Tag: religion

The ‘Ayatollah’ opposing US imperialism, and Iran’s Islamic ‘regime’

Kadivar offers a rare insider critique of Iran: opposing US imperialism and Israeli aggression, while also challenging the authoritarianism of the Islamic Republic from within Shia theology itself. He traces his own journey – arrested under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic – and explains how the revolutionary promise of freedom, democracy, and justice was only partially realized. We explore how guardianship of the jurist reshaped Iran. This conversation takes a deep look into how power, religion, personalities, and competing visions of destiny have interacted to make Iran, Iran.

 Religion and Science

The course discusses the relationship between religion and science from four perspectives: religion and ‘the history’ of science, religion and ‘the method’ of science, religion and the ‘theories’ of science, and ‘philosophical and theological’ reflections. Although it explores the relationship between religion and natural sciences in general, the focus sciences are four in addition to their metaphysical/theological implications: biology (Darwinism and evolutionary theory, natural theology, and randomness), physics (quantum theory and relativity), astronomy (the Big Bang, creation, design, and chance), and cognitive psychology & neuroscience (perception, and brain mechanisms).

Religion and Politics In Post-Revolutionary Iran

This course will narrate a fair and balanced critical and historical analysis, and is organized into five thematic sections: a brief overview of the relationship between religion and politics in Iran, an intellectual history of the Islamic Republic, examining the concept of the “sacred as secular” and exploring the dynamics of secularization within a theocratic system, the governance in the name of Islam, focusing on theology and theocratic rule in the Islamic Republic, and the revolt against theocracy: the Mahsa Movement and the feminist uprising against theocracy in Iran.