Courses

This course examines the triumph of secular naturalism in academic/educated culture, and proposes rational grounds for advancing historic Christian theism. Trinitarian faith is viewed here as having the structure of theories that postulate the existence of unobservable objects. These theories adopt a unique method of defining the entities or beings postulated to exist; this method is shown to be compatible with historic theism. Moreover, the Resurrection of Jesus is identified as the central tenet for which evidence additional to that found Holy Scripture is needed in our secular context. The Shroud of Turin and contemporary visions of Jesus are shown to offer such evidence. While no objection is registered to allowing science to explore any features of the Universe, Christian theism is presented as supplementing such scientific knowledge.

This course examines the character of Philosophy as an academic discipline, with particular attention to the kinds of claims that are central to its inquiry, such as Logic, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, and Aesthetics. The feasibility of the claim that Philosophy is an objective discipline, and that its contributions are as significant as the factual matters handled in any social or natural science, are examined. Various subfields within Philosophy are given special attention, including Ethics, Logic, Epistemology, and Metaphysics.

Students investigate physical reality employing basic principles of Newtonian mechanics which allow the description and explanation of motion: three-dimensional kinematics, dynamics of particles and rigid bodies including work, energy, momentum, rotational motion, simple harmonic motion, and fluids.

The basic principles of classical electromagnetism and waves: mechanical waves, Coulomb's law, electric fields, Gauss's law, Faraday's law, AC circuits, electromagnetic waves, geometrical optics.

A survey of the development of scientific theories, emphasizing the ideas that emerged in physics in the twentieth century. The course is designed so that general audience students become engaged with the conceptual aspects of topics in relativity and quantum mechanics.

An introduction to stellar and galactic astronomy, and to the tools and techniques of astronomy. Discussion of the types of stars and their formation, energy production, and end states; the nature of nebulae, star clusters, black holes, galaxies, and quasars; modern cosmology; astrobiology. Several daytime and night-time observation sessions are undertaken. Historical, philosophical, and Christian theological perspectives are considered.

Topics in classical mechanics, including particle motion in three dimensions, noninertial reference frames, central forces, rigid body motion, Lagrange's equation of motion, and Hamilton's variational principle

Electric fields and potentials of static charge distributions, currents, magnetic fields and the vector potential, electromagnetic induction, electric and magnetic energy, electromagnetic properties of matter.

Introduction to thermodynamics as applied to chemical reactions. The First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, free energy and equilibria, phase equilibria and electro-chemistry.