In this issue:
Francisco Ayala tackles the big questions
Zygon Center welcomes mind-body scholar
Professor named to research post for integrative
medicine
IRAS issues a call to action on energy issues
New book from Metanexus founder
Francisco Ayala tackles the big questions
Evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala makes the case that life is about more than just the science. In his latest book,
Am I a Monkey? Six Big Questions about Evolution, Ayala takes on the notion that evolution and God are incompatible.
His argument runs counter to a number of high profile book releases as of late that question the source of morality being religious belief and the idea of whether God was necessary in creating the universe. Ayala is a professor of both the biological sciences and philosophy at the University of California at Irvine and has been the President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, a member of the Council of the US National Academy of Sciences, the National Advisory Council for the Human Genome Project and in 1981 served as an expert witness in the Arkansas trial on the teaching of evolution.
“Successful as it is, and universally encompassing as its subject is, a scientific view of the world is hopelessly incomplete,” writes Ayala in the introduction to
Am I a Monkey? “In order to understand the purpose and meaning of life, as well as matters concerning moral and religious values, we need to look elsewhere.”
The cover of the book is provocative in that it is an illustration of a fork going through a banana. Through questioning a purely scientific view of evolution, Ayala seeks to educate non-scientists on evolutionary theory and how evolution is viewed within the scientific community. The work is one of more than a dozen books Ayala has authored related to biology.
Educating university students and the public on evolution has been Ayala’s lifelong pursuit and has earned him many accolades. This year, UC Irvine’s Science Library was formally renamed the Francisco J. Ayala Science Library. He also received the Templeton Prize and donated the $1.5 million award to scholarships for graduate students at the university. This summer, Ayala traveled to Madrid to receive the Federation of Scientific Societies of Spain’s first ever Prize for the Public Understanding of Science.
In a recent interview the Los Angeles Times, Ayala answered the question posed in the title of his book by saying that while humans are genetically and evolutionarily very close to a monkey, we are extremely different when it comes to intelligence. It’s that intelligence – displayed via our technology, literature, art, morality, religion, politics and government institutions – that actually affects the way we adapt to the environment.
Zygon Center welcomes mind-body scholar
The Zygon Center for Religion and Science is hosting Rev. Dr. Anne Benvenuti as a visiting scholar for 2010 and 2011. She is currently a professor of philosophy and psychology at Cerro Coso College in California, where she served as dean at three campuses, and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California, the University of Chicago and Georgetown University Medical Center.
After earning a degree in theology at the University of San Francisco and a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles, Benvenuti did postgraduate work in mind-body medicine at UCLA Medical School, Harvard University Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Besides being a licensed clinical psychologist, Anne is also a spiritual director and certified meditation teacher, on top of serving as an ordained Episcopal priest and as a priest associate at the Church of St. Paul and the Redeemer in Chicago. In teaching philosophy and psychology, she has written about the complimentarity of religion and science as ways of being human in the cosmos. Benvenuti is currently developing and forming a natural theory of religion that she plans to have published by University of Chicago Press in the spring in a book called A Field Guide to a New Meta-field: Bridging the Humanities-Neurosciences Divide.
The book looks at religion as a universal human adaptation to the level of complexity that modern humans exhibit in the inseparability of biological, psychological, social, spiritual and ecological realities. Specifically at the Zygon Center, Benvenuti said she is working to “more fully explicate the neuroscience-based natural theory of religion.”
Professor named to research post for integrative medicine
Andrew Newberg has been named director of research at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine, leaving the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he was a professor of psychiatry and radiology and widely known for his work in neuroscience focusing on religion and its impact on the brain.
At Jefferson, he will able to further his research work in areas such as meditation and alternative medicine and will look to ways of incorporating spirituality in the healing process. His new book, “Principles of Neurotheology” from Ashgate Publishing, focuses on establishing principles for future neurotheological discourse. The book proposes that the concept is an important topic in the broader study of how religious and theological ideas intersect with science; several books have been written addressing the relationship between the brain and religious experience, but ultimately a set of principles should be generally agreed upon and supported by theological or religious perspective and scientific one as well, according to Newberg.
IRAS issues a call to action on energy issues
Following last summer’s conference on Star Island, the Institute for Religion in an Age of Science has issued a statement related to energy issues and climate change. In evaluating environmental, social, economic and ecological concerns related to energy, presenters at the conference called upon religious and spiritual leaders globally to cooperate with scientists and engineers to help find solutions to the world’s energy problems by a considering 12 different initiatives.
They are:
- Educating the public on energy issues, particularly regarding climate change and peak oil;
- Encouraging reliable information from laity with scientific/technical expertise in energy;
- Recognizing that 60% of personal energy use arises from automobiles and home heating/cooling;
- Assessing energy options using moral norms - sufficiency, sustainability, participation and solidarity;
- Developing energy policies that reduce CO2 while seeking energy security and economic vitality;
- Motivating personal and societal lifestyle changes needed to promote energy equity;
- Favoring energy prices that minimize both energy subsidies and market externalities;
- Working toward a pricing mechanism for carbon commensurate with its ecological impacts;
- Supporting federal tax rebates and municipal financing that foster energy conservation;
- Promoting energy-use displays that encourage consumers to reduce energy consumption;
- Advancing the construction of zero-energy buildings, whether residential or institutional; and
- Using faith-based facilities as model structures for reducing carbon footprint and energy costs.
More information on this statement and on the group’s 2011 conference can be found at www.iras.org.
New book from Metanexus founder
William Grassie, founder and executive director of Metanexus, has released a new book called The New Sciences of Religion: Exploring Spirituality from the Outside In and Bottom Up.
Published by Palgrave Macmillan, the book will be offered free to new members of Metanexus, an organization founded in 1998 as an interdisciplinary institute. The New Sciences of Religion provides a critical analysis of new scientific research on religious and spiritual phenomena. Grassie emphasizes an “outside in” approach spanning economics, evolutionary psychology, the neurosciences, and medicine to offer a multifaceted understanding of religion. Grassie’s work to promote a constructive engagement between religion and science has resulted in a number of books and travels. The Metanexus Institute has also offered supported to number of initiatives across the US. More information on the organization can be found at www.metanexus.org.