Rel. 375  Religion and Science,

Cluster Connections
  Further information on all clusters is located at:
       http://portfolio.udayton.edu   
       Click on "Learning" at the upper right.  
       Then click on "General Education" at the left
       Then click on "Thematic Clusters"

This course is part of the two clusters "Values, Technology, and Society" and "Global Perspectives on Environmental Issues."  Each cluster addresses certain issues:

Values, Technology and Society

  • Ways in which technology promotes, inhibits, directs, or redefines individual autonomy and social responsibility;
  • The influence of technology on perceptions of nature and ecology;
  • The influence of an understanding of nature and ecology on perceptions about technology;
  • The relation between technology and religious faith;
  • Whether technology and religious faith are in competition with each other;
  • Whether reliance upon technology diminishes reliance on the divine or can facilitate a faith commitment;
  • The influence of technology in the evolution of political and economic systems;
  • The role that technology plays in the development of a person's self-understanding and of society's self-understanding.

Perspectives on Global Environmental Issues

  • Natural environmental processes and the limit of knowledge;
  • Human impact on the environment and the ability to alter that impact;
  • The global scope of many environmental issues, differentiating global and local problems;
  • The role of values in shaping human perspectives and assessing issues, choices, and consequences;
  • The role science and technology, religious, political, and economic institutions share in addressing problems of environmental degradation.

Religion 375 does not directly address these issues, for the most part, until the end of the course.  But it provides background information and analysis about the place of humankind in the universe, as well as a review of visions of the value of the universe.  This background has implications for each of the issues of the clusters, implications discussed in the last weeks of the course.