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Investigating Religions Without God

This course will investigate the practice of “religion” without the concept of “God.” That is, it will consider religions that are absent of faith in the existence of supernatural deities. The course will consider ancient and modern approaches, some traditional, some metaphorical, some tongue-in-cheek. These include Naturalism, the Way of the Tao, Buddhism, the cult of Dionysus, Syntheism, Secular Humanism, The Satanic Temple, Pastafarianism [sic], and Unorthodox Methodless Mysticism (UMM). Classes will include presentations by the instructor and short videos followed by small-group and large-group discussions. Short readings will be suggested for each class, mostly using internet-based resources. The sequence of classes will be: 1) Naturalism, 2) The Way of the Tao and Buddhism, 3) Paganism and the Cult of Dionysus, 4) Syntheism and Secular Humanism, 5) The Satanic Temple and Pastafarianism, 6) UMM: Unorthodox Methodless Mysticism.

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