79-375 Science & Religion

6 units, Carnegie Mellon University

A widely held notion is that science and religion are perennially at war with one another. Debates over evolution, and more recently climate change, are cited as examples, while predictions that science will eventually make religion obsolete are at least as old as the Enlightenment. Nevertheless, both science and religion continue to thrive in the 21st century, which raises the question of whether these two ways of seeing the world might, for some people at least, be more complementary than conflictual. Well explore the history of the relationship between science and religion and the different ways of knowing employed by each. Some common assumptions will be critically examined as we consider questions of fact and value, and the competency of science and religion to address the major challenges of our day.

Prerequisites: none listed

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