Nature Religions and the Spiritualization of Science

Dr. Sarah Pike 
Faculty, CSU, Chico Comparative Religion and Humanities Department 

Dr. Sarah Pike studies the range of alternative spiritual movements in North America. This talk focuses on “nature religions,” including various contemporary forms of paganism. She points out that these religions are sometimes seen as being “anti-science” and “superstitious” by the scientific community, while they are often seen as “anti-religious” or “anti-Christian” by conservative evangelicals. Dr. Pike explains that these alternative religions have taken science and given it a spiritual twist – two examples of this are the Gaia Hypothesis and the theory of Quantum Physics. She goes on to describe both of these concepts. 

Recorded: April 8, 2017