Science, Religion & Society: An Online Series
Inaugural Sessions that started during summer of 2020
For 65 years, The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) has held summer Conferences on Star Island, off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Due to the pandemic, we had to postpone our 2020 Star Island conference until the summer of 2021. In order to continue to engage with IRAS themes and the IRAS community, with Star Island’s generous support, we launched a live webinar series: Science, Religion, & Society. Below are the collected session videos.
Past Sessions: Video Library
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Question Reality!
The Limits of Science and the Quest for Knowledge with Dr. Marcelo Gleiser |
Question Reality!
The Limits of Science and the Quest for Knowledge Presented January 18, 2023 About the January 18, 2022 presenter
Marcelo Gleiser is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He obtained his Ph.D. from King’s College London and received the 1994 Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is the 2019 Templeton Prize Laureate, an honor he shares with Mother Teresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, and scientists Freeman Dyson and Martin Rees. His books have been published in 15 languages, including The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and The Search for Meaning, A Tear at the Edge of Creation, and The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected. A world-renowned theoretical physicist interested in cosmology and astrobiology, he has published hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and more than a thousand essays and op-eds and frequently participates in TV documentaries and radio shows in the U.S. and abroad. He co-founded the NPR blog on science and culture, 13.7. He currently directs the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth College and writes weekly for Orbiter Magazine. |
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Nothing at the Cosmic Beginning?
with Dr. Paul H. Carr |
Nothing at the Cosmic Beginning?
Presented December 7, 2022 About the December 7, 2022 presenter
Dr. Paul H. Carr, IRAS and IEEE Fellow, U Mass Lowell Philosophy Professor & AF Research Lab Branch Chief Emeritus Overview: Theologian Thomas Oord, in his recent IRAS webinar “Science and the Ever Creator” showed that the idea of God creating something from “nothing” (creatio ex nihilo) is not scriptural. What was that something in “the beginning”? Using Einstein’s new general relativity theory, priest George Lemaitre was the first to propose that the universe expanded from a hot big bang. When MIT Professor Alan Guth was recently asked what was there at “the beginning,” he replied, “the laws of physics existed before any universe.” This is reminiscent of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the word,” or logos in the original Greek. Logos is a logical structure, cosmic blueprint, or, equivalently, the laws of physics. This contrasts with atheist Professor Laurence Krauss, author of the best-selling book “A Universe from Nothing.” |
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Why is Cross-Cultural Conversation (CCC)
Crucial in Our Time: A New Way of Learning with Dr. Anindita N. Balslev |
Why is Cross-Cultural Conversation (CCC)
Crucial in Our Time: A New Way of Learning Presented November 30, 2022 About the November 30, 2022 presenter
Dr. Balslev is engaged in research in consciousness studies and is the founder of the Forum on CCC. She directs the CCC program that focuses on the dialogue between science and religion, the meeting of cultures, and encounters between world religions. The international conference on CCC that Dr. Balslev has organized in association with national institutes in India has generated significant institutional impacts. Dr. Balslev works with academic departments at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University and is the recipient of fellowships from the French and Danish governments, the Danish Council on the Humanities, the Freja Project, and the Jawaharlal Nehru Foundation. She is a founding member of ISSR. Her publications include articles on Indian consciousness, a Study of Time in Indian Philosophy, and cross-cultural self-image. She was a featured presenter at the 2015 Parliament of World Religions. |
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Spiritual Experience:
For REAL — For YOU — For the FUTURE with Dr. Calvin Chatlos |
Spiritual Experience:
For REAL — For YOU — For the FUTURE Presented November 14, 2022 About the November 14, 2022 presenter
Dr. Chatlos is a Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, Board Certified in Child & Adolescent and Addiction Psychiatry, where he incorporates spiritual principles in recovery from addiction and trauma. He graduated from Washington University, St. Louis, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He received specialty training at Montefiore Hospital, New York University-Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He is a graduate of the Humanist Institute, NYC, a long-time member of the Society for Ethical Culture, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County (UUCMC), and a board member of the United Religions Initiative (URI) Cooperation Circle of the Monmouth Center for World Religions and Ethical Thought (MCWRET), and a Council member of IRAS. He is the developer of the “Human Faith Project,” focused on the role of self-worth and dignity in opening a universal core of religious/spiritual experience and its empowerment of creativity. He is now engaged explicitly in research exploring the nature of spiritual experience and lives in New Jersey with his two children, Taylor and Liviya. |
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Reclaiming the comparative perspective:
the fecund ironies of perspectivalism with Dr. Tinu Ruparell |
Reclaiming the comparative perspective:
the fecund ironies of perspectivalismPresented October 12, 2022 About the October 12, 2022 presenter
Dr. Tinu Ruparell is an associate professor in the comparative philosophy of religion at the University of Calgary. After his first degree in microbiology and graduate research in physiology, he moved to philosophy, eventually earning his doctorate in cross-cultural hermeneutics. Philosophising across boundaries remains a focus of his research, be that boundaries between scientific and religious cultures, or between European and Indian traditions. Before coming to the University of Calgary, he taught at Liverpool Hope University, where he was inaugural co-chair of their Centre for the Study of Science and Religion, and the University of Cambridge. He publishes in the areas of comparative and interreligious philosophy, Indian philosophy, and medical humanities |
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Universality in a Multi-Ethnic World
with Dr. Varadaraja V. Raman |
Universality in a Multi-Ethnic World
Presented September 7, 2022 About the September 7, 2022 presenter
Dr. Varadaraja V. Raman holds his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Paris, has authored numerous books and articles, and is considered an expert in Hindu religion and its relationship to modern science. Professor of Physics for over three decades, Raman obtained his doctorate in theoretical physics at the Sorbonne under the tutelage of Nobel laureate Louis de Broglie, and maintains linguistic facility in French, German, Spanish and classic Sanskrit, reciting Vedic hymns and the Pater Noster in Latin. He returned to India for research at the Saha Institute of Nuclear of Physics and later received a post with UNESCO. He was elected Senior Fellow at the Metanexus Institute, received the Raja Rao award for contributions to the literature of the South Asia Diaspora, serves on the Board of the Hickey Center for InterFaith Studies, and the editorial Boards of Zygon and the Science and Theology Journal. His books include Indic Visions in an Age of Science; Truth and Tension and Science and Religion; Variety in Religion and Science; Ubiquitous God; and Variety of Humans |
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Nature’s Scripture:
Cultural Insights from Natural Reality with JD Stillwater |
Nature’s Scripture:
Cultural Insights from Natural Reality Presented August 4, 2022 About the August 4, 2022 presenter
A graduate of Cornell University, JD Stillwater is a Science Educator and founder of the Seven Candles: Science and Spirituality project. In 1986, JD and 350 of his closest friends walked from Los Angeles to Washington DC on The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. After the March, he worked as an activist, musician, stay-at-home father, house-builder, and camp director. When his children reached school age, JD returned to the classroom, too, teaching high school physics, biology, and earth/space science. By invitation, he then joined the faculty of a democratic K-12 school, teaching the sciences plus creativity, first aid/CPR, music, integrity, poetry, math, carpentry, mediation, backpacking, anti-racism, and leadership. An active member of the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg, PA, JD is a past president, musician, and frequent lay speaker. In 2012, he launched Seven Candles as a part-time mission to share the beauty and mystery of science with adult audiences, work that this year became a full-time endeavor. After 24 years in K-12 classrooms, his target audience now includes everyone. |
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Identity and the Brain:
The Biological Basis of Our Self with Dr. Andrew Newberg |
Identity and the Brain:
The Biological Basis of Our Self Presented June 28, 2022 About the June 28, 2022 presenter
Andrew B. Newberg, M. D. is currently the Research Director at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital in Philadelphia. He is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Radiology at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Newberg has been mainly involved in studying mystical and religious experiences, a field referred to as “neurotheology.” He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and chapters on brain function, brain imaging, and the study of religious and mystical experiences. He has published 12 books translated into 17 different languages, including the national best-sellers “How God Changes Your Brain” and “Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief.” He was listed as one of the 30 Most Influential Neuroscientists Alive Today by the Online Psychology Degree Guide. |
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Evolutionary Consequences of the
Atlantic Slave Trade: Epi-genetic, Cultural, Medical and Spiritual with Dr. Fatimah Collier Jackson, Ph.D |
Evolutionary Consequences of the
Atlantic Slave Trade: Epi-genetic, Cultural, Medical and Spiritual Presented May 12, 2022 About the May 12, 2022 presenter
Dr. Fatimah Collier Jackson, Ph.D. is currently Professor of Biology at Howard University and Director of the W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory where she oversees research on the Cobb Collection and the New York African Burial Ground Collection. Prior to that, Dr. Jackson was a Professor at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC, and Professor Emerita, at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Jackson received her BA, MA, and Ph.D. from Cornell. |
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The James Webb Space Telescope:
What Discoveries Await Us? with Dr. Michael Summers |
The James Webb Space Telescope:
What Discoveries Await Us? Presented April 14, 2022 About the april 14, 2022 presenter
Michael Summers is Professor of Planetary Science and Astronomy at George Mason University. He studies planetary atmospheres - specifically how physics, chemistry, and sometimes biology, together control the characteristics and evolution of atmospheres on worlds in our solar system and beyond (e.g., exoplanets). His research has contributed to understanding how global change is modifying Earth’s upper atmospheric clouds, stratospheric ozone, and greenhouse gasses, the evolution of the atmospheres of Mars and Pluto, as well as atmospheres of the moons Io, Titan, and Triton. His most recent work concerns planetary habitability and how to identify signatures of biology on exoplanets. Michael has worked with over a dozen NASA rocket, satellite, space shuttle, and deep space planetary missions, and is a member of the Science Team on the NASA New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. He is the co-author (with Jim Trefil) of “Exoplanets” and “Imagined Life”, both published by The Smithsonian Press. Michael teaches astronomy, planetary sciences, and astrobiology at GMU |
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Arctic Sea Ice and Indigenous Peoples
with Dr. Henry Huntington |
Arctic Sea Ice and Indigenous Peoples
Presented March 23, 2022 About the March 23, 2022 presenter
Dr. Henry Huntington is the Arctic Science Director at Ocean Conservancy, and also the lead author of the Alaska chapter of the next National Climate Assessment. He has over 30 years’ experience in Arctic research and conservation. |
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Science and the Ever Creator
with Dr. Thomas J. Oord |
Science and the Ever Creator
Presented February 15, 2022 About the February 15, 2022 presenter
Thomas Jay Oord, Ph.D., is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord directs the Center for Open and Relational Theology and doctoral students at Northwind Theological Seminary. He is an award-winning author and has written or edited more than twenty-five books. A gifted speaker, Oord lectures at universities, conferences, churches, and institutions. He is known for his contributions to research on love, science and religion, open and relational theology, the problem of suffering, and the implications of freedom for transformational relationships. Website: thomasjayoord.com |
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Religions and Ecology:
Restoring the Earth Community with Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker and Dr. John Grim |
Religions and Ecology:
Restoring the Earth Community Presented January 20, 2022 About the January 20, 2022 presenters
Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker and Dr. John Grim teach at Yale University. They hold joint appointments at Yale School of the Environment and Yale Divinity School where they have been developing the field of religion and ecology for over 25 years with many other partners. Grim and Tucker have written and co-edited a number of books which are foundational texts for these online courses. They include the Harvard Press series on Religions of the World and Ecology, Ecology and Religion, Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology, and the Orbis Books series on Ecology and Justice. They are also using Faith for Earth, a book created by the Parliament of World Religions and the United Nations Environment Programme. Tucker and Grim have previously launched another set of online courses with Yale named “Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times.” Those courses provide access to the Emmy Award-winning Journey of the Universe film, book, and conversations on the epic story of cosmic evolution and explore the influence of Thomas Berry, the cultural historian who inspired the field of Religion and Ecology and the Journey of the Universe project. |
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The Need to Conserve is Not Working:
What Can IRAS Scholars Add? with Dr. Philip Clayton |
The Need to Conserve is Not Working:
What Can IRAS Scholars Add? Presented December 14, 2021 About the December 14, 2021 presenter
Dr. Catherine Keller: As the George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology in the Theological School and Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University, Catherine Keller teaches courses in process, political, and ecological theology. Within and beyond Christian conversation, she has all along mobilized the trans-disciplinary potential of feminist, philosophical, and pluralist intersections with religion. Her most recent books invite at once contemplative and social critique of our entangled existence: Facing Apocalypse (2021); Political Theology of the Earth: Our Planetary Emergency and the Struggle for a New Public (2018); Intercarnations: On the Possibility of Theology (2017); and Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement (2014). Keller’s other books include On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process (2008); God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys (2005); Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (2003); Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World (1996); and From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism, and Self (1986). |
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Facing Apocalypse: Climate,
Democracy, and Other Last Chances with Dr. Catherine Keller |
Facing Apocalypse: Climate,
Democracy, and Other Last Chances Presented November 11, 2021 About the November 11, 2021 presenter
Dr. Catherine Keller: As the George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology in the Theological School and Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University, Catherine Keller teaches courses in process, political, and ecological theology. Within and beyond Christian conversation, she has all along mobilized the trans-disciplinary potential of feminist, philosophical, and pluralist intersections with religion. Her most recent books invite at once contemplative and social critique of our entangled existence: Facing Apocalypse (2021); Political Theology of the Earth: Our Planetary Emergency and the Struggle for a New Public (2018); Intercarnations: On the Possibility of Theology (2017); and Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement (2014). Keller’s other books include On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process (2008); God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys (2005); Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming (2003); Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World (1996); and From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism, and Self (1986). |
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Why Do We Hate? Understanding the
Origins of Human Conflict with Dr. Michael Ruse |
Why Do We Hate? Understanding the
Origins of Human Conflict Presented October 12, 2021 About the October 12, 2021 presenter
Dr. Michael Ruse, born (in 1940) in England, taught philosophy for 35 years at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, and then for 20 years at Florida State University. He is an expert on the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology and has written or edited over sixty books. He is particularly interested in the relationship between science and religion and was a witness for the ACLU in 1981 in its successful attempt to overturn a law mandating the compulsory teaching of Creationism in Arkansas. He has been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship (USA) and a Killam fellowship (Canada). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he has been a Gifford Lecturer and is the recipient of four honorary degrees. He is known for his modesty. For Adam Chin’s biosketch, see the Memorial Scholarship description on pg. 13. |
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Life as Advent: Rethinking God,
Rethinking the Human with Dr. C. J. Love |
A Universe Leading to Life:
Awe, Inspiration, and Purpose Presented September 29, 2021 About the September 29, 2021 presenter
Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is an astrophysicist, author, and speaker. She studies the process of star and planet formation in our galaxy using radio, optical, and infrared telescopes. She is also interested in national science policy and public science engagement, and directs Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Wiseman studied physics at MIT, co-discovering comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987, and continued in astronomy with her doctoral research at Harvard. She has worked with several international observatories and is currently a senior astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Wiseman is a Fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation, a network of Christians in Science. She frequently gives public talks on the excitement of scientific discovery and appears in many venues including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NOVA, and National Public Radio. |
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Life as Advent: Rethinking God,
Rethinking the Human with Dr. C. J. Love |
Life as Advent: Rethinking God,
Rethinking the Human Presented August 18, 2021 About the August 18, 2021 presenter
Dr. C. J. Love is currently co-editing a book that examines how philosophical, theological, and social scientific principles can be applied to our social institutions such as education, social welfare, criminal justice, government, and the economy. She has also published “God, Genetics and Event Phenomenology: Rethinking Common Human Experience of Temporality in Theology, and Its Usefulness in Science, Theology, and Contemporary Culture,” ISSN 2300-6579. C.J. is actively involved in IRAS as the Vise President of Summer Conferences, webinar technician, and is co-chairing the 2022 IRAS summer conference “We” and “They”: Cross Cultural Conversations on Identity. Her interest in science and theology arose after “retiring” from a career in clinical human genetics to full-time parent her three children who are now in their twenties. C.J. developed an interest in theology after taking a moral theology class for fun. She earned her Ph.D. from Loyola University Chicago while raising her three children and defended her dissertation with distinction. |
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A Christian Naturalist Theology:
Living Faithfully in This World Only with Dr. Karl E. Peters |
A Christian Naturalist Theology:
Living Faithfully in This World Only Presented July 28, 2021 About the July 28, 2021 presenter
Dr. Karl E. Peters (Ph.D.) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, where he taught world religions, environmental ethics, and religion and science. He has been editor and co-editor of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science and is past Co-chair of the journal’s Joint Publication Board. He also is a Past President and Vice-President for Conferences of IRAS. Peters is the author of Dancing with the Sacred: Evolution, Ecology, and God and Spiritual Transformations: Science, Religion, and Human Becoming, as well as many essays in science and religion. This seminar is the result of recent creative thought on developing a Christian Naturalist Theology. He lives on Granby, CT, USA. His website is www.karlpeters.net |
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Value of life: Views from Science and Scripture
with Dr. Tariq Mustafa |
Value of life: Views from Science and Scripture
Presented June 17, 2021 About the June 17, 2021 presenter
Dr. Tariq Mustafa is a mechanical engineer with specialization in nuclear engineering and space technology. He graduated from London University with first class honors while also completing an engineering apprenticeship at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, UK. He then did post graduate work at the Atomic Energy and Space establishments of UK, the US, and France. He received an Honorary DSc. from the University of Greenwich, U.K. in 2013 and the Pakistan President’s award for lifetime excellence in Engineering in 2021. He has been a prominent speaker in the area of Science, Technology and Engineering in many countries and has worked closely with Prof. Abdul Salam, the Nobel Laureate in Physics. He has been a searcher all his life, particularly on the subject of “Human’s place in the universe” and the connection between reason and revelation. His paper on “The development of Evaluation Criteria for Authenticity of Revelation” was published in the September 2008 issue of the premier Science and Religion Journal Zygon. His most recent book, The Case for God, affirming the existence of the Creator, based on reason and evidence and not mere faith, is available from Amazon books. He is currently president of Pakistan’s National Paralympics Committee and President of the South Asian Paralympics Committee. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Institute for Religion in the Age of Science, USA. |
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The Human Mystery:
Unraveling the Past, Exploring the Future with Ron Cole-Turner |
The Human Mystery:
Unraveling the Past, Exploring the Future Presented May 19, 2021 About the May 19, 2021 presenter
Ron Cole-Turner teaches at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he holds the H. Parker Sharp Chair in Theology and Ethics. For over thirty years, he has explored the impact of science and technology on religious perspectives (especially Christianity), with special attention to human evolution, past and future, including the expanding powers of technology to modify humanity, becoming “transhuman” or “posthuman.” Recent publications include Transhumanism and Transcendence: Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Enhancement (edited, 2011) and The End of Adam and Eve: Theology and the Science of Human Origins (2016). He is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, serving now on the Executive Committee. |
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The Hype and Realities of
Aquaculture in your Community with Barry Antonio Costa-Pierce |
The Hype and Realities of
Aquaculture in your Community Presented April 14, 2021 About the April 14, 2021 presenter
Barry Antonio Costa-Pierce is the Henry L. & Grace Doherty Endowed Professor of Ocean Food Systems and the Program Coordinator the UNE Graduate Program in Ocean Food Systems, a partnership with two universities in Iceland. He is a marine ecologist with broad research interests in how fisheries, aquaculture, and seafood value chains throughout the world interact locally with marine ecosystems, businesses, and people. His current research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy is on the bioengineering of seaweed aquaculture systems. He has worked as an aquaculture and fisheries research scientist and policy expert for international education and research organizations, banks, such as the Food & Agriculture Organization and The World Bank, and for universities throughout the World, having lived long-term for in Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa, and the Americas, and, more recently, in Europe. In 2017, Barry Antonio was selected by the Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry as the Knut & Alice Wallenberg Professor at the University of Gothenburg, where he now serves as a Senior Advisor to the Director. He served for 20 years as Editor for Aquaculture, the top science journal in this field. Barry is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists. |
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The Vital Breath:
Saving Our Sacred Rainforests with Audrey Kitagawa |
The Vital Breath:
Saving Our Sacred Rainforests Presented March 25, 2021 About the March 25, 2021 presenter
Audrey Kitagawa was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is a cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California, and a graduate of Boston College Law School. She practiced law in Honolulu for twenty-plus years, and upon retirement in 1996, she had a Martindale-Hubbell AV rating, the highest rating for professional and ethical excellence in the legal profession. Kitagawa is the head of an international spiritual family based in Hawaii. She is also Advisor to the World Federation of United Nations Associations. She serves as a member of many advisory boards and councils, including the Toda Institute for Peace and Global Policy Research, the Executive Council of the World Commission for Global Consciousness and Spirituality and for the Spiritual Caucus of the United Nations. |
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Naturalism — as Religion, within Religions,
or without Religion? with Daniel Spiro, Maynard Moore, & Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad |
Naturalism — as Religion, within Religions,
or without Religion? Presented February 15, 2021 About the February 15, 2021 presenters
Daniel Spiro is a career attorney litigating against corporate fraud. He is a published author, an accomplished speaker, and coordinates the Jewish-Islamic Dialogue Society of Washington, and is the founder of the Washington Spinoza Society. E. Maynard Moore is an ordained clergy member of the United Methodist Church, holds a doctorate in Social Ethics, and is an experienced participant in the continuing science and religion dialogue. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad earned his doctorate in astrophysics at the University of Arizona, is a recognized scholar in the Sunni tradition, a colleague active in the Muslim Society of Washington, chaplain at The American University, and serves as President of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, an Islamic think-tank in the Washington, DC area. |
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Extraterrestrial Species: Will They Be Moral? Will They Be Religious?
with Dr. Christopher J. Corbally, S.J., Ph.D and Dr. Margaret Boone Rappaport, Ph.D. |
Extraterrestrial Species: Will They Be Moral? Will They Be Religious?
Presented January 28, 2021 About the January 28, 2021 presenters
Christopher J. Corbally, S.J., Ph.D., is a Jesuit priest and an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory Research Group, for which he has served as Vice Director, and liaison to its headquarters at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. He is an Adjunct Associate Astronomer at the Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, and ministers to a wide variety of Catholics, including Native Americans, in Tucson, Arizona. He is the Co-Founder of The Human Sentience Project, LLC. Margaret Boone Rappaport, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist and biologist who works in human cognitive evolution, and as a futurist, lecturer, and author in Tucson, Arizona. As President, Policy Research Methods, Incorporated, she conducted research for federal agencies for 30 years. She lectured at Georgetown and George Washington Universities. Dr. Rappaport is also a prize-winning short story and poetry writer, and the Co-Founder of The Human Sentience Project, LLC. |
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New Materialism, Relational Holism, and Posthuman Life
with Dr. Ilia Delio |
New Materialism, Relational Holism,
and Posthuman Life Presented December 10, 2020 About the December 10, 2020 presenter
Dr. Ilia Delio, OSF holds the Josephine C. Connelly Chair in Christian Theology at Villanova University. Her area of research and writing is systematic and constructive theology. She is the author of over twenty books including Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion; Birth of a Dancing Star: My Journey from Cradle Catholic to Cyborg Christian; Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness, a finalist for the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize; and The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love, for which she won the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a 2014 Catholic Press Association Book Award in Faith and Science. Her latest book The Hours of the Universe: Reflections on God, Science and the Human Journey, will be published in Spring 2021. She lectures nationally and internationally on various topics pertaining to faith and science, and in 2020 received an honorary doctorate from Sacred Heart University for her work in Science and Religion. She is founder of the Center for Christogenesis, an online educational resource for the work of Teilhard de Chardin and the integration of Christianity and evolution in the 21st century. |
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We are the Dinosaur, We are the Meteor:
Climate, Biodiversity, and the Human Future with Dr. Lisa Fullam |
We are the Dinosaur, We are the Meteor:
Climate, Biodiversity, and the Human Future Presented November 17, 2020 About the November 17th, 2020 presenter
Dr. Lisa Fullam joined the faculty of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in August 2003. As Professor of Moral Theology, she teaches courses such as Fundamental Moral Theology, Sexual Ethics, Luther and Ignatius: Conversations Ethics, and Spirituality of Pastoral Ministry, and Issues in Virtue Ethics. She received her baccalaureate and D.V.M. degrees from Cornell University and earned her M.T.S. and Th.D. at the Harvard Divinity School. Dr. Fullam’s research interests include virtue ethics, Thomas Aquinas, biomedical ethics, Ignatian spirituality, and the relationship of spirituality and ethics. She is also accredited as a faculty member at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Among her publications is the monograph Curiosity and Skepticism: Virtues for Genomics. |
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It’s the Economy, Friends: Putting Sacred Cows Out to Pasture
with Brian Czech |
It’s the Economy, Friends: Putting Sacred Cows Out to Pasture
Presented October 21, 2020 About the October 21st, 2020 presenter
Brian Czech is the president of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE), an economic think tank and educational organization he founded in 2003. In 2017, Czech signed on as CASSE’s executive director. In this role, Czech oversees all CASSE operations and plays the lead role in policy development, public education, CASSE publications (blog, books, and journal articles) and international outreach. From 1999 to 2017, Czech served as the first conservation biologist in the history of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as a visiting professor of natural resource economics in Virginia Tech’s National Capitol Region. He is the author of several books, including Supply Shock, Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train and The Endangered Species Act: History, Conservation Biology, and Public Policy and has authored over 50 academic journal articles. Czech has a B.S from the University of Wisconsin, an M.S. from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. |
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Navigating Crises and Bridging Cultural Divides with Citizen Science
with Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase |
Navigating Crises and Bridging Cultural Divides with Citizen Science
Presented September 17, 2020 About the September 17th, 2020 presenter
Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase (A.B. Physics, Cornell University; Ph.D. Astronomy, University of Arizona) is a Senior Scientist and Senior Education & Communication Specialist at the Planetary Science Institute. In 1994, she was awarded a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship to pursue star formation studies at NASA Ames Research Center, and in 1996, a University of California President’s postdoctoral fellowship to continue these studies at U.C. Riverside. She is an Affiliated Member of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science; and Vice President of the Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science CASIRAS). She spent 22 years integrating astronomical research with public education at the Adler Planetarium, has published dozens of scientific papers, contributed to several books, and currently leads an initiative to engage faith-based communities in research experiences via the Zooniverse citizen science platform. |
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The Unifying Potential of a God that is Real in the Scientific Universe
with Nancy Ellen Abrams |
The Unifying Potential of a God that is Real in the Scientific Universe
Presented August 18, 2020 About the August 18th, 2020 presenter
Nancy Ellen Abrams is a philosopher of science, lawyer, and lecturer at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her book A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet proposes a radical, empowering, and future-oriented way of rethinking God in light of undeniable and growing knowledge about the universe, the human brain, and the perilous state of our world. It won the 2015 USA Best Book Award in philosophy. With cosmologist Joel R. Primack, she co-authored The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos, the first book to interpret the place of human beings in the new dark matter/dark energy picture of the universe. Abrams and Primack also co-authored The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World. Together the two books won the Chopra Foundation’s “Spirit of Rustum Roy Award” for “contributions to consciousness and to creating a peaceful, just, sustainable, and healthy world.” |
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Theology & Covid-19: Etiological and teleological models at the nexus with science
with Dr. Arvin Gouw |
Theology & Covid-19: Etiological and teleological models at the nexus with science
Presented July 16, 2020 About the July 16th, 2020 presenter
Dr. Arvin Gouw is the vice president for research and development at the Rare Genomics Institute (RGI), where he oversees the Rare Genomics Task Force (RGTF) and the BeHEARD Challenge (Help Empower & Accelerate Research Discoveries), which provide grants globally to rare disease researchers, foundations, and patient families. Dr. Gouw is also a research fellow in Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine and an affiliate scientist at UC Berkeley/LBNL, developing cancer drugs and drug screening platforms, and serves as affiliate faculty at the Center for Science, Religion, and Culture (SRC) of Harvard Divinity School. Dr. Gouw holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, an M.Phil. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in theology from St. Mary’s Seminary and University Ecumenical Institute of Theology, and an M.A. in endocrinology and a B.A. in molecular cell biology–neurobiology from UC Berkeley. |
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Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us? Does our modern techno-industrial society destroy the biophysical basis of our existence? with Dr. William Rees
Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us? Envisioning Tomorrow’s Earth
with Ruben Nelson |
Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us? A two part series presented June 29 & 30, 2020
Part 1
Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us? Does our modern techno-industrial society destroy the biophysical basis of our existence? with Dr. William Rees. William Rees is a population ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. His research focuses on the biophysical requirements for sustainability and on the implications of global ecological trends for global civilization. Dr. Rees is perhaps best known as the originator and co-developer of ‘ecological footprint analysis’ (EFA), a quantitative tool that shows the extent to which humanity is in ‘ecological overshoot’. Overshoot poses a serious challenge to policies promoting the continued growth of the human enterprise—we would need almost five Earth-like planets to support just the present world population sustainably. Part 2
Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us? Envisioning Tomorrow’s Earth with Ruben Nelson. Ruben Nelson, Executive Director of Foresight Canada, is an internationally respected futures researcher and practitioner of strategic foresight. He was first to apply the concept of 'paradigm change' to whole cultures in 1975. He coined the term 'civilization overshoot' in 2018. He explores the new reading of human history that will enable us to see why our Modern Techno-industrial cultures are almost wholly blind to (1) destroying biophysical existence (2) the emerging reality that the Modern Techno-industrial civilization has already entered a long, irrevocable decline (3) accepting that Modernity is our past, but not our future, and (4) realizing that our new work is to transcend our past at every scale, from personal-to-civilizational, becoming Consciously Co-creative. |
Most sessions are moderated by Dr. Ron Cole-Turner, unless noted otherwise.
Moderator Ron Cole-Turner teaches at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he holds the H. Parker Sharp Chair in Theology and Ethics, a position relating theology and ethics to developments in science and technology. He is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion.
Moderator Ron Cole-Turner teaches at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where he holds the H. Parker Sharp Chair in Theology and Ethics, a position relating theology and ethics to developments in science and technology. He is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion.
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