Survey course introducing the scientific method and its relation to Pagan eclecticism; evolution vs. "creation science" vs "intelligent design" as exemplars for critical thinking, evaluating evidence, and healthy vs. pathological religious responses to new ideas; Big Bang cosmology as theory, fact, and creation myth: Consciousness, free will, and magick as variously illuminated by the study of quantum physics, neuroscience, and parapsychology, and basic concepts from anthropology and their application to the modern Pagan movement. In addition, we will look at current paleontological understanding of the Earth's history and the speculative Gaia hypothesis, with discussion of these ideas' relationship to the concepts of Mother Goddess and sacred Earth. This class meets concurrently with students in the CHS certificate program. N5910

ster Now