Eric Thompson, PH.D.
Semi-Conscious Dialectic Art of Religion Making"
Dr. Thompson is an Instructor and the Coordinator of Religious Studies at SRJC. He will examine the interplay between human creativity (the 'art' part) and the dialectic process that goes into creating and establishing a major religion, its mythology and dogma. This is an evolutionary process with human imagination serving the function of genetic mutations and the prophet's and new community's not entirely conscious responses to social pressures playing the role of natural selection. He will use the case of Mormonism as a model, because it is so well documented, and use it analogically to look at Islam-with close attention to the prophetic careers of Joseph Smith and Muhammad—(and Early Christianity, by the way) He was in Israel this summer during the infamous “flotilla incident”, and will comment on that in his lecture.
Here's Professor Eric Thompson's web page at the Santa Rosa Junior College.