By MAUREEN JONES and SHANNA GHAZNAVI
The Winter Semester schedule is available at the BYU Bookstore, and students are looking for an alternative to conventional classes.
Philosophy 418, Religion 491/492 and International Area Studies 353R offer students an opportunity to expand their courses of study with unique perspectives, experiences and instruction.
Philosophy 418, also called HonP 205R, “Science and Religion,” is an attempt to present the problems existing between the secular and the spiritual. The class has been taught for 30 years and is the longest continuous honors seminar at BYU.
Professor of philosophy, F. Kent Nielsen, who is teaching the 418 class this semester said, “I don’t make any pretense of trying to solve the science and religion problem for everyone.”
However, he said he wants his students to leave the class with the ability to analyze the problems of science and religion intelligently.
Nielsen said religion is science plus revelation. The class tackles controversial issues, such as organic evolution and addresses both the scientific and the religious views of the subject.
Lincoln Cannon, a senior from Provo, majoring in philosophy, spent the summer working with Nielsen and is now a student in the class.
“It’s probably one of the best classes on campus. I think this class would interest any Latter-day Saint student,” he said.
Religion 491/492 “Senior Seminar: The Gospel in Academic Disciplines” are classes offered on the block that presents students with an opportunity to incorporate gospel principles in their professional lives, said John Sipherd, associate professor of design.
Sipherd said he developed this class because of one student. Design students were surveyed, and on one survey, a student wrote that his biggest disappointment was not having a class that integrated religion with profession, Sipherd said.
He also said it is important for students to have a class that allows them to “commit (their) talents to building the kingdom of God.”
Sipherd said he feels this class teaches students to be up front about their religion and morals when they enter the professional world.
Students should use religion on a seven-days-a-week basis and not just on Sunday, Sipherd said.
The class is not just geared towards visual arts majors. Sipherd said students from a variety of majors have taken this class in past semesters, but the class size is limited.
Sipherd said the class involves reading, discussion and writing with students self-evaluating their efforts. The students’ tests for the course are based solely on their own interpretations of their effort.
Patricia Barrett, a sophomore from Provo, majoring in photography, currently is enrolled in the class. She said the students’ self-evaluations give them freedom.
“You are a better judge (of) where you are and how you do work-wise,” she said.
International Area Studies 353R “International Outreach” attempts to help students combine their cross-cultural experiences with the theory they have learned in their respective majors.
Cory Leonard, director of student programs at the Kennedy Center and professor of IAS 353R, said the class is part extra-curricular and part academic. The class has been taught at BYU for 25 years and is two semesters long.
Leonard said half the students in the class are usually political science majors, with the other half majoring in anything from microbiology to English.
Students who plan to take this class must either have lived outside the United States for a minimum of three months, or be from a country outside of the United States.
Leonard said the class prepares students to be effective delegates, trained in public speaking, research, diplomacy and international relations.
Thomas Larsen, a senior from Sunnyvale, Calif., majoring in international relations and Leonard’s teaching assistant, said “I think this class is a wonderful opportunity to use the things you’ve learned.”
A major part of the class entails forming a model United Nations, with the aim of participating in a national model U.N. competition.
The students in IAS 353R organize high school students into a similar model U.N. organization.
Larsen said he finds the class interesting because he is able to use what he has learned, and he actually has the chance to perform his answers instead of theorizing about them.
