God, Science and Morality

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course is taught by a professor with training in the sciences, philosophy, and theology; students from any of these disciplines are welcome to enroll, for I will give serious attention to that which each of these fields can contribute to our understanding of morality. Participating in this course will provide you an occasion to contemplate how diverse academic disciplines address the stringency of the moral demand and the possibilities for social mammals to fulfill that demand. I will motivate this inquiry by introducing you to the work of several authors who advocate that recent discoveries in evolutionary history, primatology, psychology, and neuroscience provide a strictly biological "basis" for morality that leaves theology irrelevant to ethics. You will evaluate this literature in class discussions and written essays by using the tools of historical comparison, philosophy of science, and theology of nature. Previous participants in this course report that they gained a newfound appreciation for both the scientific character of Christian theology and the theological significance of the natural sciences.