Are religion and science at war? Most people assume the answer is obviously yes — the Galileo affair, the Scopes Trial, the creation-evolution debates all seem to confirm the picture. But historians, philosophers, and scientists have complicated this story enormously. The real relationship between religion and science turns out to be far messier, more creative, and more interesting than the conflict narrative suggests: a relationship not of enemies but of frenemies — mutual dependents who sometimes clash, sometimes collaborate, and have never quite been able to do without each other.
This course examines that relationship across five centuries and multiple disciplines. Moving historically from the Scientific Revolution through Darwin, Freud, and the Big Bang, and thematically across cosmology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, medicine, and artificial intelligence, we ask: When have religion and science genuinely conflicted, and why? When have they reinforced or enriched one another? What does each presuppose about the nature of knowledge, reality, and the human? And where does the boundary between them — if there is one — actually lie?
The course is organized as a seminar and is designed to be genuinely open-ended: we are not working toward a predetermined conclusion. Students from all backgrounds and with all prior views on these questions are welcome. No background in science or religion is required — only curiosity about both.
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