Critical Catholic Cosmology
Discover the strongest arguments for and against the soul, God’s existence, and the historicity of the Resurrection from scientific, philosophical, historical, & biblical perspectives.
NOW ENROLLING EDUCATORS IN THE BOSTON AREA
Discover the strongest arguments for and against the soul, God’s existence, and the historicity of the Resurrection from scientific, philosophical, historical, & biblical perspectives.
- Class Content
- Course Philosophy
- Meet Your Instructor
Semester One: The Case for God & the Human Soul
(3 Credits)
Class 1: Hero's Journey, The God Concept, & Empty Throne
Class 2: Meaning, Materialism, & Consciousness
Class 3: Gödel, AI, & Animal Language: Transphysical Consciousness
Class 4: Near Death Experience and Science of the Soul
Class 5: Eastern Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism
Class 6: Abrahamic Religions: Judaism and Islam
Class 7: Atheism and The Problem of Evil
Class 8: Theodicies 1: Greater Good, Beauty, & Journey
Class 9: Theodicies 2: Free Will & Redemptive Suffering
Class 10: God of the Gaps 1: The Big Bang vs Genesis
Class 11: God of the Gaps 2: Evolution vs. Genesis
Class 12: Philosophy 1: Aquinas & Pure Act
Class 13: Philosophy 2: Aquinas & Existence Itself
Class 14: Philosophy 3: Aquinas & the Xbox Problem
Semester Two: The Identity of God & The Resurrection
(3 credits)
Class 15: Emerging from the Abyss; The God Hypothesis Class
Class 16: The Beginning Universe: Borde Guth Vilenkin
Class 17: Fine Tuning and the Multiverse
Class 18: The Heavens Declaring the Glory of God
Class 19: Revelation, Inspiration, and The Bible
Class 20: God & Faith: The Historical Value of Biblical Data
Class 21: God & Faith: Evidence the Bible is Inspired
Class 22: The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
Class 23: The Historicity of Jesus and His Miracles
Class 24: The Resurrection Confounds 1st Century Judaism
Class 25: The Historicity of Resurrection Part 1
Class 26: The Historicity of Resurrection Part 2
Class 27: Forensic Evidence of the Resurrection
Class 28: God Corroborated, Home, and the Final Theodicy
Course Philosophy
Invitation to Encounter
My parents always taught me that if I sought the Truth with a sincere heart that I would find it. This means that, devout as my Catholic upbringing was, I was always encouraged to question my faith. Then a crisis in college led me into almost a decade of jaded atheism. Rebuilding my faith brick by brick has given me a unique perspective on what it means to believe and the value of a relationship with God built on no assumptions. For me, this course is much more than a presentation of facts and ideas; it's an invitation to journey toward a new kind of encounter with God.
Theology as Discovery
Theology does not have to be a top-down imposition of stale dogmatic principles demanding conformity and obedience–nor does the mystery of God have to be a distant, abstract, or impenetrable enigma. Today, cutting-edge discovery is meeting the Word of the Living God in new and fascinating ways all the time. The more we learn, the more it is demanded of this generation to reimagine how we know what we know. We are called to structure a paradoxical epistemology, one that remains firmly anchored to the Truth and yet open enough to learn the ways that we've been wrong. Whatever our discipline, it's our job as Catholic Educators to help our students build this framework.
In Harmony, Small Things Grow
By approaching these topics together with humility, compassion, trust, and zeal, we can begin to ask ourselves what we really believe—and how we know it's true and worth believing. The work begins by fostering a crowd-sourced, bottom-up consensus. Then we apply careful scientific and philosophical methodology to investigate the most profound questions of human thought and existence. Who are we? What gives us meaning? Does God exist? How do we know? Can the Bible be trusted? This class is for truth-seekers on any walk of the faith journey, welcoming thoughtful discussion and respectful disagreement while remaining dedicated to a common objective: the Truth.
