About

Our Mission

IRAS cultivates a community of informed and respectful inquiry and dialogue at the intersections of science with religion, spirituality and philosophy in service of global, societal and personal well-being.

Read Zygon

IRAS is one of the founding organizations behind Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science and appoints three Directors on the journal’s Joint Publication Board. Zygon is a welcoming space for curious minds exploring how cutting-edge science—from cosmology to neuroscience—intersects with big questions about faith, ethics, and human meaning across religions, humanism, and beyond. Launched in 1966, this world-leading academic journal in science-and-religion publishes thought-provoking articles that bridge these worlds in accessible ways. Best of all, as a diamond open access journal, everything is free to read, download, and share at zygonjournal.org—no subscriptions or author fees required.

Our Summer Conference

Conference Overview

The IRAS summer conference, held on scenic Star Island in Gosport, NH, is our flagship event. A week-long opportunity for people of all ages, perspectives, disciplines, and faiths to gather, share learning, and explore compelling ideas, the event is part academic conference, part summer vacation, and part spiritual retreat. To learn more, navigate to our Past Conferences page or read about our current conference on the home page.

Our Constitution

In its Constitution, the IRAS purpose is stated as follows:
The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science is established

to promote creative efforts leading to the formulation, in the light of contemporary knowledge, of effective doctrines and practice for human welfare;
to formulate dynamic and positive relationships between the concepts developed by science and the goals and hopes of humanity expressed through religion; and
to state human values in such universal and valid terms that they be understood by all peoples, whatever their cultural background or experience, in such a way as to provide a basis for world-wide cooperation.

IRAS History

Explore Full History

IRAS evolved from the ideas of two pioneer groups. The first was a group of scientists from the Committee on Science and Values of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The second group was an interfaith, religious coalition which hoped to revitalize religion for today's needs. Members of both groups saw the, at times, battlefield of conflicting ideologies of religion and science as a place of opportunity for a constructive relationship to emerge.