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April 16, 2008
Nobel Laureate Charles Townes: Faith in Science, Experiment in Religion
Charles Townes, Winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics
Professor Townes addressed a packed lecture hall at Yale Divinity School, presenting his thoughts on the numerous yet oft-forgotten parallels between science and religion. Townes suggested that a greater dose of humility was necessary all around: scientists ought to admit their assumptions and limited knowledee, and religious believers ought to have a more flexible understanding regarding the natural world. Finally, Townes reiterated the importance that ethical thought, both religious and otherwise, must play in understanding how to use the incredible power that the advances of science and technology have brought us.
Charles Townes was born in 1915, and received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology in 1939. After working as a researcher for Bell Labs, he was appointed a faculty member at Columbia University, served as Vice President for the Institute for Defense Analyses, and was appointed Provost of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1964, Townes received a Nobel Prize for research that led to the development of the laser. In 2005, Townes received the Templeton Prize for contributions to the dialogue between religion and science. Professor Townes currently serves as University Professor at the University of California, where he is engaged in ongoing research.
March 19-23, 2008
Annual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness
Nearly eighty scholars from the U.S. and abroad assembled for the annual meeting of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, a section of the American Anthropological Association. Hosted by IRST, the conference featured 46 plenary presentations, including several by IRST participants, on topics such as shamanism, consciousness theory, altered states, mediumship, and the meaning of spirit in various cultures. Additionally, spiritual anthropology was introduced as one of anthropology’s diverse specializations.
February 28, 2008
Graduate and Faculty Forum: Challenges of Technology for a Sustainable Future
Gabriel Michael
James Clement van Pelt
As the first event of Yale Divinity School's "Renewing Hope: Pathways of Religious Environmentalism" conference, Divinity School graduate student Gabriel Michael gives a presentation entitled "Genetic Modification and Bodily Sovereignty: Beyond John Stuart Mill," which examines some of the ethical issues surrounding the genetic modification of humans that we may face in the future.
IRST Program Director James Clement van Pelt presents "Green Eschatology: Facing the Culmination of Technological Civilization," a sweeping look at the ultimate narrative of humanity. In the face of our astounding achievements, we still must constantly ask: where are we headed?
January 28, 2008
Animals as Experimental Subjects at Yale: Spiritual, Ethical and Scientific Ramifications
Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH
Dr. Akhtar explores the ethical and scientific issues raised by the use of animals in scientific experiments. Are animal experiments usefully predictive of human outcomes, and if so, to what extent?
December 7, 2007
"One: The Movie"
Ward Powers, Producer and Director
A screening of the award-winning independent film "One," which presents the responses of spiritual leaders and everyday people from numerous traditions to some of the "ultimate questions" of existence, followed by a question and answer session with Ward Powers, producer and director of the film.
November 13, 2007
Naturalizing the Spiritual: Lessons for the Cognitive Sciences
Ron Chrisley, Director of the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, and Reader in Philosophy in the Department of Informatics
Professor Chrisley, editor of Artificial Intelligence: Critical Concepts, speaks on whether the strategies of the cognitive sciences be used to naturalize spiritual discourse.
October 18, 2007
Challenges to the Reality of the Material World: Buddhist and Christian Perspectives
Christine Driessen, CSB
Lama Padma Karma Rinpoche, Center For Dzogchen Studies
Christine Driessen and Lama Rinpoche explore the logic, experience, and physical evidence challenging the Western faith in the ultimate reality of the physical world.
March 30, 2006
Religion, Ethics, and the Death Penalty
Michael Norko, MD, M.Div., Yale Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Chief of Forensic Services at Whiting Forensinc Division
As Chief of Forensic Services at Connecticut Valley Hospital (a state institution for the criminally insane), Dr. Norko was called upon in 1995 and again in 2004-05 to determine the mental competence of the first person to be sentenced to death in recent times who had ceased appeals of his sentence. Dr. Norko speaks on the moral and professional ethical implications of participating in a literally life-or-death decision in light of religious faith and commitment.
March 23, 2006
Graduate and Faculty Forum: Theologies of Science
Charles Stevenson, Ph.D., former Associate of the Advanced Imaging Technology Group at MIT, M.Div. candidate at Yale Divinity School
Michael Norko, MD, Yale Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Chief of Forensic Services at Whiting Forensinc Division, and M.Div. candidate at Yale Divinity School
Ryan Keating, M.Div. candidate at Yale Divinity School
Charles Stevenson presents "Two Different Voices in the Science-Theology Dialogue"; Michael Norko presents "Teilhard de Chardin's Hope for Humanity"; and Ryan Keating presents "Bucailleism: Reconciling Modern Science with the Qur'an."
March 2, 2006
What Theology Can Do for Science
Antje Jackelén, Associate Professor of Sytematic Theology at Lutheran School of Theology and Director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science
Professor Jackelén considers whether contemporary theological feminist, postmodern, and hermeneutical critiques can help free science from naïve self-conceptions and adulterated results.
February 23, 2006
Graduate and Faculty Forum: Technology, Religion, and Ethics
Yvonne Lodico, M.Div. candidate at Yale Divinity School
Robin Walker, M.Div. candidate at Yale Divinity School
Yvonne Lodico presents "Ethical and Religious Perspectives on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research," and Robin Walker presents "Impact of Media on Youth: Perspectives on Religion, Science & Technology.
April 18, 2005
Graduate and Faculty Forum: Religion, Health, and Wholeness
Natalie Wigg, M.Div. candidate at Yale Divinity School
Constance Shisanya, CIRA Fellow
Michael Norko, MD, Yale Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Chief of Forensic Services at Whiting Forensinc Division, and M.Div. candidate at Yale Divinity School
April 6, 2005
Issues in Encounter: The Neurobiology of our Moral Compass
Michael Gazzaniga
David T. McLaughlin Distinguised Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College; Member of the President's Council on Bioethics; author of Psychological Science: Mind, Brain, and Behavior
March 30, 2005
Issues in Encounter: Darwin, Ethics, and Theology
John Haught
Professor of Theology, Georgetown University; author of Deeper than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in an Age of Evolution
March 23, 2005
Issues in Encounter: Scientific Perspectives on Theological Anthropology
Nancey Murphy
Professor of Christian Philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning
Februrary 28, 2005
Graduate and Faculty Forum: Religion, Ethics, and the Environment
Dianne Bilyak, M.A.R. candidate at Yale Divinity School
Gretel Van Wieren, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religious Studies
Februrary 16, 2005
Issues in Encounter: Crossing Moral Thresholds: The Meaning of the Human in an Age of Global Warming and Genetic Engineering
Bill McKibben
Scholar-in-Residence, Middlebury College; author of Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age
Februrary 2, 2005
Issues in Encounter: In Search of Human Uniqueness: Theology in Dialogue with Paleoanthropology
J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen
James I. McCord Professor of Theology and Science, Princeton Theological Seminary; author of The Shaping of Rationality: Towards Interdisciplinary in Theology and Science
January 19, 2005
Issues in Encounter:The "Field" of Science and Religion: What Future for a Guild of Guild Transcenders?
Paul Wason
Director of Science and Religion Programs, John Templeton Foundation; author of The Archaeology of Rank
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