The spring 2009 lecture series sponsored by the Ethics Center at California State University, Fresno will begin Wednesday, Feb. 2, with a discussion of religious wars.

The lectures are from noon to 12:50 p.m. in the Alice Peters Auditorium in the University Business Center. They are free and open to the public.

Upcoming lectures

Feb. 2: “The Myth of Religious War.” David Chan, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, will discuss religious wars and the myths that accompany them.

March 4: “God, Darwin, and the Culture Wars.” Fresno State philosophy faculty member Leonard Olsen will lecture on the arguments surrounding the origin of life on Earth and how individuals take extreme sides without acknowledging a middle position.

March 18: “César Chavez and Nonviolence.” Jose-Antonio Orosco, an associate professor of philosophy at Oregon State, will present an overview of his book, “César Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence.”

April 29: “Ancient Philosophy and the New Atheists.” Robert Metcalf, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado at Denver, will discuss “new atheism” and contrast it with ancient Greek approaches to the critique of religion.