Quick Info:
Number of weeks: 8
Price: $50
CEUs: 2.0
Required books?: No
Live video session?: No
Part of a certification or series of courses?: Yes (Wesley Lay Academy)
Must we reject belief in God to accept the findings of science?
Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, hosts this ground-breaking series in which several leading scientists, theologians, and philosophers explore the contrasts and similarities between religion and science. This group of experts considers if and how religion and science might coexist and even complement one another in the 21st century.
Lessons include:
- Introduction — Francis S. Collins, Director, The Human Genome Project
- Friends or Foes? The Story of a Complex Relationship — David Wilkinson, St. John’s College, Durham
- Truth in Science and Theology — Philip Clayton, Claremont School of Theology
- God and Nature — Keith Ward, Oxford University
- Creation and Evolution — Darrel Falk, Point Loma Nazarene University
- What Does It Mean to Be Human? — Warren Brown, Fuller Theological Seminary
- The God of Hope and the End of the World — John Polkinghorne, Cambridge University
- Genetic Science and the Frontiers of Ethics — Ted Peters, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminar
2.0 CEUs are available.
*Please note: You will need to access this course from a laptop or desktop computer in order to view the videos embedded in this course; they will not play on a tablet or phone.
Price: $50
Image: Helix Nebula, via the Hubble Space Telescope
Past Students Said…
“This was a super-good course. The lecturers do a wonderful job of explaining difficult concepts. The Biblical material was usually on point and useful. I enjoyed the written materials outlining each week’s issues. Many thanks to Dr. Collins, the lecturers, and the facilitators.”
“I enjoyed the videos. The questions are thought provoking and forced me to think outside my comfort zone.”
“I really appreciated all of the components of this course. My favorite lessons though were the last one on creation and the one on ‘what does it mean to be human’. I got the most of of the one on being human because of my personal experience with brain injury, and I felt most convicted after the lesson on creation. But I also feel that the lesson on Creation Care was the perfect ending to this course.”
“I think the facilitator did a good job of answering the questions but also letting us flesh out some of the more difficult concepts on our own.”
About the Instructor
Cynthia Gorgas has been involved and active in her church for over 60 years. She has taught Sunday school, kid’s club, Bible study, and currently she is co-leading a House Church/Covenant group and co-facilitates a QPlace/seekers group at the local YMCA. She has been actively involved in her current church, Evangelical UMC. Cynthia is a certified Lay Leader and Lay Speaker and has served on various church committees.
Cynthia calls herself a lifelong learner. She has taken several online courses through BeADisciple.com and states that this is an exciting way to discover God’s word and His plan for her. It is fun to meet people from all over the country and learn from each other.
Cynthia is a retired schoolteacher. She received her BA from the University of Northern Iowa and then completed her MAT from Aurora Illinois University. She and her husband Mike have been married for 45 years, two careers, three children, and three grandchildren later, they still enjoy gardening, fishing, and watching the wildlife that come to various feeders in their yard.
About the Course Organizer
Michael Beardslee began working for the Institute for Discipleship and BeADisciple in early 2016, developing and facilitating courses for a new project called the Wesley Lay Academy. He was born and raised in South Central Kansas, where he currently resides after a period of moving across the United States for his graduate studies.
He holds a Bachelors in Religion and Philosophy (Friends University), an M.A. (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), Th.M (Systematic Theology, Trinity International University), and is currently a Ph.D candidate at Fuller Theological Seminary (Intercultural Studies), working under the Pentecostal theologian, Amos Yong. His doctoral research concerns the way Christians from different cultural locations relate to one another in a globalized Christianity. His writing is featured most recently in Breaking the Marriage Idol: Reconstructing Our Cultural and Spiritual Norms (IVP, 2018), and in the Religion and Theology journal (Brill, 2017).
Michael splits his time up between his academic interests, his many hobbies, and spending time with his wife, Sarah, and his two young girls. In 2017, he was awarded the Visiting Scholar fellowship at Southwestern College, after which he returned to continue the work he began with BeADisciple.
