Religious Studies [ECGEB321]

Learning outcomes

An articulation of a philosophical and theological language with the language of science; the realisation that science is not in competition with religion, but that they are called to dialogue, to "articulate" in view of the continuation of the human adventure for the better. "Faith and science are two different ways of understanding the world. Putting them in opposition reduces the potential of each to improve the world," says the US Academy of Sciences.

Objectives

• Keeping the metaphysical and religious question open in our society, which Habermas describes as This is a "post-secular" approach (where the religious and the secular are mixed). • Recall that scientific reason does not have a monopoly on rationality: Reason belongs to religions as much as to sciences, explains Michel Serres. Man is not one-dimensional. • To help students give meaning to their personal, family and professional lives, to help them find their place in a society where the discourses of meaning intersect and collide. To enable them to formulate the new questions generated by the exponential headlong rush of new technologies, by the convergence of NBIC (for Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science). "The meaning of life is the most pressing of questions" (Albert Camus).

Content

What man for tomorrow? Science, ethics, Christianity Science and faith do not always mix badly. On the contrary. The great names in science have often been believers. How can these two very different approaches coexist today? It was only in the 20th century that the relationship was clarified. Teilhard de Chardin worked hard on this. One could also quote the Belgian canon Georges Lemaître, "father of the Big Bang", who clearly asked the Pope not to make his theory a confirmation of the biblical account. Today, however, another problem is emerging, more urgent than the religious question. What is becoming of humanism in the light of scientific and technical developments? There is already talk of a "humanity 2.0". We are used to opposing God to science, but science today raises many questions about man, his status and his dignity. Science needs a vision of man, without which it is blind. Christianity can make its contribution here. Science and religion must join hands so that the future is worthy of man, this being thirsty for both knowledge and love. The course will provide a framework for reading the relationship between science and Christianity, tackling the now settled issue of the origins of the world; looking to the future, it will raise the question of the identity of man (an animal, a neuronal being?) and his future in view of the evolution of technologies, in particular the question of artificial intelligence and, in the field of bioethics, the questions of the end of life (in the light of a reflection on ethics)