Les infos clés
En résumé
Drawing on new scientific advances, this religion course examines foundational questions about the nature of religious belief and practice.
The course is based on the idea that religion is a naturalistic phenomenon — meaning it can be studied and better understood using the tools of science. Religious belief and practice emerge naturally from the structure of human psychology, and have an important impact on the structure of societies, the way groups relate to each other, and the ability of human beings to cooperate effectively.
Topics to be covered will include traditional and contemporary theories of religion, with a special emphasis on cultural evolutionary models.
The initial production of this MOOC was partially funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Partnership Grant on ‘The Evolution of Religion and Morality’ (PI: Edward Slingerland), and represents one of this grant’s major knowledge mobilization and research dissemination initiatives. Its maintenance and update has received additional support from a generous donation from the John Templeton Foundation. We also recognize the contribution of The Templeton World Charity (Project title: "The Science of Religion: A Massively Open Online Course”)
Le programme
- Evolutionary and cognitive scientific approaches to the study of religion
- The origins of religion, and its role in human life
- How religion relates to morality, spirituality and atheism
- The role of religion in current events and conflict hotspots around the world
- The role religion may have played in the origin of civilization
Les intervenants
Edward Slingerland
Distinguished University Scholar
University of British Columbia
Azim Shariff
Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia
University of California, Irvine
Le concepteur
La plateforme
EdX est une plateforme d'apprentissage en ligne (dite FLOT ou MOOC). Elle héberge et met gratuitement à disposition des cours en ligne de niveau universitaire à travers le monde entier. Elle mène également des recherches sur l'apprentissage en ligne et la façon dont les utilisateurs utilisent celle-ci. Elle est à but non lucratif et la plateforme utilise un logiciel open source.
EdX a été fondée par le Massachusetts Institute of Technology et par l'université Harvard en mai 2012. En 2014, environ 50 écoles, associations et organisations internationales offrent ou projettent d'offrir des cours sur EdX. En juillet 2014, elle avait plus de 2,5 millions d'utilisateurs suivant plus de 200 cours en ligne.
Les deux universités américaines qui financent la plateforme ont investi 60 millions USD dans son développement. La plateforme France Université Numérique utilise la technologie openedX, supportée par Google.
