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Four Science and Religion Events at Harvard Divinity School
Spring 2007
February 13: Stuart Kauffman | March 14: Stem Cell Debate | April 20:
Buddhism and Science |
April 24: Judaism and Science
An Evening With Stuart Kauffman
Beyond Reductionism: Reinventing the Sacred Without Supernaturalism
 Tuesday, February 13, 5:10-7
pm
Sperry Room, Andover Hall
Speaker:
Stuart Kauffman, director of the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics, University of Calgary;
contributing scientist, the Santa Fe Institute
Moderator:
Philip Clayton, Visiting Professor of Science and Religion, Harvard Divinity School
Respondents:
Gordon D. Kaufman, Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity Emeritus, Harvard
Divinity School
Nancy Hutton, doctoral candidate, Harvard Divinity School
Kirk Wegter-McNelly, Professor of Theology and Science, Boston University
For many, the notions of a transcendent being and supernatural influences in
the natural world are no longer plausible. Scientists now suggest that "emergent
complexity" is sufficient to account for the worlds of biology and culture,
and indeed for human religious experience as well.
In this provocative lecture, Stuart Kauffman, one of the world's leading
experts on emergent complexity, will argue for a natural link between
evolutionary creativity and the traditional language of the sacred. In fact,
even the term "God," understood in a very broad sense, can and should be
employed to describe creative natural processes—without importing any
supernatural assumptions.
But Kauffman's position has aroused vehement criticisms from his critics.
For ecofeminists, there are deep reasons to avoid the oppressive connotations
of theistic language; why take a liberated religious naturalism and enslave it
again to the God-term? By contrast, many theists are reacting with outrage to
Kauffman's employing the language of divinity in connection with purely
natural systems. Why use the name of God to describe what is in fact a purely
atheist and materialist view of the world?
This event is sponsored by Harvard Divinity School (with a special grant from
Richard Watson) and the Boston Theological
Institute.
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Stem Cell Debate
Harvard Stem Cell Institute Public Forum: Religious Perspectives on Stem
Cell Research
 Wednesday, March 14, 6-8
pm; reception follows
Sperry Room, Andover Hall
Moderator:
Philip
Clayton, Visiting Professor of Science and Religion, Harvard
Divinity School
Panelists:
Eric Cohen, executive director of the Tikvah Fund; founding editor and
editor-at-large, The New Atlantis; director of the Bioethics and American
Democracy program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C.
Omar Sultan Haque, Muslim
theologian; Harvard Medical School
John Davis, Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics,
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Rev. Dr. Llewellyn P. Smith, United Church of Christ;
Andover Newton Theological School
HSCI Faculty:
Jerome Ritz, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
M. William Lensch, PhD, Children's Hospital Boston
Free and open to the public, but space is limited. RSVP to
rsvp_hsci@harvard.edu or
617.496.6647.
This event is sponsored by Harvard Divinity School (with a special grant from
Richard Watson); the Harvard Stem Cell
Institute; and the Boston Theological
Institute.
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Buddhism and Science
Buddhism and Science: Tibetan and Zen Buddhist Perspectives
 Friday, April 20, 4-6
pm; reception follows
Sperry Room, Andover Hall
The Mind Sciences-Buddhism Dialogue: Metaphysical Musings, Fruitful
Encounters, and Problematic Comparisons
Georges B. Dreyfus, Professor of Religion, Williams College. Professor Dreyfus
holds the title of Geshé Lharampais and has been active in the Tibetan
Buddhist dialogue with contemporary neuroscience.
Contradiction and Transcendence in Human Existence: A
Buddhist Response to Modern Science
Eshin Nishimura, former president of Hanazono University, Kyoto, Japan.
Professor Nishimura is a Zen priest, a leading scholar of the philosophical
tradition known in the West as the Kyoto School, and a leading scholar in the
dialogue between Zen and Western philosophy.
There will be a question-and-answer session following the two talks, moderated by Donald K. Swearer, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Buddhist
Studies and director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard
Divinity School.
This event is sponsored by Harvard Divinity School (with a special grant from
Richard Watson); the Center for the Study of World
Religions, Harvard Divinity
School; and the Boston Theological
Institute.
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Judaism and Science
Science, Beauty, and God: Reflections on the Meanings of Scientific
Discovery
 Tuesday, April 24, 5:10-7
pm; reception follows
Sperry Room, Andover Hall
Lenn E. Goodman, Professor of Philosophy and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the
Humanities, Vanderbilt University
This event is sponsored by the Robert
and Florence Dreben Lecture and Publication Fund; the Center for Jewish
Studies, Harvard University; Harvard Divinity School (with a special grant
from Richard Watson); the Center for the Study of World
Religions, Harvard Divinity
School; and the Boston Theological
Institute.
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