PHIL1723 · Complex Problems and Enduring Questions

Faith, Ethics, and the Sciences in the 21st Century

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This is a Complex Problem course and is open to FRESHMEN only. You must take THEO1723 with this course. The rise of modern science has raised and continues to raise a wide range of questions for both religious belief and religiously based morality. The sciences have made it clear that the cosmos is much older and much bigger that the pre-moderns had recognized. The sciences are often taken as challenging traditional views of religion, morality, and the world. Contemporary critics regard religion as either obsolete or a threat to humanity. Why have the modern sciences been taken to carry these implications and need they be taken in this way? Alternatively, can the sciences play a constructive role in how we think about faith, ethics, and human nature? Can contemporary believers fully accept the findings of science? If so, how might doing so influence how believers think about God and God's relation to the world. This course will be team-taught by a philosopher and a theologian who have been researching the relationships between natural science and religious belief. We will explore the implications of modern physics and evolutionary biology for Jewish and Christian understandings of human origins, the good life, and ethical responsibility for ourselves, our communities, and our wider natural world.