Co., New York, 1998.

H. Paul Santmire, The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1985

Christopher Southgate, Celia Deane-Drummond, Paul D. Murray, Michael Robert Negus, Lawrence Osborne, Michael Poole, Jacqui Stewart, Fraser Watts, God, Humanity, and the Cosmos: A Textbook in Science and Religion, Trinity Press International, 1999.

Gerald L. Schroeder, The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, Broadway Books, 1997.

Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Random House, 1999.