Ken Myers recently gave the three lectures to a group of faculty and graduate students at Vanderbilt University, under the auspices of the Humanitas Project. The link above provides a PDF transcript of Myers’ lecture, Faithful Stewards or Terrestrial Gods? Christianity and the Chief End of Science and an mp3 audio stream of Word Made Flesh, Flesh Made Whole: The Embodied Character of Salvation and the Basis of Bioethics. Myers is the host of one of my favorite periodicals, the Mars Hill Audio Journal. –JA (more…)
On 16 October 2005, Blacksburg Presbyterian will be hosting speaker Holmes Rolston, Distinguished University Professor from Colorado State University. As a part of BPC’s Peacemaking Sunday events, Professor Rolston will be delivering the sermon as well as joining in a variety of less formal discussions. The theme will be Christian engagement with environmental challenges.
Rolston is a Templeton award winner (2003) and a Gifford Lecturer (topic: “Genes, Genesis, and God”). Those of you with google accounts can read the full text of the book online.
–JA
All Things Considered this afternoon has a pair of segments on the topic of the evolution/creation controversy at NPR : Timeline: Remembering the Scopes Monkey Trial and in Maryland. –JA
NPR’s new essay project on belief seems worth mentioning… WGBH just ran the first essay by Brian Greene, and there was a lot to like in his essay. Find the homepage for the project (with links to the essays) at NPR : This I Believe
A worthy excerpt:
None of these scientific achievements have told us why we’re here or given us the answer to life’s meaning — questions science may never address. But just as our experience playing baseball is enormously richer if we know the rules of the game, the better we understand the universe’s rules — the laws of physics — the more deeply we can appreciate our lives within it.
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I believe the process of going from confusion to understanding is a precious, even emotional, experience that can be the foundation of self-confidence. I believe that through its rational evaluation of truth and indifference to personal belief, science transcends religious and political divisions and so does bind us into a greater, more resilient whole.
Enjoy. –JA
Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, I had something sane from Church Times: “How science supports faith” to pass off to a co-worker asking me about Scopes Trial Part Deux down in Kansas. From the article…
The modern scientific view of the universe will set this problem in a different light — one, perhaps, for which the laws of the universe have to operate as they do in order for life-forms like us to exist at all. Perhaps the universe can be seen to be both beautiful and dangerous — but never pointless. Perhaps it can be seen as the basis for a transformation into new and greater forms of life, as Romans 8 implies.
Alas, since Christopher Lydon left WBUR’s The Connection in a furor several years ago, I have listened only half-heartedly. But I figured I should empty out my queue from the last few months… the following shows were, if of uneven quality, at least on interesting topics relevant to my community… (more…)