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Speaker: Cathy Lynn Grossman
Position: Religion and Ethics Reporter for USA Today Date: April 22, 2007 Title: Dialogues on Science and Religion: A Journalist’s View Abstract: In the summer of 2005, the John Templeton Foundation inaugurated a fellowship program for a small group of print, broadcast, and online journalists and editors. The fellows were provided the opportunity to examine the dynamics and creative interface between science and religion. Cathy Lynn Grossman was one of the original fellows in this program which consisted of an intense two-week seminar on science and religion, presented by scholars, scientists, and thinkers drawn from the United States and Europe. The seminar was held at Queens' College of the University of Cambridge in England. Each fellow then spent five weeks at home preparing an in-depth article and oral presentation on a topic of interest. The fellows returned to the University of Cambridge to deliver their oral presentations during the concluding one-week seminar. In her lecture Grossman focused on the reactions of participants in this first class of Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellows to the intense study of issues of science and religion. She described how the program affected various journalists and how they translated their observations back to their readership. Grossman gave a personal perspective on how exposure to issues in religion and science has influenced her in communicating these issues to the public. |
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Speaker: Antje Jackelen
Position: Associate Professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science in Chicago Title: Cognitive Sciences Considered: Going Beyond the Popular Debates of Religion and Science Date: April 23, 2006 Abstract: Again and again, the debate over whether the theory of evolution, intelligent design and creationism should be taught in high-school biology classes has appeared to dominate the science-and-religion dialogue. But religion and science have many more exciting dimensions! In this lecture, she pointed to problems and opportunities that may emerge in the dialogue between religion and cognitive science, the study of mind and intelligence. The cognitive sciences may be used to promote the reductionist perception that religion and religious fervor are nothing but the firing of neurons in the brain. Such a concept will bolster criticisms of religion and cause insecurity among believers. We may see debates at least as fierce as those over various forms of creationism. Theologians will have to face the challenge of reconciling findings of cognitive science with traditional understandings of spirituality and religious faith. She showed and discussed some ways in which this reconciliation can be done. This is one important task of the continuing dialogue between science and religion. |
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Speaker: Holmes Rolston
Position: University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University Title: Genes, Genesis and God Date: April 3, 2005 Abstract: The genesis of life on Earth is keyed to genes, located in organisms in evolutionary ecosystems. Molecular genetics is integrated into developing natural history, with spectacular levels of achievement and power, resulting in the myriad values of nature and culture. But there is remarkable scientific and philosophical debate about order and disorder, randomness and probability, the inevitable and the contingent, actualities and possibilities, as these result in increasing diversity and complexity over the evolutionary epic. The DNA in organisms is vital sets of information molecules, dramatically perpetuated and elaborated across species lines, stimulated by Earth's dynamic environments. This biological information originating over time displays a cumulative creativity that, although described by science, is nowhere an implication of biological theory. Such genesis invites an account of God as the Ground of Information. In 2003 Rolston was awarded the Templeton Prize by H.R.H. Prince Philip in Buckingham Palace. |
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Speaker: Douglas F. Ottati
Position: M. E. Pemberton Professor of Theology, Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. In 2007 Ottati became Craig Family Distinguished Professor of Religion and Ethics at Davidson College. Title: Which Way Is Up? And Other Challenges to Christian Theology in Light of Recent Scientific Findings and Ideas Date: April 25, 2004 Abstract: Ottati's lecture offered an interpretation of what Christian theology is and why we are bound to take into account at least some recent scientific findings as we formulate our visions of God, the world, and humanity. It also addressed some important recent challenges to Christian theology, such as the vast expansion in our modern picture of the cosmos, the idea that persons and communities are enmeshed in interdependent ecologies, and the close relationship between biology and personal identity. |
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The Davidson Lecture honors the late Jack Davidson, who was a First
Presbyterian Church elder and member. He was a researcher in the
Instrumentation and Controls Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
He received an R&D 100 award from R&D magazine for developing one of
the 100 top technologies of the year. His amusing and memorable
children's sermons were based on gadgets he would bring to church.
Jack was intensely interested in the interrelationship between religion
and science and gave sermons on the topic.
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