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Overview of the Pilot Curriculum General Education Requirement
2002-2003 Pilot Curriculum General Requirement Course Descriptions

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This course fulfills Category I of the General Education Requirement.

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Course Description:

This course will trace the development of religious thought and practice from prehistoric times to the present.

The course will address such questions as: What parts of human nature originally inclined people toward
religious belief? Since the birth of religion, how have changes in social structure and technology influenced religion? In particular, are there anygeneral patterns in the way religion has evolved over the millennia associeties have moved from hunter-gatherer social organization toward modernity? How, in the modern age, have religions reacted to (a) science and (b) their contact with other religions? What are the prospects, in an age of science and of globalization, for religions to reconcile their doctrines with (a) scientific knowledge and (b) the doctrines of other religions?

The course will touch on the doctrines of the major world faiths, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, and will also examine so-called "primitive" religions that have been observed in hunter-gatherer and agrarian societies.

Readings will include scriptures, anthropological accounts of religion in traditional societies, and the
writings of major thinkers who have addressed religion, such as William James, Edward Tylor, Emile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer, and Karl Marx.

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