The Episcopal Church Network for Science, Technology, and Faith Newsletter Volume 7-1 Easter March 2008

Foreword

Courtland Randall Speaks at Tufts University on ECUSA Historical Advocacy of Science-Faith Dialog

Evolution Weekend January 2008

Science and Faith Programs at St. John's Episcopal Church, McLean, Virginia

Clemson Area Congregations Lay Academy Presents Religion and Science - A Variety of Views

Science and Faith Programs at Trinity Episcopal Church, Bend, Oregon

Technology and Virtual Community:  The Mission of St. Clare

Book Review - Quantum Physics and Theology, An Unexpected Kinship,  by the Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne

Members In the Spotlight - Giles Carter, PhD.

News and Items of Interest

About the Network for Science, Technology, and Faith

Previous Newsletter Issues

Goddard Chapel at Tufts University (Medford, Massachusetts) has hosted a Forum on Religion and Science this year, with monthly speakers addressing several aspects of the interactions between the two disciplines. On April 2, ST&F Network member Courtland Randall delivered the final talk in this year's forum, speaking about the life, work, and witness of the Rev. Dr. William G. Pollard. In the mid-to-late twentieth century, Pollard was the leading pioneer and advocate within the Episcopal Church of a scientifically informed theology and of science that does not reject transcendent reality. His meetings with other like-minded men and women led directly to the formation of the Ecumenical Roundtable in Science, Technology, and the Church, an annual meeting to which the Episcopal Church sends an official delegation. Court Randall is Coordinator of the Science and Religion Program (http://www.bostontheological.org/programs/science_and_religion.htm) of the Boston Theological Institute (BTI), a consortium of nine seminaries and theological schools and departments in the Boston area. He directs the William Pollard Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the BTI (see http://home.earthlink.net/~smithmoran/stfnewsletter5-3.html), and he is also a research scholar at the University of the South (Sewanee). In his research, Court has uncovered what he believes to have been the life-changing "epiphany" for Pollard, the agnostic physicist. While working in isolation on one of many research problems that made up the Manhattan Project, Pollard was not a member of the circle privy to the Trinity A-bomb test at Lost Alamos. When he read in the newspaper of the destruction of Hiroshima, Pollard admitted to feeling elated that they had gotten the physics right. But when he read a few days later about the destruction of Nagasaki, he said that his elation turned to distress and confusion. That very night, he attended a service at the Episcopal Church in New Rochelle that his wife attended. At that service, he had a life-altering experience. Pollard confided to someone, Court learned, that it was the consolation he found in the reading of "A Collect for Aid against Perils" (for Pollard it was in the 1928 BCP, p. 31; for us, it is on p. 70): "Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen." Shortly after leaving New York to return to his home in Tennessee, Pollard began conversations with his bishop that led to his reading for Holy Orders. He was priested in 1954 and continued his ministry in science until his death in 1989. There are many important legacies of William Pollard that Court spoke about. In the field of science education, perhaps his greatest legacy was the formation of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.  Hundreds of physics graduate students and post-docs took their training there and went on to upgrade the science departments at many smaller colleges, mostly in the Southern states, that had not been able to keep pace with contemporary developments. Another amazing story Court told was about Pollard's successful post-war efforts to procure a nuclear reactor to donate to Japanese physicists as a teaching instrument. He convinced the ECUSA to donate the necessary $300,000! "That remains the only nuclear reactor the Episcopal Church has ever purchased," Court observed. Court Randall can be reached by email at courtran@roadrunnercom [Top]

Both images  (L) Tufts University Chaplain Rev. Dr. David O'Leary, (R) Courtland Randall. Photos courtesy of Rev. Barbara Smith-Moran

A recent thread on the ST&F Network email list suggested that members contribute items related to our efforts to provide programs and educational materials in our parishes and communities.   The articles below highlight efforts undertaken at several parishes to introduce the science and faith dialog to our congregations.

The dispute over creationism and other current controversies at the intersection of religion and science has been much in the news in recent years. But faith and science have been intimately related in much more fundamental and substantive ways over most of history and no doubt before the historical era.

Almost three years ago, members of the congregation at St. John’s Episcopal Church, in McLean, Virginia began to explore such topics in a way that we believe is more conducive to learning and reflection. McLean is in suburban Washington, DC, and the demographics of St. John’s congregation are typical of that area. We have not many scientists among us, but we include a number of physicians and engineers, and many others in the congregation are interested and widely read in the popular literature of science. A small cadre from all these categories undertook to lead an evolving series of lectures and discussion meetings that, we believe, have enriched the intellectual and spiritual lives of quite a number of people at St. John’s and some in other churches in the area.

We have covered a wide range of topics. We have explored the discoveries of science in creation and cosmology; the nature of physical law and how science “knows” things; the possibilities for the origins of life and for life elsewhere in the universe; human origins, and human nature and its evolution; and neuroscience, focusing on the nature of consciousness (and spirit). We have talked about what those discoveries might say about the nature of God and of humankind, and their relation, and what faith says about such things. We have discussed applications of science in technology -- how science can inform ethical decisions and how faith can guide development of technology – in medicine, genetic engineering, stewardship of the environment, and military technology.

We have focused on some organizing questions. What are we to make of it, that science increasingly presents a paradigm of pure mechanism, with spirit and God’s agency seemingly remote, ineffectual, or absent? Is life, on Earth and/or elsewhere, accidental, or are life and mind fundamentally implicated in the deep structure of the universe? What should we make of it, that the universe seems fine-tuned for life to exist? Can we exercise conscious will, or are we mere automata, responding only to external stimuli, with our consciousness (spirit) just along for the ride? We have observed that “Some things that you’re liable to read in the Bible, they ain’t necessarily so”, and explored what the implications are for faith.

We have not sought consensus on such matters, but the general sense we have gained is captured in two quotations, one famous and one not well known but equally evocative of truth. About three hundred years ago, toward the end of his remarkable life, the great Isaac Newton wrote, “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” And fifteen years ago, physicist Freeman Dyson wrote “Somewhere in (Newton’s) ‘great ocean of truth’, the answers to questions about life in the universe are hidden. Beyond these questions are others we cannot even ask, questions about the universe as it may be perceived in the future by minds whose thoughts and feelings are as inaccessible to us as ours are to earthworms. The potentialities of life and intelligence in the universe go far beyond anything that humans can imagine. Theology should begin by recognizing the vastness of the ocean of truth, and the pettiness of our search for smoother pebbles.”

In 2007, the Christian Formation Commission at Trinity Episcopal Church in Bend, Oregon, sought to focus efforts on bringing attention to, and fostering support for the Millenium Development Goals.  The MDGs proved to be timely, urgent, and appropriate topics that quickly led to discussion about the general relationship between science, technology, and their application in light of the vows made in our baptismal covenant. In a series of one-hour sessions between Sunday services, several issues touching on science and faith were discussed.   Programs on the environment brought together representatives from utilities, alternative power sources (wind and solar), and local environmental programs.  Topics on health care and infant mortality brought together physicians, bioethicists, and representatives from pharmaceutical research firms. One offshoot of the MDG series was a separate series of three discussions that focused on  (a) epistemology and the interplay between science and faith, (b) spiritual implications of some of the cornerstone theories of modern physics, and (c) cosmology and the scale of the universe.  To the pleasant surprise of all, these sessions were very well attended, and were accompanied by some very insightful and probing dialog.  We were left with the impression that there is a genuine hunger in the Central Oregon congregations for this type of inquiry.  A great deal of the discussion centered around issues of epistemology, and whether it is possible to have objective knowledge of God, and if so, within what limits?   Similarly, there was a great deal of interest in the implications of quantum theory and the role of the individual as an active participant in the unfolding of reality. Many attendees were surprised to learn that the Episcopal Church has a formal body that focuses on the science-faith dialog, and quite a few expressed interest in learning more about the ST&F Network.  (As a general disclaimer, it should be noted that depsite the overt "borrowing" of the logo,  the material in the presentations was not put forth as representing any official interpretation or position on the part of ECUSA or the ST&F Network). Science and faith topics have now become a regular addition to the monthly newsletter and the adult education cycle.  In the spring and summer of 2008, we plan to work with the Sunriver Observatory to provide evening prayer or eucahrist services followed by viewing of the night sky. The images at the right link to downloadable PDF versions of the presentation.

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Quantum Physics and Theology, an Unexpected Kinship
John Polkinghorne
(c) 2007, Yale University Press
978-0-300-12115-5


Other Recent Publications of Interest

If This is the Way the World Works - Science, Congregations, and Leadership   William O. Avery and Beth Ann Gaede;  2007, The Alban Institute.  ISBN 978-1-56699-355-5 The authors draw five principles from the philosophy of science and suggest an alternative way to view congregational mission and leadership based on openness to new information, complexity, diversity, interrelatedness, and process.  Their premise is that when faith communities align their operation with the way the world works, we can more faithfully carry our vocations as witnesses to God's reconciling work.

Science and Ethics - Can Science Help Us Make Wise Moral Judgments? Paul Kurtz; 2007, Prometheus.  ISBN  978-1-59102-537-5 Dr. Kurtz is a professor emeritus of philosophy at SUNY Buffalo and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He is currently the editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry. In addition, he is the founder and chairman of the Center for Inquiry--Transnational, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.  In this work, Kurtz argues that there is a modified form of naturalistic ethics that is directly relevant to both science and ethics and provides guidelines for our moral choices.