Professor Beth Newman
Saint Mary's
College
Religious Studies 351
"Religion and Science"
How do the disparate fields of theology, ethics and science relate to each
other? Are religion and science enemies, strangers or friends? How are
we to think about the many ethical issues raised by recent scientific
capabilities, such as cloning and genetic engineering? Contrary to
popular opinion, for most of history, science and religion have been
deeply
entwined. We will study this history as well as the challenges that face
us today in our efforts to understand religion and science. A central
goal of this course is to enable each student to enter thoughtfully and
creatively the needed dialogue between
science and religion.