SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1: JUB WE MET?
PHIL 233
Spring 2011
Credits: 4
Amber Riaz; Adnan Khan
Course Description
How do we have knowledge? What counts as evidence for a belief? Where did the universe come
from? What are the origins of life? What is the human mind? Why do people create and admire art,
enjoy humour, fall in love, give charity? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? These are all
fascinating questions that many of us have thought about at some point or other. Science and
religion provide two popular approaches to answering them. It is commonly believed that both
approaches suggest conflicting answers. This course surveys material relevant for the evaluation of
the latter belief.
Course Objectives
-To familiarize students with the main philosophical concepts needed to understand debates about
the nature of the relation between science and religion.
-To familiarize students with the relevant literature.
-To enable students to understand this literature.
-To enable students to accurately represent the arguments they read, and analyse them.
-To enable students to think about the issues and form their own views on them as clearly as
possible.
Meeting Course Objectives: Tools and Teaching Method
Instruments:
CP 5%
Reading assignments/presentations 10%
In-Class exercises 15%
Essays 30%
Final exam 40%
1
Students will be exposed to primary literature on each topic. This literature will be discussed in
detail in every other session. The discussions will begin with student presentations (graded) on
assigned readings. Prior to each discussions session will be a lecture aiming to equip students with
the background knowledge and philosophical concepts that will help them understand primary
writings. Six in-class exercises will be aimed at assessing familiarity with reading material. The essays
will enable students to present their views in an organized way. The final exam will be designed to
assess performance with respect to all the objectives.
2
Philosophical Issues
Lecture 1
Introduction
Scientific Issues
AR & AK (Slides)
Theological Issues
- Morvillo (2010) Ch.1;
Lecture 2
Relation between
Part 1: Historical survey
science and religion
- Cambridge Companion Ch
1 & 2;
- Barbour (2002) Part 1
-Barbour (2002)Ch 4;
-Barbour (2000)
Part 2: Models of
relating science and
Lecture 3
religion in
contemporary times
- Watts & Dutton
(2006) Chs, 1, 2,3, 8.
-S. J. Gould
“Nonoverlapping
Magisteria”.
- Nasr “Modern Science
and Islam”
Discussion on relation
Lecture 4
between science ad
religion
Curd and Cover (1998),
Lecture 5
What is science?
Demarcation
What is religion?
Part 1
Selections from Dennett
(2006)
Discussion session + In-
Lecture 6
Class Exercise 1
Part 1: General
introduction to the
Lecture 7
main issues and key
Epistemology
concepts in
contemporary theory of
knowledge
3
Slides
Lecture 8
Part 2: Epistemology of
Readings from: Curd and
science
Cover (1998) Parts 2 and 8;
Part 3: Epistemology of
Lecture 9
religion
Mackie (1982); Swinburne
(2005); Plantinga and
Tooley (2008)
Discussion on
epistemology + In-Class
Lecture 10
Exercise 2
Essay 1 Assigned
7.1, 7.2, 7.3 Barbour
Lecture 11 & 12
Scientific Ideas
Davies
Quantum Theory,
Relativity &
Lecture 13
Readings from Rae and
Philosophical &
Thermodynamics
Theological Implications
7.4 Barbour
Readings from Davies
and Wahiduddin
Discussion + In-Class
Lecture 14
Exercise 3
8.1, 8.3 Barbour
Lecture 15
Scientific Ideas
and Sagan
Astronomy and
Lecture 16
Readings from Davies
7.2, 7.4 Barbour
Astrophysics
Theological Ideas
Readings from Davies and
handouts
Discussion + In-Class
Lecture 17
Exercise 4
9.1, 9.2 Barbour
Lecture 18
The Scientific Theory
Readings from MaynardSmith and Dawkins
Theory of Evolution
9.3 Barbour
Lecture 19 & 20
Creationism and
Readings from Maudoodi,
Intelligent Design
Harun-Yahya, Dembski and
Behe
4
6.3 Barbour
Lecture 21
Theological Implications
Chapter 5 Wahiduddin
Nasr and Dawkins
Discussion + In-Class
Lecture 22
Exercise 5
Essay 2 Assigned
-Maslin (2001), Ch. 2.
-From Swinburne (1997).
Lecture 23 & 24
Mind
Scientific, philosophical
- J. Searle “Minds, Brains
and theological views
and Programmes”
- J. J. C. Smart “Sensations
and Brain Processes”
Lecture 25
Discussion
-
Morvillo (2010) Part
IV
Lecture 26 & 27
Evolutionary theory and
-
From Nagel (1997)
Ethics
-
Dennett (2006) Ch.
10
Ethics
Discussion + In-Class
Lecture 28
Exercise 6
5
Barbour, I. 2002. Religion and Science: Historical and Contemporary Issues. New York: HarperOne.
Barbour, I. 2000. When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers or Partners? New York: HarperOne.
Behe, M. J. 2006. Darwin’s Black Box. New York: Simon & Schuster Ltd.
Clayton, P. & Simpson, Z. (eds.) 2009. The Oxford Handbook of Science and Religion. Oxford: OUP.
Curd, M. and Cover, J. A. 1998. Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues. London: Norton and Company.
Davies, P. 1984. God and the New Physics. Simon and Schuster
Dembski, W. 1998. The Design Inference. Cambridge University Press
Maudoodi, A. Tafheem ul Quran (Vol. 2). http://www.tafheem.net/
Dennett, D. C. 2006. Breaking the Spell. New York: Viking Penguin.
F. Watts and K. Dutton (Eds.) 2006. Why the Science and Religion Dialogue Matters. West
Harrison, P. (ed.) 2010. The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion. Cambridge: CUP.
Khan, W. Religion and Science. Goodword Books
Mackie, J. L. 1982. The Miracle of Theism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Maslin, K.T. 2001. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind. MA: Polity Press.
Maynard-Smith, J. 1993. The Theory of Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
Morvillo, N. 2010. Science and Religion: Understanding the Issues. Wiley-Blackwell.
Nagel, T. 1997. The Last Word. Oxford: OUP.
Nasr, H. 2008. “Islam and Modern Science” in P. Clayton (Ed), Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Plantinga, A. and Tooley, M. 2008. Knowledge of God. Oxford: Blackwell.
Rae, A. 2004. Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Rolston, H.(III). 2006. Science and Religion: A Critical Survey. Random House.
Sagan, C. 1985. Cosmos. Ballentine Books
Swinburne, R. 2005. Faith and Reason. Oxford: OUP.
Swinburne, R. 1997. The Evolution of the Soul. Oxford: OUP.
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