LANT
3005

Science and/against Religion

Eugene Lang College Lib Arts: Anthropology

Science and/against Religion
Spring 2020
Taught By: Dana Leon
Section: A

Course Reference Number: 7227

Credits: 4

Science has often been pitted against religion. The primal scene of this conflict is the condemnation of Galileo Galilei by the Roman Catholic Inquisition for his support of heliocentrism. This narrative can be traced to the present when Creationists attacked a Darwinian understanding of the evolution of life. But it eclipsed the fact that most early modern scientists were faithful Christians and even many of their late modern heirs continue to be religious or embrace unchurched forms of spirituality. Moreover, the embrace of science by the 14th Dalai Lama (partly for political reasons) raises the question whether the opposition between science and religion is an exclusively Christian affair. From an anthropological perspective, students will learn to think critically about the historically changing and denominationally diverse relationship between sciences and religions in the plural.

College: Eugene Lang College Lib Arts (LC)

Department: Anthropology (LANT)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Seminar (R)

Max Enrollment: 18