World-famous philosophers Evan Thompson and Pascal Boyer will be at UCSB this week pondering the interactions between science, psychology and God as part of the three-year Science, Religion and Human Experience forum.

The forum is in its second year and includes a series of lectures held once a month on Thursday and Friday evenings in Corwin Pavilion and Isla Vista Theater from 7-9 p.m.

Thompson, an associate philosophy professor at York University in Toronto, will be the main speaker for “Empathy as a Way of Knowing: From Cognitive Science to Contemplative Science” tonight. Boyer, an anthropology and psychology professor at Washington University will speak on “Gods, Spirits and the Mental Instincts that Create Them.”

While this month’s two lectures are about religion and psychology, the lectures in March will center on Darwin and evolution, April’s lectures will look at philosophy, and May’s lectures will follow a sociological theme. Lecturers include UCSB professors Thomas Carlson and Bruce Tiffney, sociologist Hilary Putnam and Bruno Latour from the