Science and Religion Study Group

Meets monthly on the Third Monday, September to June from 7:15 ‑ 9 p.m. in the Davies Room. 

March 15, 2010 in the Davies Room 7:15 PM

Ken Downing, a bichemist at Berkeley Lab, will provide what he calls, a bit of science lesson to provide some deeper insight on the molecular mechanisms involved in evolution."

April 19, 2010 in the Davies Room 7:15 PM  

The Science and Religion Study Group is continuing discussion of topics in the areas of evolution, DNA, and the human genome, with particular consideration of religious and ethical issues ("bioethics") associated with the science. As with two of our other meetings, the focus of the April meeting will be a video on DVD. The title is "What does it mean to be Human?" The speaker is theologian Warren S. Brown. The DVD is from the Wesley Ministry Series (Francis Collins, used at our October and January meetings.)  Brown's talk on DVD will cover a few of the topics about the human mind and brain that the group has touched on before.  He will discuss research in the field of neuroscience, reviewing progress in attempts to understand the human brain and to develop insights into the mind-brain puzzle. Finally he will consider what we mean by the word "soul."

After showing the video, Nancy Henderson will lead the discussion.

Warren S. Brown is director of the Lee Edward Travis Research Institute at the Fuller Theological Seminary and Professor of Psychology in the Graduate School of Psychology. He is also a member of the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Dr. Brown received his doctorate in Experimental Physiological Psychology from the University of Southern California (1971). Prior to Fuller, Brown spent 11 years as a research scientist at the UCLA Brain Research Institute and was a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion.

Suggested reading: It may be useful to review Chapter Six, "Human Evolution," especially pages 110-115, in Francisco Ayala's Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion. The website for the Wesley Ministry Network is http://wesleyministrynetwork.com/ptinfo.html

Since 1997, LOPC has sponsored a Science and Religion Study Group, where attendees have been working to clarify their own Christian faith and the bridge between Science and Religion. The only requirement to attend is to have an interest and a desire to understand.

Science and Religion meets from The Science and Religion meetings continue a discussion of topics—scientific, biblical and theological—bearing on the “End of the World.”  What can we understand and what is our hope “at the End of Days?” How should we understand the true nature of Christian hope? What should be our expectation of the attainment of God’s goal for history? In our religious tradition we are aware of God’s promise to us. As part of that, we believe in “the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” In contrast, the scientific thinking about the future is not as reassuring. Based on the current ideas of the universe expanding indefinitely, the far future will be a situation of bleak and infinite emptiness. Closer at hand, the future of our sun is not encouraging. Current scientific models predict that within about five billion years the outer layers of the sun will expand to engulf the inner planets of the Solar System, reducing the Earth, the home of humanity, into a cinder. How are we to understand the apparent conflict between the prognostications of science and religious hope for redemption at the “End of the World?”

Resources to help our understanding are available from science and human intuition and experience, as well as Christian tradition and Biblical revelation. Initially, we will consider Cosmology, the scientific study of the origin and development of the Universe. After other topics in the nature of a scientific and cultural prologue, we will move to consideration of Biblical revelation and theological reflection on the nature of Christian hope.

In previous years, the group discussed Determinism, Assumptions of Science and the Christian Tradition, Effectiveness of Prayer, Process Theology, Panentheism, Big Bang Cosmology, Evolution, Quantum Theory.  The group approaches these topics with the creed "Faith seeking Understanding".  Always the question is, "How can we best describe the God who is at work in this complex universe ‑‑‑ a universe in which there is so much beauty and so much pain?"

Please visit and participate in the discussion or contact one of the group's co‑leaders, Doug Clarke, Howard Robbins or Ed Schoenberg.