Caring For Creation: Physics, Religion and the Environment
General Information, Winter 2005
Instructors:
Class: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30 - 10:50, Carnegie 339.
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
Science and the Spiritual Quest
Union of Concerned Scientists
Evangelical Environmental
Network
Coalition on the Environment and
Jewish Life
Metanexus
Institute
The Tibetan Buddhist
View of the Environment