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Overview
Science and religion are two major
forces shaping our world. How do they relate to each other? Some people
think of science and religion as separate domains, of reason versus
faith, facts versus values, or an emphasis on the material versus the
spiritual world. Other people think of science and religion as overlapping
domains, marked either by warfare arising from conflicting claims, or
harmony arising from similar claims. Whether separate or overlapping,
one important and often neglected similarity is the human face of science
and religion: both operate in, yet seek to reach beyond, specific historical,
political, ideological, and psychological contexts defining the human
experience. How may we understand science and religion as arising from,
yet somehow transcending, the human experience? This question underlies
the three-year Templeton Research Lectures program at the University
of California, Santa Barbara.
Considering science and religion in the context of the human experience
calls into question simple assertions of unity or disunity, but may
lead to more possibilities for fruitful exchange. The challenge and
potential of introducing the human experience into science-religion
dialogue is analogous to the three-body problem in celestial mechanics.
The relative orbits of two celestial bodies are stable; when a third
body is introduced, however, the situation gets tremendously complex,
and is generally unpredictable, but much more interesting. The three-body
problem analogy suggests the possibility that the realities toward which
science and religion point, and the forms of human experience in which
they are grounded, all interrelate in complex and unpredictable ways.
Running from Spring 2001 to Spring 2003, Science, Religion, and the
Human Experience features a series of public, web-accessible lectures
by a distinguished group of scientists, religious leaders, and scholars
of science and religion in an effort to redefine grounds for their constructive
engagement. Related activities will include monthly faculty
reading seminars and graduate and undergraduate
courses.
The program ultimately aims to develop a long-term research and educational
focus in science and religion studies at UCSB. The campus carries a
number of significant credentials to support this effort, including
a nationally-ranked Religious
Studies department, a world-renowned Institute
for Theoretical Physics, and a demonstrated
interest in cross-disciplinary collaboration as suggested in our Research
Across Disciplines initiative and the
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
Science, Religion,
and the Human Experience is primarily supported through the generosity
of the John
Templeton Foundation,
by means of their Templeton
Research Lectures on the Constructive Engagement of Science and Religion.
The goal of the Templeton Research Lectures is "to promote inter-disciplinary
and inter-religious dialogue and research within university communities
between humanistic disciplines and the physical, biological and human
sciences." The program is administered by UCSB's Institute
for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research.
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Program
Director
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The Program
Director, James
D. Proctor, serves as Associate Professor
in the Department of Geography at UCSB. Dr. Proctor, who received
his Ph.D. in geography from Berkeley in 1992, also holds a graduate
degree in environmental science and an undergraduate honors degree
in religious studies. His current research addresses the role and
relative influence of science and religion in contemporary American
environmentalism. Dr. Proctor has published in a wide variety of
academic journals, and recently co-edited Geography and Ethics:
Journeys in a Moral Terrain (1999). He serves on the editorial
boards of a number of geographical and philosophical journals, including
his position as Editor for the Americas of Ethics,
Place, and Environment. Dr. Proctor is an accomplished musician
and vocalist, and has for the past seven years served as music director
for a local Unitarian Universalist congregation. |
Program
Committee
Richard Appelbaum (Sociology)
Charles Bazerman (Education)
Stephen Cohen (Hillel UCSB)
Anita Guerrini (History, Environmental Studies)
Walter Kohn (Physics)
Marc McGinnes (Environmental Studies)
Michael Osborne (History, Environmental Studies)
Lisa Parks (Film Studies)
Constance Penley (Film Studies)
Bill Powell (Religious Studies)
Clark Roof (Religious Studies)
Paul Spickard (History)
Bruce Tiffney (Geological Sciences)
John Tooby (Anthropology)
Alan Wallace (Religious Studies)
Anthony Zee (Physics)
Contact
Information
For further information
on Science, Religion, and the Human Experience, please contact Dr. Proctor:
| James
D. Proctor, Program Director |
Email:
|
jproctor@geog.ucsb.edu |
| Department
of Geography |
Phone:
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805-893-8741 |
| 3611
Ellison Hall |
Fax:
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805-893-3146 |
| University
of California |
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| Santa
Barbara, CA 93106-4060 |
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To sign up for
regular program announcements, visit our email
list page.
Dedication
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UC Santa Barbara's Science, Religion,
and the Human Experience Templeton Research Lectures series is
dedicated to the memory of Ninan Smart, a professor in UCSB's
Religious
Studies Department and a pioneer
in comparative religion and worldview analysis. Professor Smart
played a key role in advising the Templeton Program Committee
at UCSB during its planning phase, and was due to return to UCSB
in spring 2001 to deliver a Templeton Research Lecture, though
sadly he passed away soon after relocating to Lancaster, UK in
early 2001. Professor Smart's life and work exemplified the spirit
of pluralism and breadth we intend to carry forth in the lecture
series.
A video link to the April 2001 dedication
ceremony by Chancellor Yang is available here.
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