PER5045 - Science and Religion

Objectives:

Assessment tasks are designed to enable students to demonstrate the Learning and Employability outcomes for the relevant level of study. Level Learning Outcomes are embedded in the assessment task(s) at that level. This enables a more integrated view of overall student performance at each level.

Content:

This module is designed to explore the apparent conflict between scientific and religious ways of explaining the world around us. To do this, the module examines critical questions like ‘what is science’, ‘what is religion’, ‘do they have (in)compatible methods/theories/answers’ etc, and drawing chiefly – though not exclusively – from the Western philosophical and religious traditions. A theory or idea will be presented and placed in relationship with science and religion to allow students to develop a thorough understanding of how each side interact (either in conformity or conflict) on similar topics. Indicative topics, philosophers, ideas and theories could include: The Demarcation Problem (Popper, Kuhn); Verification (Ayer, Hick); Empiricism (Bacon, Hobbes); Miracles (Hume, R.F Holland) ; the nature of religious belief and language (Plantinga, Wittgenstein). Students will also consider the historical, social and cultural context in which philosophical and scientific theories emerged, including references to Western religion. This module will therefore build on the student’s understanding of core theories explored in L4, and introduce new relationships between them along with new theories and perspectives.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Sessions will be run in an interactive manner in order to facilitate open dialogue between students and lecturer, as well as among students themselves, and therefore there is not a strict separation between lecture and seminar.

You will be taught using LTU’s multimodal approach to teaching. Your learning will be divided into three stages:

Preparation: You will be given clear tasks to support you in preparing for live, in-person teaching. This may include watching a short, pre-recorded lecture (or other open educational resource), reading a paper or text chapter, finding resources to discuss with your peers in class, reading and commenting on a paper or preparing other material for use in class. Your Module Tutor will give you information to help you understand why you are completing an activity and how this will be built on during live, in-person teaching.

Live: All your live, in-person teaching will be designed around active learning, providing you with valuable opportunities to build on preparation tasks and interact with staff and peers, as well as helping you to deepen your understanding, apply knowledge and surface any misunderstandings.

Post: Follow-up activities will include clear opportunities for you to check understanding and apply your learning to a new situation or context. These activities will also be a source of feedback for staff that will inform subsequent sessions.

Lectures/Seminars
Hours: 24
Intended Group Size: 30

Guided independent study
Hours: 126

Further details relating to assessment
Essay: Students will complete a 2000-word essay on a question of their design (to be approved by the lecturer during the semester in seminar sessions). This question should be related to the overarching question behind the module: what is the nature of the conflict between science and religion. Students will be expected to make an argument for the answer to the question chosen. They should draw on at least one text from the module but will also be expected to conduct their own independent research.

Assessment:

001 Essay; 2,500 words; end of semester 1 100%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - David Ellis
Level - 5
Credit Value - 15
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 5S1

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