Science and Religion 2011

Colq303(H) and Mlar709

Tentative Assignment Sheet

September

01 Context and Housekeeping

08 Barbour: Preface, Introduction, p. 1-89 (Classifications)

15 Haught: Introduction, p.1-97 (Pro-Con Naturalism);Introduction to Kuhn

22 Kuhn: Preface, p.1-173; Critical Realism

29 Critical Realism continued; Descartes and Pascal (from Kung)

October

06 Kung: p.115-125, p.127-188 (Hegel), p.189-216 (Feuerbach), p. 334-339

13 Kung: p. 343-424 (Nietzsche, Nihilism), p.423-477 (The Basic Attitude, Fundamental Trust)

20 Kung: 481-491, p.497-508, p. 509-528, p. 529-551, p. 552-583 (God exists)

27 Schillebeeckx: p. 1-101

November

03 Schillebeeckx: p. 102-146, p. 159-186, p. 229-246

10 Deutsch: p. 1-97

17 Deutsch: p. 98-140, p. 167-221

December

01 Deutsch: p. 258-288, p. 321-366

08 Wrap-up

Papers (5 pages each) on

An Epistemological Basis for the Interaction of Science and Religion (due on 6 October)

Issues to address in the paper: (1) Barbour’s classification of possible ways to relate Science and Religion and the epistemological assumptions of each. (2) Haught’s argument against naturalism. (3) Kuhn’s understanding of the epistemology of science.(4) Problems with Kuhn’s understanding. (5) Critical Realism (6) Critical realism addresses problems with Kuhn. (7) Critical realism applies to truth claims in general.

A Postmodern Paradigm: Overcoming the Anomalies of the Faith/Reason Controversy

(due on 3 November)

The intellectual history of the Faith-Reason controversy calls into question our understanding of God.

Paradigm Anomaly What is learned

God is wholly other Descartes and Pascal dualism ? ?

God is the world Spinoza pantheism ? ?

God is in the world Hegel panentheism ? ?

God is man Feuerbach atheism ? ?

God is self Nietzsche nihilism ? ?

The Fundamental Decision, why critically rational, gift and task, the basis of science, ethics and religion

Transcending without transcendence, Kant’s stance and contribution about God’s existence, uncertain reality, does it matter if God exists? What is God? The relation between trust in reality and trust that God exists.

Postmodern Understandings of Religion and Sciemce (due on 8 December)

Schillebeeckx

Understanding religion: Begins with negative experience. What is salvation? What is revelation? Every religious experience is a human experience. Experience with experience. World religions are to be expected.

Church: The function of churches. Relation to ethics. Traditions in terms of situation.

God: Impediments to belief, Arriving at belief. Both atheist and believer may choose justice but there is a difference for the believer. Omnipotence or defenselessness.

Jesus and Christ: The Jesus of history and the Christ of the church. Significance of Jesus’

life, death and resurrection. Is Jesus God?

Christianity: Uniqueness, universality. Heaven and hell. The hereafter. Missionary activity.

Religion and Science: Does religion provide an alternative exlanation to the explanation of science? Does religion have a future?

Deutsch

Science: Not inductive, reductionistic or holistis. Science is explanatory. Theories of everything The four basic theories for understanding reality.

Epistemology: Essentially a critical realistic approach. When is an entity real?

Quantum physics: There are no measurable continuous quanties. Light interference patterns are explained by the multiverse model. Complmentarity offers no explanation.Quantum physics is about the structure of the multiverse. The block universe does not allow cause and effect, conditional hypotheticals and free will whereas the multiverse accommodates these concepts. What is time?

Evolution: What is life? Evolution attempts to preserve knowledge. What is knowledge? Intelligent life is fundamental.

Computation: What is virtual reality? There exists a universal virtual reality generator whose repertoire is all physically possible environments. What does existence mean?

Each theory is reductive and incomplete, but when taken together this is not the case.

Where in the multiverse can the universal virtual reality generator exist?

Does science (Deutsch) challenge Religion (Schillebeeckx)? Does science provide religious insight?

Final Paper ( 25+ pages) on

Science and Religion (due on ? Dec. 2010)

1. Both science and religion make truth claims. What is the methodology used in arriving at these truths

and what is the validity of the truth claims? (Kuhn describes the methodology, critical realism* describes the character of the truth claim.)

2. An analysis of the historical (intellectual) tensions between faith and reason leads to an understanding of the pitfalls and alternatives. (Descartes, Pascal , Hegel, Feuerbach, Nietzsche)

3. To belief through reality: the post-modern paradigm. (Kung)

4. Understanding belief within a given experiential tradition: (The Judeo/Christian tradition—Schillebeeckx)

5. Understanding the claims of post-modern science. (Deutsch)

6. Within these understandings how do science and religion relate ? (Haught)

*the basic insight is this: the success of a theory is best explained through its partial correspondence to what are actual relationships.

Are the conflict or independence positions with the implied acceptance of dualism the only alternatives to dialog and integration?

Science and Religion: OVERVIEW

1. A postmodern understanding of the methodology of knowing , what we are able to know, what truth we can claim about our knowledge, and the means by which we assess these claims leads to the possibility of comparing the intelligibility of scientific and religious understandings.

2. Historically we see that secular and religious claims were first put in separate categories and that this resulted in stronger commitments to one side or the other. The alternative was to get unity by interpreting what seemed to be separate avenues to truth within one category or the other exclusively. But the difficulty was that either Humanity or God was compromised.

3. An ultimate possibility is to deny the very search for meaning (and this remains an alternative) or to trust that reality conveys meaning.

4. Trustful openness to meaning leads to an affirmation of a source, support and goal of that meaning, which we call God.

5. This God is impersonal. This God does little to address our existential angst. This God provides indifferent hope for our choice of justice against the empirical odds. So we turn to our religious traditions to find a personal God.

6. Two problems immediately arise: (a) There are divergent religious traditions and (b) The classical view of reality often challenges the religious tradition.

7. Hermeneutically interpreting the tradition in terms of the present situation with consideration of its future relevance could shed light on problem (a). And perhaps a postmodern understanding of reality is more compatible with the tradition even though it is surely going to present new questions.

8. Minimally it must be possible to include God in the postmodern understanding and not preclude religious interpretation.

Are there other alternatives? (Nihilism, atheism, only the philosophical God)