Schedule

Instruction at The Institute at the Center for Inquiry is organized into modules, each an intensive exploration of some aspect of the theme.  Modules are carefully interwoven to convey the richness of the theme as a totality, but they also serve as stand-alone courses. Participants may take one, two, or three modules depending on their sphere of interest. 

Anatomy of Religion (July 20-27)

This module is a critical examination of religious texts, ideas and cosmologies.  Join us as we look at the influence of religion on private life, public policy, and moral values.  Lines of inquiry include:

·        Mythology of the Bible: cosmologies ancient and modern
·        The sources of Christianity
·        The sources of Islam
·        Biblical Ethics
·        Why people are "religious" - views from psychology, sociology and
         neuroscience

Instructors:  R. Joseph Hoffmann, Robert M. Price, Ibn Warraq

The Humanist Perspective: Science and Secularism (July 27 - August 3)

The two prongs of humanism are a commitment to reason above faith and the idea that moral values are fundamentally human values which cannot be determined by appeals to supernatural authority.  Module B explores both of these aspects as well as their interconnection. Issues explored include:

·         Origins of the scientific worldview
·         Secularism and political life
·         The unfinished projects of the Enlightenment
·         Contemporary issues in secular studies: multisecularism,
          desecularization and the "new atheism"
·         Mind, body and brain: Humanism and Personhood

Instructors:  John Shook, R. Joseph Hoffmann, Ronald Lindsay

Ethics Without Religion:  Being, Doing, and Becoming (August 3 - 10)

This module focuses on the relationship between local and global ideas of community, what it means to lead a "good life and the search for sources of wisdom and practical action in a largely post-religious world.  Topics include:

·         Applied secular humanism
·         The good life: Eupraxophy
·         Building local communities and world community
·         The possibility of normative ethics

Instructors:  D J Grothe, Nathan Bupp, John Shook, Paul Kurtz