Religious, naturally!

I haven't posted about the "After Religion" lecture course for a while, but it's been chugging along too. In recent weeks we've explored religious pluralism, new religious movements (including Earthseed), and new indigenous voices. Today's subject was "Nature/ religion," a topic introduced two years ago. It's evolved a little, now an overview of studies in religion and ecology, an introduction to religious naturalism, and an invitation to broaden the focus of our reflections beyond the human. This was the google.doc of the day:

Sixteen of seventeen participants responded in the affirmative, even though I'd told them the "we" in the question was a little sneaky. "We" refers to two different things in the two halves of the question. It might have been clearer to replace the second with "some of us" but I wanted to see if folks were comfortable with this elastic we. They decidedly are! And this was just primed by watching a short video where Jane Goodall claims chimpanzees are "as spiritual as we are."

Then I got to share my favorite passage from Ursula Goodenough and Terrence Deacon's "Sacred Emergence of Nature," which offers a "we" elastic enough to encompass all forms of life going way back. I'll discuss some of the students' responses in class next week - our last session before a final showcase of student projects - on my way to our final topic, which looks to technology and, of course, AI (a topic which has changed so much since last time that I may have to ask its help).

This contraption by Korean artist Wang Zi Won sent them on their way with today's questions and a taste of next week's provocations...