The New Atheists, superstars of the scientific age, want spirituality without God. Is religion now to be discarded as nothing more than a failed ‘hypothesis’, as Dawkins insisted? Can we be ‘spiritual but not religious’?

In these deeply personal lectures, John Cottingham makes a heartfelt case for the necessity and value of a broadly religious outlook. While celebrating the success and significance of science, he nevertheless claims that atheism is a kind of scientistic hubris which leaves us bereft of meaning or purpose. With wide-ranging erudition and sensitivity, he draws on philosophy and literature to argue that moral, aesthetic and spiritual experience points to something beyond the merely physical - to the transcendent and the divine.

By the end of this course, you will have explored:

Part 1 - Science and Religion

• How religion and science are compatible.
• Why religion is not an explanatory hypothesis.
• How religion is not irrational but requires a different kind of evidence.
• How religion provides an interpretive framework for scientific knowledge.
• How mathematical and moral truths are problematic for scientific explanation.

Part 2 – Spirituality and Spiritual Experience

• How spiritual experiences involve feeling part of a greater whole, of meaning beyond our making.
• How spirituality is morally transformative.
• How contemporary art is cut adrift from moral concerns, unable to replace religion.
• How experiences of the transcendent and the numinous cannot be granted meaning in a materialist worldview.
• How even atheists are responding to the divine, without realising.

As part of the course, there are in-video quiz questions to consolidate your learning, suggested further readings to stimulate a deeper exploration of the topic, discussion boards to have your say, and an end-of-course assessment.

IAI Academy courses are designed to be challenging but accessible to the interested student. No specialist knowledge is required.

Download the course handout from here.

• Cottingham, J. (2015). How to believe. Bloomsbury Publishing
• Cottingham, J. (2009). Why believe? Bloomsbury Publishing