News
In this issue:
New AAAS/DoSER project to build bridges between religious leaders and scientists
Immortality Project publishes winning essay
New book looks at God’s role in an evolving creation
New AAAS/DoSER project to build bridges between religious leaders and scientists
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Rice University are conducting a major survey of several religious communities regarding their beliefs about science and perceptions of scientists.
A second part of the survey will look at the views held by scientific professionals, specifically about the attitudes of religious people toward science. This project is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and seeks to provide the first quantitative data on the underlying assumptions and concerns that shape national attitudes on issues ranging from basic science education to environmental stewardship, according to a newsletter put out by AAAS. Officials said the project fits with the AAAS motto of “Advancing Science, Serving Society,” namely that understanding the interest and concerns of a largely religious public regarding science is crucial to effective engagement.
This major survey project is guided by an expert advisory panel of scientists, religious leaders and survey-research specialists. The nationwide survey will reach 3,000 people, including evangelical Christians, mainline Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Respondents will be asked questions ranging from their perceptions of the nature of science and scientists to the personal interactions the respondent has had (or maybe never has had) with someone in a technical field.
The results from the survey will serve as the backbone for more informed and effective national science dialogue. Dr. Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist and principal investigator for the Rice University component of the project, will examine how spirituality, religion, and science interact at the individual and congregational levels in the various traditions surveyed. She will also look at how religious leaders address science at the local level.
AAAS will use the survey results as the basis for intense public engagement, through the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program. Scientists and representatives from each of the traditions sampled will begin subsequent dialogue aimed at improving the interface between these communities, informed by knowledge of existing perceptions as revealed by the survey.
Immortality Project publishes winning essay
A research project at the University of California at Riverside has awarded an essay prize on the subject of death being a good thing.
The Immortality Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, aims to advance discussion of project themes in popular venues by offering essay prizes. The three-year project is funded by a $5 million Templeton grant awarded in 2012. The grant monies will be awarded to scientists, theologians and philosophers conducting research related to immortality. Winners of the science funding competition will be announced in June.
The first essay prize went to Stephen Cave for his piece on “Death: Why We Should Be Grateful For It.” It was published last year in the New Scientist and the article is available free online to registered readers of the publication until the end of August. Based in Berlin, Cave is the author of “Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilization.” He writes that proponents of “terror management theory” say that fear of death motivates most of what we do and believe, propelling us to major accomplishments in science and other intellectual arenas.
Cave raises the interesting question of whether we would have civilization at all without death, said John Fischer, distinguished professor of philosophy at UC Riverside and the director of The Immortality Project. Cave finds that the more we focus on mortality, the more we reject socially imposed goals such as wealth or fame and focus on personal growth or the cultivation of positive relationships.
New book looks at God’s role in an evolving creation
Released in January, Creator God, Evolving World takes on the idea that even in the chaotic process of evolution there is something to be said for our traditional notions of a creator God. The book is written by Cynthia Crysdale, professor of Christian ethics and theology at the School of Theology at Sewanee: University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and Neil Ormerod, professor of theology at Australian Catholic University in Sydney. Crysdale and Ormerod teamed up to explore a comprehensive explanation to some of the thorny issues surrounding the ideas of chance and a God that is fully ‘outside’ space and time and yet fully involved with creation.
“We take on big ideas, pushing ourselves to think big thoughts about mostly incomprehensible ideas (like God and the unfolding universe),” Crysdale writes in the book’s preface. “Incomprehensible does not necessarily mean unintelligible, however, and we have striven to make sense of complex processes and concepts, providing as many examples, illustrations, and stories as possible in order to facilitate insights for readers.”
Publishers at Fortress Press describe the book as an intelligent and accessible defense of the compatibility of classical theism with the evolutionary worldview. The book is an important and provocative contribution to the debate, they say.
Crysdale writes, “Whereas most in the science-and-religion community assume that the days of alluding to ‘Being’ are long past, to be replaced by categories of ‘Becoming,’ we insist that Being (and such lofty areas such as ontology and metaphysics) are still very much relevant to the questions of our day.”
Covalence, May 2013