Science, Religion & Society: An Online Series 
Inaugural Sessions to be held the 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 current pandemic, we have postponed our 2020 Star Island conference until the summer of 2021. But—never fear! There’s a new way to engage with IRAS themes and the IRAS community!
With Star Island’s generous support, we have launched a live webinar series: Science, Religion, & Society.
UPCOMING WEBINAR:  ​
November 17th, 2020
We are the Dinosaur, We are the Meteor:
Climate, Biodiversity, and the Human
Future

The program will begin at 4:00 PM CDT, 5:00 EDT, 2:00 PM PDT, 10:00 PM BST.
​
This IRAS webinar is FREE but
​registration is required.
​Please register using the link below.
If you have questions, contact CJ Love: carolynjlove3@gmail.com
About the November 17th, 2020 webinar:
In Earth's last major extinction, a meteor caused an environmental cataclysm that ended the reign of dinosaurs on the earth. We are now experiencing — or are on the brink of — the sixth great extinction. In this cataclysm, we human beings ARE the meteor, and because of the interconnected nature of the biosphere, we could well wind up being the dinosaur as well, the victim of our own excesses. How do we act as agents of justice in restoring and protecting the biosphere that sustains us? Drawing on virtue ethics and engaging the insights of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato si’, I will describe the qualities of character that will help us engage the crisis of biodiversity well, specifically humility, solidarity, courage, and IMpatience. Another resource for the necessary conversion of mind and heart is to cultivate cataphatic spirituality, a vision of the world that sees glimmers of the Divine in everything that is. This spirituality is a resource for action for justice, enlivening, sustaining, and yielding delight in the urgent work before us. I include some small first steps toward being people of imagination, insight, and effective action for ecological justice in the face of our biodiversity crisis. 
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. 

We hope you’ll be able to join us!

Past Sessions: Videos

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.
The Unifying Potential of a God that is Real in the Scientific Universe
​with Nancy Ellen Abrams
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.
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.” ​
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.
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.
All sessions are moderated by Dr. Ron Cole-Turner.
​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.