AP/HUMA 3975 3.
00
Science and Religion in Modern Western Culture
Fall 2023
Course Director: Bernard Lightman
E-mail Address: lightman@yorku.ca
Office Location: 046 McLaughlin College
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-2:00
Course Times: Tuesdays 2:30-5:20
Location: ACW (Accolades West) 304
Course Description: Ordinarily, when we consider the relationship between modern science and
religion, our thoughts are dominated by a series of vivid scenes from the past. We may
remember the heroism of the seventeenth century scientist, Galileo who, when forced by the
Catholic Church to abjure his belief in the heliocentric world system, defiantly murmured under
his breath, “yet the earth still moves,” as he was led away from his trial. Or the famous debates
of 1860 on the validity of evolutionary theory, which pitted the biologist T. H. Huxley against
Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, may come to mind. Perhaps we may even recall the sensational
Scopes trial of the twentieth century as symbolic of the relations between science and religion.
Dramatic, confrontational episodes such as these have come to symbolize our sense that ever
since the seventeenth century there has been a war between supporters of science and the
upholders of religion. But does the “conflict” thesis really capture the historical reality?
In this course we will examine the relationship between science and religion through a
study of the implications of scientific thought for significant intellectual developments from the
seventeenth century to the present. We will focus on the words and thoughts of major thinkers
who tried to articulate their views on the relationship between science and religion, starting with
the ideas of the seventeenth and eighteenth century intellectuals who investigated the
consequences of Newtonian science for the religious perspective. Next, we will discuss the
disruption of the harmonious relationship between science and religion in the nineteenth century
by new discoveries in geology and Darwin’s theory of evolution. Then, we will study important
twentieth century developments including the challenges presented by relativity theory, quantum
physics, modern astronomy, and creationism to the peaceful co-existence of science and religion.
Finally, we will examine the relationship between science and unbelief as well as the science-
religion issue outside of the west. Throughout the course we will question the validity of the
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“conflict” thesis, or even its opposite the “harmony” thesis, to accurately describe the historical
relationship between science and religion.
Course Requirements: There will be one three-hour discussion class per week. These sessions
will focus directly on the assigned readings. All members of the class will be expected to have
read the assigned readings with care and forethought, and to come to class prepared to discuss
the reading with the other members of the group.
Grading System:
Research essay 30%
Oral report 20%
Final take home essay 30%
Class participation 20%
The research paper will be 3,500 words in length and must be based on a topic connected
with the relationship between science and religion. No paper will be accepted which has not
been mutually agreed upon in principle and you are required to hand in a bibliography and
preliminary outline in advance. This would include a statement of your thesis or central
argument. The research paper must be typed, double-spaced, with a 12-point Times New Roman
font. Guidelines for the assignment will be distributed.
Each student will be responsible for presenting one oral report. Students may select a
reading from the supplementary reading list or, in consultation with the instructor, another
relevant reading. Reports should be about twenty minutes in length and should be tied into the
class reading which is assigned for that particular day.
Class participation includes an assessment of contributions to discussion, preparation of
reading assignments, class exercises, and additional reading or writing exercises as required.
Required Books:
The following book has been ordered through the York University Bookstore:
Peter Harrison (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion (Cambridge)
Everything else will be online through the York library or in the course kit you should buy from
the bookstore.
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If you prefer print copies of some of the books, you will find the following in the bookstore
under our course title and number:
David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers (eds). When Science and Christianity Meet (University of
Chicago Press)
Ronald Numbers (ed). Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion.
Ronald Numbers and John Brooke (eds). Science and Religion Around the World.
Course Schedule and Reading Assignments:
Tuesday September 12 Introduction
Tuesday September 19 The Conflict Thesis
John William Draper, History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (London: Kegan
Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co., 1890), v-vii, xiii-xvi, 327-331, 343-344, 352-367. [first published
in 1874] [in course kit]
Watch the film “Inherit the Wind” (1960) online:
https://tubitv.com/movies/304806/inherit-the-wind?https://tubitv.com/home?
utm_source=_dsa_null_broad_legacy_null_films&utm_medium=adwords_cpc&utm_camp
aign=null-null-
ca_nb_variable_search_desktop_google_null_biddable_en_titles&gclid=CjwKCAjwivemB
hBhEiwAJxNWN5DwHztn19rExdXOqG0vNSsei5j02X5HamQ6pcL4P9MSCSbSj3DuQBo
C3pgQAvD_BwE
RESEARCH ESSAY ASSIGNED
Tuesday September 26 The Historiography of Complexity
Numbers, Ronald L. “Introduction,” Galileo Goes to Jail, 1-7. [on line]
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Harrison, Peter. “’Science’ and ‘Religion’: Constructing the Boundaries,” Journal of Religion
86 (2006), 81-106. [on line]
Tuesday October 3 The Move to the Heliocentric Model
Galileo. Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, in Stillman Drake (ed.), Discoveries and
Opinions of Galileo (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1957), 175-216. [in course kit]
Lindberg, David. “Galileo, the Church, and the Cosmos,” in When Science and Christianity
Meet, 33-60. [on line]
Danielson, Dennis. “That Copernicanism Demoted Humans from the Center of the Cosmos,”
Galileo Goes to Jail, 50-58. [on line]
Shackelford, Jole. “That Giordano Bruno Was the First Martyr of Modern Science,” Galileo
Goes to Jail, 59-67. [on line]
Finocchiaro, Maurice. “That Galileo Was Imprisioned and Tortured for Advocating
Copernicanism,” Galileo Goes to Jail, 68-78. [on line]
Tuesday October 10 Reading Week—no class
Tuesday October 17 The “Scientific Revolution”
Newton. Newton’s Philosophy of Nature, Ed., H.S. Thayer (N.Y.: Hafner Co., 1953), 41-67. [in
course kit]
Efron, Noah. “That Christianity Gave Birth to Modern Science,” Galileo Goes to Jail, 79-89.
[on line]
Osler, Margaret. “That the Scientific Revolution Liberated Science from Religion,” Galileo
Goes to Jail, 90-98. [on line]
Principe, Lawrence. “That Catholics Did Not Contribute to the Scientific Revolution,” Galileo
Goes to Jail, 99-106. [on line]
Davis, Edward B. “That Isaac Newton’s Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God,”
Galileo Goes to Jail, 115-122. [on line]
Henry, John. “Religion and the Scientific Revolution,” in The Cambridge Companion to Science
and Religion, 39-58.
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Tuesday Oct. 24 The Enlightenment
Brooke, John Hedley. “Modern Christianity,” in Science and Religion Around the World, 97-
103. [on line]
Broman, Thomas H. “Matter, Force, and the Christian World View in the Enlightenment,” in
When Science and Christianity Meet, 85-110. [on line]
Tuesday October 31 Darwin and Evolution
Darwin, Charles. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, ed. Francis Darwin (N.Y.: Dover
Publications, 1958), chapters 2 and 3. [in course kit]
Topham, Jonathan. “Natural Theology and the Sciences,” in The Cambridge Companion to
Science and Religion, 59-79.
Livingstone, David. “Re-placing Darwinism and Christianity,” in When Science and Christianity
Meet, 183-202. [on line]
Moore, James. “That Evolution Destroyed Darwin’s Faith in Christianity—Until He
Reconverted on his Deathbed,” in Galileo Goes to Jail, 142-151. [on line]
Livingstone, David. “That Huxley Defeated Wilberforce in Their Debate over Evolution and
Religion,” in Galileo Goes to Jail, 152-160. [on line]
Roberts, Jon. “That Darwin Destroyed Natural Theology,” in Galileo Goes to Jail, 161-169. [on
line]
Tuesday November 7 Modern Physics
Einstein, Albert. “Religion and Science” and “Science and Religion,” in Ideas and Opinions
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 1982), 36-40, 41-49. [in course kit]
Heisenberg, Werner. “Fresh Fields” and “Positivism, Metaphysics, and Religion,” in Physics
and Beyond (N.Y.: Harper and Row, 1972), 70-81, 205-217. [in course kit]
Hiebert, Erwin, N. “Modern Physics and Christian Faith,” in David C. Lindberg and Ronald L.
Numbers (eds), God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and
Science (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 424-447. [in course kit]
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Stanley, Matthew, “That Einstein Believed in a Personal God,” in Galileo Goes to Jail, 187-195.
[on line]
Thurs, Daniel Patrick, “That Quantum Physics Demonstrated the Doctrine of Free Will,” in
Galileo Goes to Jail, 196-205. [on line]
Brooke, John, “Modern Christianity,” in Science and Religion Around the World, 111-114. [on
line]
Tuesday November 14 Creationism
Morris, Henry. Scientific Creationism (El Cajon, California: Master Books, 1985), 1-16. [in
course kit]
Numbers, Ronald L. “The Creationists,” in David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers (eds),
God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 391-423. [in course kit]
Numbers, Ronald L. “That Creationism Is Uniquely American Phenomenon,” Galileo Goes to
Jail, 215-223. [on line]
Numbers, Ronald L. “Scientific Creationism and Intelligent Design,” in The Cambridge
Companion to Science and Religion, 127-147.
Tuesday November 21 Unbelief and Secularization
Huxley, Thomas Henry. “Science and Religion,” Builder 18 (1859), 35-36. [in course kit]
Lightman, Bernard. “Unbelief,” in Science and Religion around the World, 252-277. [on line]
Brooke, John Hedley. “That Modern Science Has Secularized Western Culture,” in Galileo
Goes to Jail, 224-232. [on line]
Numbers, Ronald L. “Science without God: Natural Laws and Christian Beliefs,” in When
Science and Christianity Meet, 265-285. [on line]
Tuesday November 28 Science and Religion in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East
Subbarayappa, B. V. “Indic Religions,” in Science and Religion around the World, 195-209. [on
line]
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Lopez, Jr., “Buddhism,” in Science and Religion around the World, 210-228. [on line]
Feierman, Steven and John M. Janzen. “African Religions,” in Science and Religion around the
World, 229-251. [on line]
Ihsanoglu, Ekmeleddin. “Modern Islam,” in Science and Religion around the World, 148-174.
[on line]
Tuesday December 5 Concluding Class
RESEARCH ESSAYS DUE
TAKE HOME EXAM HANDED OUT
PLEASE NOTE: PLAGIARISM IS A SERIOUS OFFENCE. Plagiarism means passing off
someone else’s work (or a computer’s) as your own. When writing a paper, all direct quotations,
paraphrases, information, interpretations, ideas, and opinions taken from another person’s work
must be identified. Use quotation marks and footnotes whenever you use someone else’s exact
words. Footnotes are also required in cases when you have borrowed ideas, even if you are not
using the author’s exact words. For more information go to:
https://spark.library.yorku.ca/academic-integrity-what-is-academic-integrity/
Seminar Participation Guide:
Participation marks make up a significant portion of your grade. I will make every effort to
ensure that all students are able to participate in seminars. But if you have persistent difficulty
participating, speak to me. You should read the assigned material for seminar discussion
carefully and with reflection. Come to seminars with reading completed and questions and
comments prepared. Be ready to explain your ideas and to listen and respond to the ideas of
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others.
The following criteria will be used to assess your participation:
A student who receives an “A” for participation typically comes to each meeting with questions
about the readings already in mind. The student raises these issues for other members to discuss
and listens to contrary opinions. An A student engages other students in discussion of their ideas
and responds to the comments of others with ideas that carry the discussion to a different level.
A student who receives a “B” for participation typically attends nearly all tutorials and has
completed all the reading assignments on time but does not always arrive prepared with
questions and reflections, instead waiting passively for others to raise interesting issues. Other
B students are courteous and articulate in expressing their own views but do not relate their
comments to the general direction of the discussion or respond to the opinions and ideas of
others.
A student who receives a “C” typically attends most meetings, listens attentively, and gives some
indication of having prepared but rarely enters into the discussion.
Students with a record of inconsistent preparation and attendance should not expect more than a
“D.”
Students who are consistently unprepared and make no effort to enter into discussions should
expect a failing participation grade. Poor attendance will also result in a failing participation
grade.
