For general information about online classes,
visit the CFI Institute Online main page
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SCI 250-1111: “Science and Religion in Islam”
November 1 – November 30, 2011
Instructors: Taner Edis, PhD, physicist author, Truman State University
John Shook, PhD, CFI director of education
This one-month, four-module course investigates the vexed relationship between modern science and traditional religion as it is played out in the context of Islam today.
Click here to register now!
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Many of the areas of conflict and the attempts to achieve harmony will be familiar from Christianity. For example, perhaps the strongest resistance to Darwinian evolution today comes from Muslim populations. However, there are also important differences between the Christian and Muslim responses to the naturalistic tendencies of science, often due to the fact that for Muslims, modern science has usually been an import rather than an indigenous heresy.
Course Topics:
- Week 1: To Seek Knowledge in China / A Usable Past
- Week 2: Finding Science in the Quran
- Week 3: Created Nature
- Week 4: Redeeming the Human Sciences / A Liberal Faith?
Readings: Students will purchase their own copies of the following book: An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam by Taner Edis (also available in Kindle).
Your instructors for SCI 250-1111:
Taner Edis, PhD, was born in Istanbul, 1967, to Turkish and American parents. After completing his undergraduate work at Boğaziçi University, he received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1994, in theoretical and computational condensed matter physics. Working in diverse areas, from atmospheric modeling with collaborators at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to the philosophy of machine intelligence, he is currently associate professor of physics at Truman State University, Kirksville, MO. He is the author of The Ghost in the Universe, Why Intelligent Design Fails, Science and Nonbelief, and An Illusion of Harmony.
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John Shook, PhD, is director of education and senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry, and is also visiting assistant professor of science education at the University at Buffalo, teaching for its Science and the Public online program. From 2000 to 2006 he was professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University. Shook publishes on philosophical topics regarding science, the mind, humanist ethics, democracy, secularism, and religion, and has debated the existence of God with leading theologians, including William Lane Craig. His most recent book is The God Debates.
About CFI Institute Online courses:
CFI 200-level courses are taught at an intellectual level equivalent to an introductory college course. We expect students to participate in the class discussion at their own chosen pace, and there are no other writing requirements and no grading. These classes are entirely online — everything for the course except the book is provided on a CFI website. You will read the course lectures, follow links to other webpages, ask your questions, and participate in class discussion with the instructors and other students on our website.
There is no specific time that you must be online. There is no “live” part to these courses, and you cannot miss anything even if you can only get online at 6am or 11pm — you can log in and participate anytime, day or night, 24/7. A certificate of course completion is available to students who do participate online (as opposed to only lurking and reading, which is also an unobjectionable option for some students). Completion of eight courses at the Expertise 200-level is rewarded with the Institute’s Certificate of Expertise.
This course can also be taken for college credit through the University at Buffalo; contact Dr. John Shook for details.
Course Fees: $60 for general registration; $50 for Friends of the Center; and $10 for college students
Ready to sign up? Register online here.
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