POPULARITY
41 episodes with catholic scientists
7 episodes with catholic scientists
5 episodes with catholic scientists
2 episodes with catholic scientists
2 episodes with catholic scientists
2 episodes with catholic scientists
2 episodes with catholic scientists
The US government has acted as major contributor to science research since the mid-20th century, both in terms of broad basic research and targeted projects. As industrial policy has gained traction, especially during the Biden Administration, the distinction between industrial and science policy has become increasingly obscure. Hybrid policies like the CHIPS and Science Act have spurred continued debate surrounding role and value of federal funding for science research. Today on Political Economy, I talk to Tony Mills about American science policy past, present, and future.Mills is a senior fellow here at AEI and director of the Center for Technology, Science, and Energy. He is also a senior fellow at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy and a scholar associate of the Society of Catholic Scientists. His new paper, “Recovering Science Policy,” explores the blurred lines between US industrial and science policy in today's political landscape.
In this episode, Madeline chats with Dan Kuebler, a professor of biology at the Franciscan University and the vice president of the Society of Catholic Scientists. During their conversation, they discuss his undergrad at Catholic University of America, the importance of great mentors, how he discovered he loved teaching, PhD at Berkley, how he came into his faith at University of California at Berkley, getting to know the church through her documents, how science and faith keep each other from going off the rails, the importance of exploring your interests, and so much more!During the course of their conversation, they make many references which you can explore. Some of these references include the Society of Catholic Scientists, Fide et Ratio; the Church Life Journal of the McGrath Institute; and episodes 5, 6, 16, and 65 of this podcast. You can also check out some of Dan's work by listening to the Purposeful Lab podcast.Feel free to like, subscribe, and share the episode! Follow us on Instagram! @sbltfpodcastDon't forget to go out there, and be a light to this world!
In this episode, Madeline chats with Steve Barr; an author, a professor emeritus of theoretical physics at the University of Delaware, and the founding president of the Society of Catholic Scientists. During their conversation, they discuss the isolation religious scientists sometimes feel in academic historically, the great Catholic scientists, his own faith journey, the role model of his father, letting your ideas germinate for a good amount of time, and so much more!During the course of their conversation, they make many references which you can explore. Some of these references include the Society of Catholic Scientists, SCS's Scientists of the Past resource, and episode 27 of this podcast. You can also check out his book, Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, here.Feel free to like, subscribe, and share the episode! Follow us on Instagram! @sbltfpodcastDon't forget to go out there, and be a light to this world!
The intersection of science in faith is often thought to be contentious, however, for Catholic scientists it's actually considered a fertile ground for discussion and support. Joining us this week is the president of the Society of Catholic Scientists, Stephen Barr, Ph.D. The professor emeritus of physics at the University of Delaware is a founding member of the society that now boasts more than 2,000 members. Dr. Barr discusses with our hosts Jen Mauro and Mike Walsh why the society was formed, its benefits for members in academia, and its relevance to the greater Catholic world – their website is a treasure trove of information, such as an exhaustive list of famous Catholic scientists past and present, articles on Catholic/scientific issues, and an FAQ that includes well-researched answers to questions like – “Doesn't evolution show that a creator isn't needed?” and “Would the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials be consistent with Catholic belief?” The Society of Catholic Scientists is having its annual conference June 7-9 at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, IL. To learn more about the society, its upcoming Gold Masses, university chapters, and membership for those in scientific or academic work, checkout their excellent website at https://catholicscientists.org. Listen to Talking Catholic everywhere podcasts can be found, at https://talking.catholicstarherald.org/talking-catholic, or catch us on Domestic Church Media radio (https://domesticchurchmedia.org) Sundays at 11 AM or Mondays at 4 PM. Follow us on... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkingCatholic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingcatholic TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkingcatholic X: https://twitter.com/talkingcatholic
Guest Host Pat Oedy-Murray and Michael New look at the latest pro-life news. Also, Joseph Pearce introduces us to forgotten Catholic scientists and Auguste Meyrat looks at what is missing in Elon Musk's life.
Guest Host Pat Oedy-Murray and Michael New look at the latest pro-life news. Also, Joseph Pearce introduces us to forgotten Catholic scientists and Auguste Meyrat looks at what is missing in Elon Musk's life.
Christopher T. Baglow is the director of the Science and Religion Initiative in the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, where he also serves as Professor of the Practice in the theology department. He is the author of the textbook Faith, Science, & Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge (2nd ed., Midwest Theological Forum, 2019) and his work has been featured by the Word on Fire Institute and in That Man is You, Crux, Notre Dame Magazine and Church Life Journal. He is a consultant for the USCCB Committee on Catechesis and Evangelization, and his thirty-two year career in Catholic education has spanned high school, undergraduate, graduate, and seminary teaching. Baglow earned a bachelor's degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville, a master's degree from the University of Dallas, and a doctorate from Duquesne University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists. He is best known for his work helping Catholic educators integrate faith and science in their classrooms, most notably for creating and directing the Steno Learning Program in Faith and Science (named for Blessed Nicholas Steno) and the Integrating Faith and Science at Catholic High Schools Nationwide project. Baglow was one of four people to receive an Expanded Reason Award for Teaching in 2018 from the University of Francisco de Vitoria and the Vatican–Joseph Ratzinger Foundation. He lives with his family in the South Bend, Indiana, area.
Are science and faith mutually exclusive, or can they harmoniously coexist? This is the question we focus on in our latest podcast episode. Dan and Catherine reflect on Purposeful Lab Season 1 and share what's to come in Season 2. Throughout both seasons, the relationship between faith and science is an undercurrent to many of the topics covered. In this episode, we explore this concept specifically in conversations with Dr. Stephen Barr, Dr. Chris Baglow, and Sophia Carozza.Have your call in questions be featured on the podcast: Leave a voicemail at 949-257-2436 Learn more and read articles: https://www.magiscenter.com/purposeful-lab
Today we're going to learn about Catholic scientists. These men and women used their gifts and talents as scientists to advance healthcare, math, astrology, and other areas. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/catholickidstriviapodcast/support
Prof. Baglow's slides can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/5fmmww36 This lecture was given on November 29, 2022, at North Carolina State University. For more information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Christopher T. Baglow is the director of the Science and Religion Initiative in the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, where he also serves as Professor of the Practice in the theology department. He is the author of the textbook Faith, Science, & Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge (2nd ed., Midwest Theological Forum, 2019) and his work has been featured by the Word on Fire Institute and in That Man is You, Crux, Notre Dame Magazine and Church Life Journal. He is a consultant for the USCCB Committee on Catechesis and Evangelization, and his thirty-two year career in Catholic education has spanned high school, undergraduate, graduate, and seminary teaching. Baglow earned a bachelor's degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville, a master's degree from the University of Dallas, and a doctorate from Duquesne University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists.
Dr Meghan Clark discussed her article about Gaudium et Spes. Luke Coppen shared the starting 7 newslinks on what's going on in and around the Vatican. Stephen Barr shared about the mission of the Society of Catholic Scientists.
In this special solo episode, Madeline celebrates turning 25 by talking briefly about 25 Catholic scientists that she thinks people should know about. From well-known to the less known, from canonized saints to the Catholic laymen, from priest to married, they span a variety of science disciplines and vocations. Here's the list of the 25 in order of being mentioned:St. Albert the GreatFr. Georges Lemaitre, SJFr. Gregor Mendel, OSASt. Gianna Beretta MollaSr. Miriam Michael Stimson, OPFr. Angelo Secchi, SJSt. Joseph CanhBonaventura CavalieriVenerable Jerome LejeuneLouis BrailleAndre-Marie AmpereBl. Carlo AcutisPope Sylvester IISt. Hildegard of BingenBl. Hermann ReichenauBl. Nicolaus StenoBl. Jose Gregorio HernandezSt. Guiseppe MoscatiServant of God Takashi NagaiBl. Guadalupe OrtizBl. Benedetta Bianca PorraAlessandro VoltaSt. Luke the EvangelistSt. CosmasSt. DamianMadeline highly recommends reading up on these cool Catholic scientists!Feel free to like, subscribe, and share the episode! Follow us on Instagram! @sbltfpodcastDon't forget to go out there, and be a light to this world!
In this episode of Deacon's Round Table, deacons Greg Webster and Dave Egan are joined by special guest Dr. Steven Barr, a Theoretical Physicist who is the Society of Catholic Scientists' President. Dr. Barr delves into his background as a Catholic scientist and the founding of the Society of Catholic Scientists, as well as discusses with the deacons what it is like being a Catholic scientist in the world.
Join Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. of Aquinas 101, Godsplaining, and Pints with Aquinas for an off-campus conversation with Prof. Jonathan Lunine about his latest Thomistic Institute lecture, "Catholicism and Evolution from an Astronomical Perspective.” Catholicism and Evolution w/ Fr. Gregory Pine (Off-Campus Conversations) You can listen to the original lecture here: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/evolution-and-catholicism-from-an-astronomical-perspective-prof-jonathan-lunine For more information on upcoming events, please visit www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter. Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He is the author of Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach and Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World. Lunine obtained a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester (1980), an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1985) in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology. He lives in Ithaca New York, where he is a member of St. Catherine of Siena parish. In 2016 Lunine helped to found the Society of Catholic Scientists and currently serves as its vice president.
Prof. Lunine's slides can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/4fce6w7w This talk was given on October 6, 2022, at the University of Rochester. For more information, please visit thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter. Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He is the author of Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach and Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World. Lunine obtained a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester (1980), an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1985) in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology. He lives in Ithaca New York, where he is a member of St. Catherine of Siena parish. In 2016 Lunine helped to found the Society of Catholic Scientists and currently serves as its vice president.
This talk was given on October 14, 2022 at the Dominican House of Studies for the 2022 Fall Thomistic Circles conference: Life in the Cosmos: Contemporary Science, Philosophy, and Theology on the Origin and Persistence of Life on Earth (and Beyond?). Prof. Lunine's slides may be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/22vs3mdv For more information, please visit thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter. Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He is the author of Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach and Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World. Lunine obtained a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester (1980), an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1985) in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology. He lives in Ithaca New York, where he is a member of St. Catherine of Siena parish. In 2016 Lunine helped to found the Society of Catholic Scientists. About the conference: What is life? How did biological life arise? What makes life persist and might it exist elsewhere in the cosmos? What would that mean? Consider these questions and more with the Thomistic Institute at the Fall Thomistic Circles conference, Life in the Cosmos: Contemporary Science, Philosophy, and Theology on the Origin and Persistence of Life on Earth (and Beyond?). The two-day conference at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. features a stellar, cross-disciplinary lineup of speakers, scientists Jonathan Lunine (Cornell University) and Maureen Condic (University of Utah), philosopher Christopher Frey (University of South Carolina), and theologian Fr. Mauriusz Tabaczek, O.P. (Angelicum). This conference is part of the Thomistic Institute's Scientia Project.
The co-hosts announce that the TSSM podcast, now posting our 146th episode, will begin a hiatus, but all programs and show notes will continue to be archived and accessible. This episode allows Dr. Paul Giesting and Bill Schmitt to look back on their four-and-a-half years of interviews and discussions seeking a greater synthesis of knowledge: an exploration of science and religion, philosophy and spirituality, neuroscience and quantum physics, policies and principles, history and the future, to better understand ourselves and the values and virtues in our lives. Our curiosity and concerns are grounded in our experiences as cradle Catholics, a confidence that faith and reason can grow together as essentials for problem-solving wisdom, and a desire to honor the Church a central source of guidance and continuing growth. Our first episode was posted on April 2, 2018, more than four-and-a-half years ago. We have welcomed a long list of well-known guests with expertise in a variety of fields, seizing the opportunity for rigorous but highly accessible, interdisciplinary and inspirational, conversations that transcend silos of specialization. We are grateful for the grand adventure of pursuing truth and reality, both visible and invisible, with the scholars and thought-leaders who shared their insights. That's So Second Millennium was the first podcast to provide structured news coverage and commentary on the conferences and lectures of the Society of Catholic Scientists, and we interviewed a number of SCS members. Both Paul and Bill have been members of the growing, international organization. Paul, who holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Notre Dame, presented a lecture on uranium and nuclear power at the SCS 2022 conference in Chicago. In this episode, we made references to Billy Joel's “We Didn't Start the Fire” and to “Sing God a Simple Song”—from Leonard Bernstein's We talked about Wyoming Catholic College, where Paul is on the faculty, and we talked Holy Cross College, where Bill taught as an adjunct professor for three semesters before moving from South Bend, IN, to Troy, NY, in 2022. Both solidly Catholic colleges, we agreed, excel in their efforts to integrate the different aspects of our humanity and the various forms of knowledge within the hearts and minds of students. Paul and Bill are inveterate Catholic communicators and educators. Learn more about Paul's background in teaching, consulting, and public service. Learn more about Bill's life as writer-editor, broadcaster-blogger, and author. Here are some of the people we have been privileged to interview: SCS president Stephen Barr; planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine; astrophysicist and astronomer Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ; theologian Paul Seongh Chung; Magis Center president and EWTN series host Father Robert Spitzer, SJ; astrochemist Karin Oberg; neurobiologist Maureen Condic; speaker-evangelist Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers; pro-life experts Richard Doerflinger and Christopher Bell; geologist Anne Hofmeister; cybersecurity expert Michael Cloud; psychologist Darcia Narvaez; business professor-author Anjan Thakor; and soul and spiritual musician Micki Miller. Learn more about them in the show notes accompanying their TSSM episodes. Thanks also to our friend, composer and performer Vin Marquardt, for writing our podcast's closing theme for a long time, “Igneous Grok.”
Special guest Dr Jonathan Lunine, distinguished American planetary scientist and physicist, joins the ongoing discussion with: - Shinzen Young, meditation teacher and neuroscience research consultant - Chelsey Fasano, a Columbia University neuroscience student Dr Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and Chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. Dr Lunine has published over 380 research papers and is at the forefront of research into planet formation, evolution, and habitability. Dr Lunine's work includes the Cassini mission to Saturn, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Juno Mission to Jupiter. Dr Lunine is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and has participated in and chaired advisory and strategic planning committees for the Academy and for NASA. In this episode, the group question the compatibility of faith and science, explore the writings of St Thomas Aquinas and the radical theology of T.S Eliot, and consider the controversial theories of Sir Roger Penrose. Dr Lunine also discusses his research into life on other planets, reveals the possibility of cyanide-based life, and speculates about the role of God in the universe of the Big Bang. … Video version: www.guruviking.com/podcast/ep145-faith-and-science-jonathan-lunine-shinzen-young-chesley-fasano Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast'. … Topics Include: 00:00 - Intro 01:23 - Faith and Reason 04:42 - How big is life? 07:57 - Physics & God 08:57 - Buddhist exceptionalism 09:33 - Are science and faith compatible? 13:59 - The Society of Catholic Scientists 15:17 - Georges Lemaître and the Big Bang 16:03 - Dr Lunine's search for life on other planets and moons 17:36 - Titan's methane seas and hydrogen bonding mechanisms 20:03 - Cyanide-based life and information molecules 28:52 - Future missions to Titan 30:57 - Definition of a habitable zone 33:20 - Detecting water on extra-solar planets 37:04 - How big is life and where is information stored? 43:55 - Is life on Earth the ultimate pinnacle of self-organisation? 45:42 - Meta-life and Sir Roger Penrose 48:04 - The radical theology of T.S Eliot 50:24 - Aquinas on diversity as an expression of order 52:14 - Time and timelessness 55:44 - God as the Infinite and eternal foundation of all reality 56:46 - Chaos and Dr Sanguinetti … Previous episodes in this series: - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlkzlKFgdknxjhwG5wmXRVfrkeGczVPVI … To find out more about Dr Lunine, visit: - https://astro.cornell.edu/jonathan-lunine To find out more about Shinzen, visit: - https://www.guruviking.com/ep37-shinzen-young-pandemic-edition-guru-viking-podcast/ - www.shinzen.org To find out more about Chelsey, visit: - www.chelseyfasano.com For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi' by Steve James
Quick hit running down the SCS Conference for 2022 at Mundelein Seminary outside Chicago. The conference theme was the environment. Info on the conference SCS YouTube channel with videos of talks Link to the slides for Paul's talk on uranium and nuclear power
This week we bring you another past episode from June 2019 with Maureen Condic. Do you want to know when human life begins? And how to explain that to other people? That's what I'm going to ask our guest today, Dr. Maureen Condic, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah Medical School. In 2015, Dr. Condic was appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a distinguished group of physicians, scientists, and theologians from the international community whose mission it is to study questions and issues regarding the promotion and defense of human life from an interdisciplinary perspective. Three years later, in 2018, Dr. Condic received a Presidential appointment to the National Board of Science, the oversight body for the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on the development and regeneration of the nervous system, spinal cord repair and regeneration, and embryonic development, while she cultivates a strong commitment to public education and science literacy. In June 2019, she delivered the St. Albert Award Lecture at the annual convention of the Society of Catholic Scientists.
In this episode, Paul and Bill situate themselves geographically, updating each other on their latest activities and changes in locale. Paul is on a medical mission to Billings, Montana, at the moment. Bill has moved from South Bend, where he was an adjunct professor at Holy Cross College, to Troy, NY, the hometown of his wife. Uranium mining is on Paul's mind during his brief departure from Wyoming Catholic College in the small town of Lander. As a PhD geologist, Paul will make a presentation on the modern-day considerations of uranium mining and nuclear power at the 2022 conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists. The conference will be held on the first weekend of June at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago. (Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, a consecrated brother in the Jesuits and a distinguished astronomer, will be honored by the SCS this year with its St. Albert the Great Award.) The inconveniences of uranium, says Paul, who has studied it since his graduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, stem from its undeniable value for power generation—and some characteristics he described as compellingly “weird.” He takes us on a professor's tour of the periodic table and the uranium mining regions near his campus. Kazakhstan and Russia are key sources of uranium. In-situ leaching is a growing source for uranium elsewhere in the world, including in the US. Every state regulates uranium and any mining activities. For example, Texas has a Commission on Environmental Quality. There is a complex history of regulation of uranium and nuclear energy at both the state and federal levels. Paul referred to Bill's membership in the international Secular Franciscan Order. Paul offers a survey of opinions and alternatives in energy policy for the Earth. For a very recent and well-informed video treatment of sustainable energy choices for the future, see “Can We Cool the Planet?” at PBS's NOVA series website. India is probing possibilities for thorium as a source of nuclear energy. China is staking much of its energy future on nuclear power. In the US and elsewhere, politicians must get more serious about addressing crucial, conflict-ridden challenges, such as the storage and reprocessing of uranium. A note: Paul recommends the episodes on Nietzsche and Epicurean philosophy from the “Food 4 Thought” podcast, presented by Jonathan Kutz, which covers philosophy and science from Christian perspective. It's a natural for fans of “That's So Second Millennium.” You can access “Food 4 Thought” on several platforms, including Anchor and Audible. Cover photo: Yellow needle-like crystals of studtite ([(UO2)(O2)(H2O)2] · H2O) on flat orange crystals of becquerelite (Ca(UO2)6O4(OH)6 · 8H2O). Ex Gilbert Gauthier, via Adriana & Renato Pagano. Collection and photo by Gianfranco Ciccolini, as seen at mindat.org.
"Catholicism and Culture: Transforming the City of Man into the City of God" Special Guest: Dr. Haddad is an Associate Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Director of Lay Ministry Programs at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, a co-founder and co-director of The St. Louis IX Art Society, and a Scholar Associate of the Society for Catholic Scientists. He is originally from Houma, LA, and graduated from LSU in 2012 with a BS in Psychology and a BA in Philosophy. After undergrad, he earned a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Notre Dame Seminary while also serving at Archbishop Rummel as a campus minister and Mount Carmel Academy as a theology teacher, and he is currently completing his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington DC. Dr. Haddad currently lives in Kenner, LA, with his wife Shannon, and their two daughters, Lily and Elizabeth.
AMDG. Science is a body of knowledge that's constantly in flux, and students and parents alike may approach science—especially in the upper grades—with misconceptions or concerns. Today, Kolbe science teachers Elizabeth Hoxie, Katie Bradley, and Ann Still join Bonnie and Steven to discuss how science does not need to be watered down or diluted to be palatable to Catholics. Our guests share their own experiences of how being scientists has positively affected their faith lives, how they see beautiful microcosms in the created world, and how there is an eminent rationality to belief in a creator. They challenge the narrative that all scientists are atheists and talk about why Catholic families don't need to go on the defensive when it comes to science. They also discuss Kolbe's reliance on secular science textbooks and why it's an important part of the curriculum here. Resources compiled by our guests and related: Brilliant: 25 Catholic Scientists, Mathematicians, and Supersmart People Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Science Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?...And Other Questions from the Astronomer's Inbox at the Vatican Observatory The Inner Life of the Cell The Society of Catholic Scientists In the Beginning…': A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall How to Get Started with Nature Journaling Zero to Einstein in 60 by B.K. Hixson, Mrs. Still's go-to experiment book using common household items Vatican Observatory Website and Podcast Kolbecast episodes mentioned and related: Elizabeth Hoxie's first Kolbecast episode, To Live Fully Alive 42 Let Them Tinker with Kolbe mom Louise Deal Ep 26 Truth in Person with Kolbe alumna Aviva Lund Links to related Kolbe content: Fr. Stephen Gadberry speaking on evolution at the recent “Pints with Padre” live event Subscribe to the Kolbecast in your favorite podcast app and never miss an episode. While you're there, please rate and review the show to help spread the word about the Kolbecast! Have a suggestion or question for the Kolbecast team? Write to us at podcast@kolbe.org. Interested in Kolbe Academy's offerings? Visit kolbe.org.
This lecture was delivered on June 18, 2021 as part of the third annual Thomistic Philosophy and Natural Science Symposium: Chance and Indeterminacy in the Natural World. For information on upcoming events, please visit our website at www.thomisticinstitute.org. About the speaker: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter. Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He is the author of Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach and Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World. Lunine obtained a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester (1980), an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1985) in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology. He lives in Ithaca New York, where he is a member of St. Catherine of Siena parish. In 2016 Lunine helped to found the Society of Catholic Scientists and currently serves as its vice president.
Coffee Conversations w/ Samantha Coffman, Fr. Joshua, and Deacon Bob
Faith and Reason are like two wings that elevate the soul to truth - St. John Paul IIFides et Ratio - https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.htmlBrilliant!: 25 Catholic Scientists, Mathematicians, and Super Smart People - https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/brilliant?variant=39281592008761¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwNWKBhDAARIsAJ8Hkhc11iSuZDLNfNX72_iqyV-J8CfHOLJoqhiUljo_f5DSAqHg4ALE6ckaAkG2EALw_wcB
Theoretical physicist Dr. Steve Barr joins Sofia on the podcast for a conversation about faith and science. What is the unique vocation of the scientist? What can scientific work teach us about community, wonder, and tradition? What is the origin of the (false) narrative of conflict between science and religion--and what should we do about it? Our weekly challenge is to visit Astronomy Picture of the Day (apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html) and pray in praise of God the Creator. And our media recommendation is the memoir Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. We'd love to hear from you! Write to us at pilgrimsoulpodcast@gmail.com or find us on Instagram at @pilgrimsoulpodcast. We're happy to pass a message on to Dr. Barr as well. Other resources we mention: - The Society of Catholic Scientists: www.catholicscientists.org - Dr. Barr's book Modern Science, Ancient Faith - Bernard Lonergan's book Insight: A Study of Human Understanding - A prayer of astronomer Johannes Kepler: www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/poetry-prayers-visual-arts/johannes-kepler-an-astronomers-prayer/ - Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem “God's Grandeur” - Max Weber's 1917 lecture, if you caught the reference ;) Our theme music is Nich Lampson's “Dolphin Kicks.”
Jordan Wales, PhD, who teaches theology at Hillsdale College in Michigan, spoke with Paul and Bill about his research at the intersection of robotics and religion. He discussed a compelling concern in the future relationship between human beings and technology. In particular, the concern, about which he spoke at the 2021 conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists, dealt with the interaction between individuals and the entities Wales calls “apparently personal artificial intelligence” (APAI). APAI products are already becoming commonplace in the world of commerce, as this BBC article discusses. People will be increasingly able to purchase, and interact with, virtual friends or babysitters or therapists, for example, Dr. Wales pointed out. This raises moral questions related to personhood, covering both the APAI product and the user of that product. The product will not have an inner life representative of what we think of as a person, although the definition of person has an interesting history influenced by scholars such as Saint Augustine. Human beings can express and influence their own understandings of personhood through their interactions with APAI. These understandings may lead to various types of interaction, ranging from pride and manipulation to excessive empathy, and one middle ground would consist of appreciation for the humanity that underlies the production and information/formation of the APAI product, Dr. Wales pointed out. As the use of APAI grows, there are also concerns about how the aggregated human “input” into the experience of APAI personalities may cause a flattening-out of human perspectives on the unique qualities of each person. One current example of the trajectory for these concerns comes from the use of the auto-correct feature by Google for writing. Long-term possibilities include such features of interactions not only affecting our choices of words and expressions, but also influencing what subjects we think about and how we think about them. This highlights the moral principle that ultimately we must retain our unique personal identities and wisely discern how to exercise our responsibility and restraint in allowing some possible applications of APAI to influence us, Dr. Wales said.
Paul gives an update on his move to Wyoming to take a faculty position at Wyoming Catholic College. We are looking forward to bringing you more Society of Catholic Scientists conference speaker interviews in August.
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Paul and Bill interviewed Timothy Dolch, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics at Hillsdale College. Dr. Dolch is a member of the Society of Catholic Scientists, and he spoke in June at the Society's 2021 conference, titled, “Extraterrestrials, AI, and Minds Beyond the Human.” His talk, “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: An Overview,” offered his perspectives as an astrophysicist with expertise in radio astronomy. The talk, alongside others from the conference's Saturday session, can be viewed here. Here are some links to terms used during the conversation. What is a parsec? What are the transient luminous events known as red sprites and blue jets? What is the Low-Frequency All-Sky Monitor operated at Hillsdale? What are SETI and the Arecibo Message? What is the Square Kilometer Array telescope now being built? As Dr. Dolch mentioned, part of the discussion at the conference dealt with differing expectations about the process of evolution as it might happen in extraterrestrial life. He referred to another speaker, Simon Conway Morris, Ph.D., an earth scientist studying evolution at the University of Cambridge. Dolch mentioned Solaris, a science fiction novel later made into a film. You can view the film here. This classic work imagines an alternative kind of conscious extraterrestrial life form—other than what human beings might call a person. Our discussion with Dr. Dolch about the Hillsdale community included a mention of the college's Center for Constructive Alternatives.
Paul and Bill provide an on the scene review of the Society of Catholic Scientists Conference 2021 at the Washington, D.C. Hilton. The themes were Extraterrestrial Life, Artificial Intelligence, and Minds beyond the Human. As an added service, here are some links provided by the after dinner speaker, Jennifer Wiseman, to works and groups dedicated to faith - science dialogue: Book: "The Book of the Cosmos: Imagining the Universe from Heraclitus to Hawking" (Editor Prof. Dennis Danielson, UBC; Perseus, 2000) Book: "The Language of God", by Francis Collins (Director of the U.S. Human Genome Project; Free Press, 2006) Organizations and Websites: Society of Catholic Scientists! catholicscientists.org Dialogue on Science, ethics, and Religion (DOSER), American Association for the Advancement of Science: aaas.org/doser sciencereligiondialogue.org Sinai and Synapses: sinaiandsynapses.org American Scientific Amilation (ASA) asa3.org (network of scientists, engineers, teachers, and science enthusiasts Interested in the relationship of science and Christian faith) Biologos.org Science for the Church: scienceforthechurch.org Scientists in Congregations: scientistsincongregations.org Faraday Institute for Science and Religion: www.faraday.cam.ac.uk
Paul and Bill welcomed Stephen Barr, Ph.D., president of the Society of Catholic Scientists (SCS), for a return visit to TSSM. Dr. Barr, a theoretical particle physicist, is emeritus professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware. We talked with him about the Society of Catholic Scientists and the organization's fourth annual conference, scheduled June 4-6, 2021, in Washington, DC. The growing membership of SCS now totals about 1,500 in multiple countries. The organization was founded in 2016 by Dr. Barr and five other scientists. Barr, author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, described the upcoming conference, which is titled “Extraterrestrials, AI, and Minds Beyond the Human.” See details of the conference The SCS has posted an announcement about live-streaming of conference talks for those who have not registered to attend in-person. The talks will be livestreamed at https://catholicscientists.org/conference2021. The schedule of talks can be found HERE. During the talks, questions for the speakers can be emailed in to questionsSCS2021@gmail.com. As time permits, some questions will be selected from those emailed in and posed to the speakers during the Q&A sessions. Barr gave an overview of the event and the speakers. One of the speakers, Prof. Lawrence Principe, Ph.D., will also be the recipient of the Society's Saint Albert Award. The award, bestowed annually, is named for St. Albert the Great, patron saint of the natural sciences. Dr. Principe, a historian of science at Johns Hopkins University, has been a leading voice in dispelling the myth of a historical conflict between science and religion, Dr. Barr pointed out. A course titled “Science and Religion” is offered by Principe through the “Great Courses” organization and is available online. The conference's keynote speaker is Christopher Baglow, Ph.D., director of the Science & Religion Initiative in the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Baglow, whose unique high school textbook Faith, Science, and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge has now been published in a second edition, was a guest on a previous episode of the TSSM podcast. Barr pointed out that, although the Society did not hold a conference in 2020, it greatly expanded its website, which now includes instructional materials about science and religion. One feature is a curated historical collection of concise bibliographies about important scientists who were practicing Catholics. Barr thanked his collaborator Andrew Kassebaum for that content, which is more authoritative than other online lists of “Catholic scientists.” The SCS continues to work to expand its services to teachers and students. The SCS website, at org, already contains numerous videos of talks from past conferences. Dr. Barr said the Society's goals include facilitating wide-ranging intellectual and spiritual fellowship for Catholic scientists and helping to evangelize a secular culture that is infused with thoughts and messages prioritizing science and technology. The work of spreading the faith through science will increasingly use new media. Another form of evangelization is the Society's support for Church celebrations of “Gold Masses” in numerous localities in the United States and elsewhere. Gold Masses, often planned as Votive Masses in honor of St. Albert the Great, are celebrated for members of the science professions. The Masses are part of the effort to increase the Society's grass-roots activities through local and campus chapters.
Paul and Bill are proud to present this encore episode featuring the Science and Religion Initiative featuring the Science & Religion Initiative program conducted by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. In 2019, we interviewed Chris Baglow, Ph.D., director of the program, which equips Catholic high school educators with big-picture insights and detailed tools to communicate effectively regarding the complementarity of faith and reason, science and religion. We spoke with Prof. Baglow about topics covered in his recently published book, the second edition of Faith, Science, & Reason. He will be keynote speaker at the 2021 conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists, scheduled for June 4–6 in Washington, DC. Find information about the conference We also spoke with Jay Martin, Ph.D., a scholar in systematic theology who was the Science & Religion Initiative’s assistant director and is now Assistant Teaching Professor in Notre Dame’s Department of Theology. The initiative, with support from the Templeton Foundation, encourages a coordinated approach to educating young Catholics, helping them to avoid the trap of a focus on science as an exclusive source of truth and “real” knowledge. Such a focus can drive students away from the Catholic Church’s wisdom and values if it dismisses religious faith as meaningless—not worth serious engagement in their minds and hearts.
A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - The Pope has praised the beatification of six monks martyred in 1799, while trying to protect the Eucharist from desecration. The Cistercian monks were beatified on Saturday, in the Italian abbey where they were martyred. Pope Francis prayed the monks might encourage today's Catholics to a greater commitment to God. Ireland's leading archbishop has decried the Irish government's new regulations on public worship. The regulations were approved by Ireland's health minister last week. They forbid large indoor gatherings, due to the coronavirus pandemic. There are narrow exemptions for priests celebrating Mass via live stream, as well as wedding receptions and funerals. Ireland's government has suspended public worship since last October, due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is among the longest restrictions in Europe. The Irish government has suggested it will begin to relax restrictions in May, as vaccinations become more widely available. Public Masses resumed in Northern Ireland on Good Friday. The Society of Catholic Scientists will discuss non-human intelligence at its annual conference this June. Topics will include extraterrestrial and artificial intelligences. Speakers include experts in astrophysics, astrochemistry, evolutionary biology, and Catholic theology. The conference will take place June 4-6 in Washington D.C. The event will also be live-streamed.
Tom Riello talked about Archbishop Chaput's new book, Things Worth Dying For. Stephen Barr shared about the Society of Catholic Scientists. Dr Rick Fitzgibbons discussed his article on the effect of CoVid 19 on children.
Life is pretty intense for Paul these days. We present this interview with Megan Levis from the 2019 Society of Catholic Scientists archives, every bit as relevant now as it was then. It was originally presented as two episodes. Megan Levis is a fifth-year graduate student in bioengineering at the University of Notre Dame. The topic of her talk at the annual conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists was “Created in the Image and Likeness of Man.” She described the University’s bioengineering program. Growing what can be deemed the beginnings of a human brain, for purposes of research, invites important ethical considerations. Levis has found resources at and through Notre Dame for deeper study of the responsibilities entailed in such research. She has worked with the John J. Reilly Center on science, technology and values. She has also been part of the Leadership Advancing Socially Engaged Research (LASER) program within the Graduate School. Levis participated in an NSF-supported workshop on engineering design principles of multicellular living systems. Such workshops reflect a growing nationwide interest in the ethical and societal ramifications of rapidly developing technology related to systems of living things. The interest is prompting collaboration among philosophers, scientists, ethicists and engineers. It’s a false dichotomy to separate faith and engineering. Levis said her advisor [Jeremiah Zartman] has been supportive of integrating values-related concerns, and that integration has made her research better. Now that there is an increased focus in bioengineering on the transfer, or translation, of knowledge from the lab bench to hospitals and clinical practice, the assessment of ethical implications is even more important. Organoids are systems built from human cells that begin to look like an organ. In this new field, it’s important to create room for philosophical understanding, but right now the field is dominated by engineers and scientists largely using terms that sound like clunky jargon. Philosophy tells us we need to define our terms better, Levis said. We need better ways to describe what’s going on in accessible ways that allow for ethical thinking. Engineers tend to look at every component in its specifics, but there is value in seeing how one thing is similar to something else so both may come under similar ethical principles. This is the second half of TSSM’s interview with Megan Levis. We talked at greater length about this graduate student’s research and its good fit with values-informed thought, with the Society of Catholic Scientists, and even literature. The Society held its third annual conference at the University of Notre Dame a few months ago. In Megan’s presentation to the scientists at the SCS annual conference, she posed the question: How do you distinguish and exercise ethical responsibilities when something like brain organoids are “made in the image and likeness of man rather than the image and likeness of God.” Organoids are multicellular systems built from brain tissue. Are they just cell cultures or something so akin to the human being—particularly when they are brain organoids—that ethical duties arise out of respect for human dignity? This is a relatively new field where the scientific understanding and moral consideration still must develop in tandem, she explained. A New York Times article touched on some of the questions being raised. Megan’s own main research project as part of her graduate studies at Notre Dame deals with microfluidics. They are devices, a kind of miniature bio-reactor, in which researchers can grow cells and small organs. Her goal is to make it easier and less expensive to make microfluidics that can be used in future research. Here are resources on microfluidics from the journal Nature. Her collaborations in this area came about from her meeting with a leader in microfluidics technology, Dr. Fernando Ontiveros, while they were both attending a previous SCS conference. His team is exploring new applications for microfluidics, such as the growing of organoids. At what point should moral concerns tied to the dignity of the human person “kick in” when dealing with the brain and brain organoids? Where do you as a person reside in the body? The existence of a capacity for rational thought is a conventional scientific benchmark for the existence of personhood, Megan said. There are many theories of the complex brain-mind-body connection with personhood. The human person is a complex creature, not reducible to the brain or body alone. Here’s an exploration of some insights from National Geographic. There is a real role for literature in helping us to explore the many questions that combine operational questions of engineering and more abstract, integrated thinking about persons, Megan says. She recommends renowned author Walker Percy, who explored such subjects in Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. He comments that being a human is inevitably an uncomfortable process involving tensions within our nature. Our culture tends to look to science for answers to the big questions of human nature, but literature and art are pathways to answers too; literature allows us to think without predispositions and suppositions, to discover truths about ourselves and the world that transcend scientifically measurable parts. As Megan put it, the ability to wonder about the world is a gift that is transmitted sometimes through engineering and sometimes through literature and art. Megan has been able to work with Ontiveros while he has done research and prepared journal articles at Notre Dame. With the support of mentors and advisors, she has embraced opportunities at Notre Dame and elsewhere to spend time thinking about faith and science in relationship. She attended a conference with like-minded graduate students interested in these connections. She has appreciated the insights of SCS president Stephen Barr and microbiologist Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, OP, a speaker at this year’s SCS conference. Barr is the author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith. Austriaco has recorded a podcast available through the Thomistic Institute titled The Science and Practice of Christian Prayer. What does Megan recommend for graduate students and others who want to advance in their bioengineering studies while staying informed and mindful about the faith-related aspects? She highlights the power of community, building friendships and conversations over time with a diverse range of people on similar journeys, including philosophy and science. One can attend relevant lectures and conferences, such as those sponsored by Notre Dame’s De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. She recommends the resources of the Collegium Institute. Building and updating such mindfulness is a long-term process requiring persistence, she adds.
We’re live with Fr. Chris Decker with Vatican announcement about Ash Wednesday 2021, Sr. Mary Matha Moss with the Daughters of St. Paul talks about Brilliant! 25 Catholic Scientists, Mathematicians and Supersmart People, Alan Migliorato answers the question: How can parents help their teens become more self-sufficient? and Karlo Broussard with chapter 38 of Meeting the Protestant Challenge
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador and CEO Bioquark interviews Dr. Michelle Francl, the Frank B. Mallory Professor of Chemistry, at Bryn Mawr College, and an adjunct scholar of the Vatican Observatory. Ira Pastor comments: Today, we have another fascinating guest working at the intersection of cutting edge science and spirituality Dr. Michelle Francl is the Frank B. Mallory Professor of Chemistry, at Bryn Mawr College, a distinguished women’s college in the suburbs of Philadephia, as well as an adjunct scholar of the Vatican Observatory. Dr. Francl has a Ph.D. in chemistry from University of California, Irvine, did her post-doctoral research at Princeton University, and has taught physical chemistry, general chemistry, and mathematical modeling at Bryn Mawr College since 1986. In addition Dr. Francl has research interests in theoretical and computational chemistry, structures of topologically intriguing molecules (molecules with weird shapes), history and sociology of science, and the rhetoric of science. Dr. Francl is noted for developing new methodologies in computational chemistry, is on a list of the 1,000 most cited chemists, is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, is active in the American Chemical Society, and the author of "The Survival Guide for Physical Chemistry". In 1994, she was awarded the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award by Bryn Mawr College for excellence in teaching. She currently writes for Nature Chemistry on a range of topics including science, culture and policy, and in April 2016, was named one of nine adjunct scholars of the Vatican Observatory. Dr. Francl was awarded the 2019 American Chemical Society's Philadelphia Section Award which recognizes an individual, "who, by conspicuous scientific achievement through research, has made important contributions to man's knowledge and thereby aided the public appreciation of the profession." Dr. Fancl also writes extensively on spirituality, and has many publications in print including, but not limited to: “Seeking the Face of God: The Lives and Discoveries of Catholic Scientists”, "Not By Bread Alone, Reflections on the Scriptures for Lent 2020", and the Forthcoming “Waiting in Joyful Hope, Daily Reflections for Advent and Christmas”, and blogs at her website on "Quantum Theology" On this episode we will hear from Dr. Francl about: - Her background - How she developed an interest in science, in chemistry, and in the computational chemistry of "weird" / quantum structures - An overview of her work in the areas of theoretical / computational / quantum chemistry, also known as "molecular quantum mechanics", a branch of chemistry focused on the application of quantum mechanics in physical models and experiments of chemical systems - - Her role at the Vatican Observatory, as an adjunct scholar, studying the chemistry and material science of meteorites and working with issues of faith and science, from both a historical and philosophical perspective. - An overview of her work in the area of Quantum Theology, drawing parallels between the behavior of subatomic particles and the essence of spirituality - - Her research on the "contemplative mind" in advancing our understanding of both science and spirituality Credits: Ira Pastor, ideaXme ambassador interview. Visit ideaXme www.radioideaxme.com Follow ideaXme on Twitter:@ideaxm On Instagram:@ideaxme To discuss collaboration and or partnerships please contact the founder of ideaXme: andrea@ideaxme.com Find ideaXme across the internet including on iTunes, YouTube, SoundCloud, Radio Public, TuneIn Radio, I Heart Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts and more. ideaXme is a global podcast, creator series and mentor programme. Our mission: Move the human story forward!™ ideaXme Ltd.
This webinar brought to you by the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology provides an introduction to genetic manipulation, they will explore considerations of what is practical, moral, and ethical when it comes to genetic engineering.Co-sponsors include WCAT Radio, En Route Books and Media, Society of Catholic Scientists, Office of Consecrated Life – St. Louis Archdiocese, Department of Medical Humanities, School of Medicine at Creighton University, St. Louis Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, and the Liberty Institute for Faith & Ethics (L.I.F.E) - https://liberty4life.org/For more on the webinar, see https://faithscience.org/genetic-engineering/
In this episode of Catholic Mysticism, Catholic evangelist Al Bielawski talks about Evolution and Catholic Scientists who don't believe in the Theory. (September 30, 2020)
In this episode of Catholic Mysticism, Catholic evangelist Al Bielawski talks about Evolution and Catholic Scientists who don't believe in the Theory. (September 30, 2020)
Does faith and science oppose each other? Who are some Catholics who have made history-making discoveries? dudesthatbabel@gmail.com dudesthatbabel.com
In this first of an 8-part series, Mike introduces some important foundational questions about the existence and nature of God. Why do you believe what you believe about the divine? Have you ever really, deeply, thoroughly asked yourself that question? All that and more! Links/Resources: Word on Fire (Bishop Robert Barron): https://www.wordonfire.org/ Society of Catholic Scientists website (Dr. Stephen Barr reference): https://www.catholicscientists.org/about/leadership Magis Center for Reason and Faith/Magis Institute (Father Robert Spitzer): https://magiscenter.com/ The Gracious Guest homepage: https://www.thegraciousguest.org
Cosponsored by the Society of Catholic Scientists. This event is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Does evolution fully explain the human? Recent paleontological and archeological work trace the deep lineages underlying many of our physical traits, and reveals our complicated history as one of many hominid species. It is abundantly clear that modern humans are subject to the same evolutionary pressures as the rest of the biological world and that evolution continues to shape our species. However, the developing story of our evolutionary history is frequently framed as a challenge to the claim of human uniqueness, fundamental to the Judeo-Christian understanding of the creation of man. Does evolution truly undercut the assumption of human uniqueness? Is our understanding of biological evolution sufficient to explain what makes us human? Here we present an online lecture with evolutionary paleobiologist, Simon Conway Morris, where he examines “What Evolution Does and Does not Tell Us about Humans.”
A web event with professors Steven Meredith (University of Chicago) and Jeffrey Bishop (Saint Louis University). Broadcast Tuesday, April 28, 2020. Cosponsored by America Media, the Society of Catholic Scientists, the Saint Benedict Institute, the Beatrice Institute, the Collegium Institute, the Nova Forum, and the Program on Religion and Medicine at the University of Chicago. This program is made possible by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Whether caused by pathogens, environmental exposure, or genetics, disease is typically understood to be an unwarranted and unwanted removal from one's normal condition of good health. While a natural phenomenon, disease raises classic questions of theodicy. If illness is a privation of the good of health, should we also understand disease to be an evil? How can science, theology, philosophy, and literature help us to account for the occurrence of deadly diseases and the suffering that results from them? In this moderated conversation, Stephen Meredith, professor of pathology and molecular biology at the University of Chicago, and Jeffrey Bishop, healthcare ethicist and professor in philosophy and theology at Saint Louis University, will engage these questions and others surrounding disease and the problem of evil.
In this episode we begin with an unscheduled excursion into the realm of the neurobiology of the two hemispheres of the brain and the psychology of reparenting (with nods to our past conversations with Darcia Narvaez, and about codependency and Twelve Step work). We discussed the questions related to whether psychology based on a right-brain/left-brain dichotomy provides meaningful tools to increase self-understanding. Paul described his experience with opposite-hand-writing for self-discovery. One interpretation of this kind of experience—a reference for which this writer can provide no validated recommendation or criticism—was found here as an example of the approach, thanks solely to Google. We discussed whether the correct half of our brains is really in charge. This is just one of the many online articles you could read to learn more about the left brain-right brain relationships explored in various mentoring programs. Bill managed to segue into a different kind of dichotomy—the existential anxiety of the modern secularist, trying to be both relativist and moralist, and assuming impossible responsibilities; we believe God is not there, and we try to do God's job. The discussion included mentions of a book called The Master and His Emissary and NPR podcasts respectively called “Hidden Brain” and “” The Society of Catholic Scientists 2018 conference generated the artwork that serves as the illustration for these show notes. Audio editing by Morgan Burkart, bumper music by Vin Marquardt.
This week, events have forced another "greatest hits" episode, and so we bring you for your convenience the entire Maureen Condic interview from the June 2019 Society of Catholic Scientists meeting in a one hour and forty-five minute extravaganza. The following are Bill's liner notes from the first run episodes. University of Utah’s information page for Dr. Maureen Condic. She is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, with an adjunct appointment in Pediatrics. Her research focuses on the role of stem cells in development and regeneration. She has taught human embryology in the University’s Medical School for 20 years. See Dr. Condic’s biographical summary in the list of speakers at the Society of Catholic Scientists 2019 conference titled, “What Does It Mean to Be Human?” At the conference, this embryologist and specialist in developmental neurobiology delivered the St. Albert Award Lecture: “Human Beings are Defined by Organization.” Dr. Condic is the 2019 recipient of the St. Albert Award, named for Saint Albert the Great, the Catholic Church’s patron saint of natural scientists. The award is given annually to a Catholic scientist whose life and work give witness to the harmony that exists between the vocation of scientist and the life of faith. See more details about the award, including its previous recipients. Dr. Condic’s previous awards include the Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award, created in 1973 and presented by the March of Dimes to support a young scientist’s promising new research. The March of Dimes was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, initially to fight polio. Today, the foundation focuses on health problems in babies, especially premature birth, birth defects, and low birth weight. Find context for the program of research support here. Dr. Condic also has been the recipient of a Scholar Award for research from the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience. In 2018, she was appointed to the National Science Board. The NSB establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation and serves as advisor to Congress and the President. She is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is dedicated to promoting the Catholic Church’s consistent life ethic and supporting research in bioethics and moral theology. When confronted with alternative views and occasionally accused of being “brainwashed” with a pro-life stance, Dr. Condic says one must ask, what view actually makes more sense of the world? A quote from the episode: “What vision of the world actually accounts for most of the data? In my experience, it’s a Christian vision of the world, and particularly a Catholic vision of the world, that very much endorses precisely the kind of questioning mind that promotes scientific investigation….” Another key thought from the episode: The information generated in scientific disciplines is so huge, it forces many scientists to make their own fields of specialized inquiry “narrower and narrower.” Also, “they have no time” to give deep consideration to many big questions about life, the world, and the origin of the universe. “Particularly in biology, there’s such an intoxication with success.” Individuals who are indeed brilliant and making remarkable progress for people may become confident that they can answer all the important questions. Starting at about the 22-minute mark in this episode, Dr. Condic tells the story of an event that changed her life and produced her commitment to public advocacy and public education.“ She saw a need to combat ignorance or oversimplification about scientific advancements and to be “an advocate for patients and knowledge and factual information.” Dr. Condic also provides a valuable, clear update on parts of the debate about disease treatments using embryonic stem cells as opposed to adult stem cells, with research on the latter having resulted in a huge number of clinical trials and prospects for various treatments. A major new phase of the research has moved on to the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, which do not raise the same ethical issues as embryonic cells. In presenting the St. Albert Award during the Society of Catholic Scientists conference, president Stephen Barr, Ph.D., pointed out Dr. Condic’s “courageous public defense, on scientific and philosophical grounds, on the human status of human embryos.” Our discussion of totipotent, pluripotent, and plenipotent stem cells helped to clarify a complex subject of great importance to many people, such as those who suffer from diseases awaiting therapies capturing the power of these cells. Dr. Maureen Condic, as a pioneer in this field, contributed insights in 2013 by developing the concept of plenipotent cells. See her journal article. Our discussion also led to a sense of wonderment about the ability of cells to follow such complex paths of development, starting with the organism created when sperm and egg combine. The product and the process can easily be dismissed as a simple mass of cells, or one can recall Psalm 139:14, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” In this episode, we discussed how it seems viscerally sad that the amazement, which is itself so full of potential, can be lost in everyday discussions of human life. Related to this, Dr. Condic pointed out that there is an unfortunate lack of philosophical education among many scientists. Here is a blog post from Scientific American discussing synergies between science and philosophy—synergies which are at the core of this podcast’s mission. We discussed the relevance of the philosophical concepts of form and substance. Here’s a web page explaining those concepts. This book, written by Dr. Condic and her brother sounds like it is a rare and valuable synthesis of philosophical and biological insights about life: Human Embryos, Human Beings. She noted in our episode that such an extended, on-point synthesis is rare for various reasons, including the need to clarify vocabulary used on both sides of the dialogue, avoiding the risk that we will talk past each other. She has written another book, this one examining the biological and philosophical issues around human twinning, Untangling Twinning. It is scheduled for publication in the summer of 2019. For now, a computer search using this title yielded, as one of the first finds, a copy of a news release written by TSSM podcast co-host Bill Schmitt and posted at classicaltheism.com. The conversation involving Dr. Condic, Dr. Giesting and Schmitt turned to the complexities of the nation’s debate about abortion. That debate engages a mix of biological facts (which may or may not be probed in the full context of updated knowledge), personal experiences, and deeply held principles, positions, and emotions including authentic sympathy for the circumstances in which pregnant women find themselves. Although providing scientific insights is a crucial advancement of the debate because people deserve to have comprehensive information, the laying out of certain biological facts alone will not necessarily change minds, Condic said. In many cases, much of the public presentation of the abortion controversy dividing people is manufactured, but there is room for honest discussion on particular grounds. We each can play a part in adding to human understandings in this controversy. People evolve their judgments on the wide scope of the debate incrementally over time. But the search for a full overview is complicated; indeed, Dr. Condic referred to difficulties she and her brother Samuel Condic encountered (different vocabularies, etc.) in compiling their book Human Embryos, Human Beings. The book aims to bring together philosophical and biological insights about human life at its beginning. In short, the abortion debate requires us to spend more time in listening to each other, asking questions, probing the basis of people’s stances, and less time in simply lecturing, she said. Paul talked about his experience with identical twins in his family. Twinning is a complex arena for understanding “who you are,” raising core questions with biological and philosophical implications. Our discussion around the microphone extended to research on the topics of compaction and chimeras. Condic has written a book that delves into the complexities. Untangling Twinning is scheduled for publication this summer. There are also biological phenomena complicating an understanding of our human nature in sexual terms. There can be complex factors differentiating between one’s genetic sex and one’s hormonal sex, Condic said. A very small segment of the population has genetically compound sexual identities. Intersex disorders can occur in a variety of ways, although in the vast majority of cases questions of a person’s gender identity are not grounded in physical causes, Condic said. Studies in some areas raise questions within the LGBTQ community itself. Among many, endeavors focusing on a “gay gene” that would undergird a statement that “I was born this way” have been diminished by a view that gender identity is fluid or is driven by non-genetic factors.
Kyel and Matt get the opportunity to sit down and chat with a real life scientist, Dr. Dani Seckfort, and discuss the congruencies between faith and scientist. If you think the two cannot coexist, this episode is for you! Check out Dr. Dani's website www.catechistscientist.com Look for her on Twitter at @istsquared Subscribe to her youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS-Fq4hdELM2q2MIylKo4LQ Dr. Dani Seckfort – PhD in “Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics” CRISPR - gene and DNA editing. Here is the link to the Radiolab episode Matt references on the CRISPR: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/antibodies-part-1-crispr Link to a video on the “Society of Catholic Scientists” website on the topic of the CRISPR https://www.catholicscientists.org/idea/crispr-genetic-engineering-science-its-implications Matt thinks Nacho and Esquelito perfectly represent the stereotypical stance of faith versus science, and science versus faith. Nacho Libre: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457510/ Kyel refers to a period of cooling referred to as the “Little Ice Age”: https://www.britannica.com/science/Little-Ice-Age www.laymentalitypodcast.com
Steve Barr is professor of physics and director of the Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware. He is the president of the Society of Catholic Scientists and author of bestselling books on science and religion such as Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (Notre Dame) and The Believing Scientist (Eerdmans). Special Guest: Steve Barr.
This talk was given as part of the Thomistic Institute Conference "Thomas Aquinas on Creation and Nature" held at the Angelicum in Rome on 3-5 October 2019. Prof. Karin Ingegerd Öberg is a Swedish astrochemist. She is a Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and leader of the Öberg Astrochemistry Group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Öberg serves on the board of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Fr. Thomas Davenport, is a Dominican friar from the U.S. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.Areas of Expertise: Theoretical Particle Physics (Particle Colliders) Philosophy of Science/ Philosophy of Nature The relationship between Faith and Science.
Today's episode is a rundown of the Indianapolis Gold Mass, followed by a short selection of readings from Scripture and a bit about Albert the Great specifically, with a scrap of meditation on the vocation of a scientist. Gold Masses for those in the natural sciences were celebrated in a dozen cities on Nov. 15, the feast day of St. Albert the Great, who is the patron saint of natural scientists. One of those Masses, as described by TSSM co-host Dr. Paul Giesting, took place in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. The Society of Catholic Scientists is the pre-eminent sponsor/supporter of these Gold Masses as part of an initiative established relatively recently. The Society’s website contains a page where the most comprehensive listing of planned Gold Masses is compiled. What is a Gold Mass? The SCS provides this information. Here are details of the life of St. Albert the Great. The Criterion, newspaper of the Indianapolis Archdiocese, is expected to publish an article about the Nov. 15 Gold Mass in early December.
Dr. Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Science and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. He is also the vice president and a co-founder of the Society of Catholic Scientists. In this “part 5” of our interview, Dr. Lunine notes that planetary science was not always a distinct field. It drew upon components of astronomy or the geological study of the moon, for example. Astrobiology, with a goal of studying microbial life forms that may be found on exoplanets, is now at the point of relative infancy where planetary science stood about 50 years ago. Enceladus, one of the dozens of moons orbiting Saturn, is one site worth inspecting in the search for life. It could be based on carbon-bearing molecules different from those found in Earth life. The Cassini mission reported on plumes of water vapor and ice emanating from that moon. Dr. Lunine was part of a group proposing a mission called Enceladus Life Finder. Saturn’s moon Titan has seas filled with liquid methane. Could there be a form of biochemistry that works in liquid methane? It’s worth looking for, Dr. Lunine said. The Society of Catholic Scientists, with more than 1,000 members, is expanding its activities. The international group’s next annual meeting will consider the possibility of extraterrestrial life and the implications of such discoveries relevant to faith. The conference will be held in June 2020 at Providence College. Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay
In Episode 1.2, Margaret wraps up the question “How Do We Know God Exists?” with Dr. Stephen Barr, a theoretical particle physicist (no joke!). REMINDER: No episode next week because new interviews and a new question are in the works, so come back November 6th. Check out Dr. Barr's website Society of Catholic Scientists here: https://www.catholicscientists.org/. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tycpodcast/support
In this week's episode, we discuss the possibility of extraterrestrial life in our own solar system. Dr. Lunine talked about extraterrestrial life. It’s very possible that at least microbial life exists on other planets, he said, but the chances of complex, multicellular life are much more difficult to estimate. We simply don't know what the possibilities are for life beyond the chemistry that it uses here on Earth. A potential tragedy that we would want to avoid at almost any cost would be the introduction of terrestrial microbes into a viable environment elsewhere, where they could become invasive species, grow and potentially outcompete the native life, which we would never get the chance to study and understand. NASA and other space agencies have policies in place to address this risk... hopefully, they will work. Dr. Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Science and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. He is also the vice president and a co-founder of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Christianity and Extraterrestrials?: A Catholic Perspective , by Marie George, is a book worth reading, Dr. Lunine said. He thanked all those who spoke at the 2019 conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists, and he commented on the high quality of the event. The website provides links to several TSSM episodes interviewing conference speakers. Watch videos of speakers here. Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay
Dr. Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Science and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. He is also the vice president and a co-founder of the Society of Catholic Scientists. In this “part 3” of our interview, Dr. Lunine talked about exoplanets. The discovery of planets outside our Solar System has revolutionized planetary science. The Kepler space telescope mission, with its nine-year voyage which ended last year, made possible the detection of thousands of planets. It’s now understood, Lunine said, that planet formation is a common part of star formation. Lunine noted that Cornell University, where he is on the faculty, has many new avenues of astrophysics and planetary science research. The Carl Sagan Institute hosts a multidisciplinary team studying exoplanets. Half of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics went to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery of the first exoplanet around an ordinary star. Image by ChadoNihi from Pixabay
Dr. Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Science and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. He is also the vice president and a co-founder of the Society of Catholic Scientists. In this “part 2” of our interview, Dr. Lunine cited the book Secularity and Science by Elaine Ecklund (mentioned and linked in episode 79) and co-authors. The perceived conflict between faith and science is largely a Western phenomenon, according to Ecklund’s research, and it’s especially visible in the United States. Elsewhere, cultural education more fully incorporates an education about religion, so these people are more comfortable with the integration of the two. He said Catholic news services and The Christian Science Monitor are among the organizations where journalists are more likely interested in the combination of topics in science and religion.
Dr. Jonathan Lunine is the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Science and chair of the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University. He is also the vice president and a co-founder of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Here is information about the Vatican Observatory. It was one of the starting points for Lunine’s exploration of the compatibility between science and the Catholic faith. He met Stephen Barr in 2014, and this led to their discussions about establishing the Society of Catholic Scientists. Here is a talk given by Barr at the University of Chicago. Here is a talk by Lunine about Georges Lemaitre, a Catholic priest recognized as an originator of the Big Bang theory. In our conversation, Lunine described a presentation on Lemaitre that he gave at Cornell as a kind of “coming-out party” for him as a Catholic convert with his own story to tell. He has addressed Catholic students with the advice to share one’s faith story but to be judicious, following the practice of St. Paul, who adapted his messages to his audiences. A recommendation for discussions of faith: “There’s a time and a place for everything.” Lunine mentioned Elaine Ecklund, who has studied what scientists think about the American culture’s understanding that science and religion are incompatible. Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, who has said belief in God is incompatible with science, is an example of the resistance to faith that many scientists encounter in academia, Lunine said. Our culture gives much credibility to scientists, who owe it to their audiences to be clear about when they are speaking as individuals rather than scholarly experts. Lunine also mentioned the Thomistic Institute, which has a chapter on the Cornell campus founded by a graduate student. Part of the difficulty in the dialogue between science and religion is a popular but erroneous view that the Bible was intended to be a book of science. Here is a discussion of St. Augustine’s examination of this claim. Another challenge, Lunine said, is that our children generally grow up without a substantive education in religion.
This is the second half of TSSM’s interview with Megan Levis. We talked at greater length about this graduate student’s research and its good fit with values-informed thought, with the Society of Catholic Scientists, and even literature. The Society held its third annual conference at the University of Notre Dame a few months ago. In Megan’s presentation to the scientists at the SCS annual conference, she posed the question: How do you distinguish and exercise ethical responsibilities when something like brain organoids are “made in the image and likeness of man rather than the image and likeness of God.” Organoids are multicellular systems built from brain tissue. Are they just cell cultures or something so akin to the human being—particularly when they are brain organoids—that ethical duties arise out of respect for human dignity? This is a relatively new field where the scientific understanding and moral consideration still must develop in tandem, she explained. A New York Times article touched on some of the questions being raised. Megan’s own main research project as part of her graduate studies at Notre Dame deals with microfluidics. They are devices, a kind of miniature bio-reactor, in which researchers can grow cells and small organs. Her goal is to make it easier and less expensive to make microfluidics that can be used in future research. Here are resources on microfluidics from the journal Nature. Her collaborations in this area came about from her meeting with a leader in microfluidics technology, Dr. Fernando Ontiveros, while they were both attending a previous SCS conference. His team is exploring new applications for microfluidics, such as the growing of organoids. At what point should moral concerns tied to the dignity of the human person “kick in” when dealing with the brain and brain organoids? Where do you as a person reside in the body? The existence of a capacity for rational thought is a conventional scientific benchmark for the existence of personhood, Megan said. There are many theories of the complex brain-mind-body connection with personhood. The human person is a complex creature, not reducible to the brain or body alone. Here’s an exploration of some insights from National Geographic. There is a real role for literature in helping us to explore the many questions that combine operational questions of engineering and more abstract, integrated thinking about persons, Megan says. She recommends renowned author Walker Percy, who explored such subjects in Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. He comments that being a human is inevitably an uncomfortable process involving tensions within our nature. Our culture tends to look to science for answers to the big questions of human nature, but literature and art are pathways to answers too; literature allows us to think without predispositions and suppositions, to discover truths about ourselves and the world that transcend scientifically measurable parts. As Megan put it, the ability to wonder about the world is a gift that is transmitted sometimes through engineering and sometimes through literature and art. Megan has been able to work with Ontiveros while he has done research and prepared journal articles at Notre Dame. With the support of mentors and advisors, she has embraced opportunities at Notre Dame and elsewhere to spend time thinking about faith and science in relationship. She attended a conference with like-minded graduate students interested in these connections. She has appreciated the insights of SCS president Stephen Barr and microbiologist Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, OP, a speaker at this year’s SCS conference. Barr is the author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith. Austriaco has recorded a podcast available through the Thomistic Institute titled The Science and Practice of Christian Prayer. What does Megan recommend for graduate students and others who want to advance in their bioengineering studies while staying informed and mindful about the faith-related aspects? She highlights the power of community, building friendships and conversations over time with a diverse range of people on similar journeys, including philosophy and science. One can attend relevant lectures and conferences, such as those sponsored by Notre Dame’s De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. She recommends the resources of the Collegium Institute. Building and updating such mindfulness is a long-term process requiring persistence, she adds.
Megan Levis is a fifth-year graduate student in bioengineering at the University of Notre Dame. The topic of her talk at the annual conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists was “Created in the Image and Likeness of Man.” She described the University’s bioengineering program. Growing what can be deemed the beginnings of a human brain, for purposes of research, invites important ethical considerations. Levis has found resources at and through Notre Dame for deeper study of the responsibilities entailed in such research. She has worked with the John J. Reilly Center on science, technology and values. She has also been part of the Leadership Advancing Socially Engaged Research (LASER) program within the Graduate School. Levis participated in an NSFsupported workshop on engineering design principles of multicellular living systems. Such workshops reflect a growing nationwide interest in the ethical and societal ramifications of rapidly developing technology related to systems of living things. The interest is prompting collaboration among philosophers, scientists, ethicists and engineers. It’s a false dichotomy to separate faith and engineering. Levis said her advisor [Jeremiah Zartman] has been supportive of integrating values-related concerns, and that integration has made her research better. Now that there is an increased focus in bioengineering on the transfer, or translation, of knowledge from the lab bench to hospitals and clinical practice, the assessment of ethical implications is even more important. Organoids are systems built from human cells that begin to look like an organ. In this new field, it’s important to create room for philosophical understanding, but right now the field is dominated by engineers and scientists largely using terms that sound like clunky jargon. Philosophy tells us we need to define our terms better, Levis said. We need better ways to describe what’s going on in accessible ways that allow for ethical thinking. Engineers tend to look at every component in its specifics, but there is value in seeing how one thing is similar to something else so both may come under similar ethical principles.
Karin Öberg is Professor of Astronomy and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University. Planetary formation—or stars and stellar evolution—is a focus of her research. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists. See her CV here. Öberg spoke of her first academic route to astronomy being via chemistry rather than physics. She discovered the field of astrochemistry while an undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology. She earned her PhD in astrophysics at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in 2012. One year, later, she received an assistant professorship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which is located at Harvard. Öberg was baptized as a Christian in her youth but then drew away from the faith. She said she never adopted an atheistic, materialistic perspective largely because of two key principles she holds to: moral realism and one’s personal agency as an individual making free decisions. During her college years, Christianity remained a living question for her partly because of the friends with whom she associated. Books influenced her deeply: Lord of the Rings, The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition of Man, Mere Christianity, and Orthodoxy. This combination brought her back to Christianity, first in the Anglican Church. After joining the faculty at Harvard, she completed a two-year RCIA program at St Paul’s Parish in Harvard Square to join the Catholic Church. One concern she felt in her new Catholic experiences, she said, was that the statements in the Mass did not always seem to line up with personal beliefs articulated by individuals. Öberg said she has not personally experienced any bias against her Catholicism at Harvard, and indeed she has felt welcomed in the astronomy community and among other colleagues. She helps to mentor some Catholic and Christian students. Some Catholic colleagues have experienced prejudice, in the biology department, for example. She said one factor is that her research does not touch on any controversial subjects. But she wants to let students know they should not be anxious about living out their Catholic faith because of fear of prejudiced encounters. Overall, being open about one’s faith has a net positive effect on oneself and others, despite occasional crosses one might have to bear.
In this episode we have Jonathan Lunine on the podcast, this time talking to him about his own spiritual journey from Judaism to Catholic Christianity, and from the secular surface of life as a scientist to a deeper life where the beauty of science is one prominent part of a larger whole of human experience. We also get the chance to discuss some of his work in studying the planets during the era when they changed from objects seen through a telescope to worlds we can map and even sample and bring back to our laboratories. Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist at Cornell University, is a member of the board of the Society of Catholic Scientists. He spoke of the influence of reading Carl Sagan’s The Cosmic Connection and receiving Sagan’s advice for pursuing a career in astronomy. Dr. Lunine has been on the scientific teams leading several missions of space exploration, including Cassini and, now, the James Webb Space Telescope. He described his early spiritual journey, seeing how science and religion could be intertwined. The journey took him from Jewish family roots to a Methodist church and then to Catholicism. He spoke of being impressed by the connection between the Catholic faith and its Jewish roots. Astronomers have been excited to learn of the abundance of planets to be found in our galaxy. As Dr. Lunine pointed out, thanks to initiatives like the New Horizons spacecraft, we have turned our “cosmic backyard” into a place where we can study an enormous variety of geology “and even, potentially, biology.” He expressed gratitude for astronomers and others who became role models embracing the compatibility between science and faith. A key figure, about whom he has made presentations, is the Belgian priest Georges LeMaitre, known as the father of the big bang theory. This was one of our most enjoyable conversations, and we definitely hope to have Dr. Lunine back on the podcast again.
Dr. Benjamin Rybicki, a member of the Society of Catholic Scientists, is Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Public Health Services at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He received his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. His research focuses on the epidemiology, demographics and genetics of sarcoidosis, Parkinson’s disease, and prostate cancer. There is a strong humanistic theme in biology, and it does entail a deep concern about human beings, but Dr. Rybicki said his experience suggests the humanistic impulse is separated from religious faith in many cases. His particular interest in epidemiology grew partly from an interest in the application of statistics to medicine. At the Henry Ford Hospital, there is a large population of African American patients, among whom there is a heightened risk from prostate cancer and sarcoidosis. Berylliosis, which occurs more rarely from beryllium exposure, has a similar genetic susceptibility pattern to sarcoidosis. background can increase the risk of, and the behavior of, certain diseases as experienced by people, although it’s not directly related to race. African Americans tend to have a different inflammatory response to pathogens than people of European descent. Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disorder, most commonly in the lungs. It varies in how it progresses and presents itself. The treatment of choice is steroids, and they also have particularly important side effects. One’s Catholic faith is an important element in the practice of medicine. An understanding of the human person made in the image of God will influence one’s decisions, including the choice of treatments and the balance of risks and benefits, Dr. Rybicki said. This shows itself, for example, in considering quantity and quality of life and what medicine can provide. We must be mindful of how we’re respecting the dignity of the human person through medical interventions. We must think about how to improve the human condition without getting carried away with ideas of manipulating other factors—extending to intelligence and physical prowess. “I can definitely see that coming down the pike.” Doctors may enhance aspects of life that have nothing to do with the disease condition they’re treating. For example, choosing to change a gene might lower your heart disease but also increase your risk of cancer. We have to be careful. Consider where are we going in the direction of creating a highly medicated society, treating everything with drugs without considering alternatives such as behavioral changes. Tinkering with the human body can have unintended effects. Dr. Rybicki shares this insight with young Catholic doctors: Make your Catholic faith a strong part, a driving force, in the work you do. (Editor’s note: By the way, listeners may be interested in the mission of the Catholic Medical Association.) Dr. Rybicki devoted part of his talk to Jerome Lejeune, a pioneer in genetics and in the understanding of Down Syndrome who took his Catholic faith very seriously. Now declared a Servant of God on the pathway toward possible canonized sainthood, Lejeune made sacrifices in his medical career as he maintained his principles about the dignity of every human life while medical science took a different course regarding Down Syndrome. The 2019 Society of Catholic Scientists conference was very well done, Dr. Rybicki said. He said he enjoys learning about subjects with which he is not familiar, and conference attendees seemed to share that experience. Videos from the conference are available on You Tube.
Sonsoles de Lacalle, a physician and neuroscientist, has recently taken the position of professor and Chair, Health Science, at California State University Channel Islands. She previously served as associate professor of biomedical sciences at Ohio University and Director of the Office of Advanced Studies in Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. De Lacalle, a member of the Society of Catholic Scientists, holds both an MD and a PhD from the University of Navarre in Spain. Her research focuses on the field of aging and dementia and the effects of estrogen on brain cells. She sees her pursuit of positions in research and administrative support of research advancement as an extension of her Catholic faith. She sees herself as a “builder” of support systems bearing fruits of well-being for all through the advancement of important research. De Lacalle cites the Opus Dei message of building one’s relationship with the Lord and extending Christian values and virtues through one’s everyday professional work. She said there are signs in the world’s current culture of a strong, concerted attack against the idea of God and against the idea that we are the mere creatures of a supernatural Creator. Amid the challenges facing believers today, we can draw hope from confidence in the truth and victorious love of the Kingdom of God—we know how the story ends. Through her connection to the study of osteopathic medicine at Ohio State, she saw the value of that field’s commitment to care for the entire person and to respect each person’s inherent dignity. Another positive sign she has seen is a trend which may be beginning with New York University’s plan to offer free tuition to its students preparing to be doctors. It is hoped that leaving graduates unencumbered by debts could make them better able to enter certain fields of care where additional medical personnel are especially needed but remuneration is relatively low. Among the current research in which de Lacalle wants to spread the word about crucial impacts for human well-being is the study of human physical activity and exercise—their high correlation with brain health through the production of lactic acid, which supports the brain’s executive functions in neurons.
In today's episode we sit down with Fr. Nicanor Austriaco, a Dominican friar, biologist, and bioethicist on the faculty at Providence College. Similarly to our interview with Fr. Lawrence Machia, we discuss the way in which science and a vocation to both the priesthood and life in a specific religious order intertwined in his life, with the additional perspective that his Filipino heritage contributes to his understanding of his vocation and the culture here in America. Rev. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., is a Dominican priest and molecular biologist, on the faculty of Providence College. See his page on the college’s website. Cells carry a genetic program for self-death for the good of the organism. Cancer cells do not exercise this self-death. Here is one explanation of that phenomenon. Fr. Austriaco belongs to the Eastern Province of the Dominican Order. An early introduction within that order entails learning to remain silent, to trust in the loving presence of God. We talked about the American cultural propensity for busy-ness as a key to one’s sense of success. How can we think about the intersection of biological science and moral theology? Fr. Austriaco said this. Biology can help you figure out what’s good for you and what’s not good for you. We are creatures shaped by God through an evolutionary process that took place over a long time frame. Our fulfillment includes trying to understand which of our instinctual desires are perfected and which ones still have to be mastered. That’s the gist of Catholic moral theology. God calls us to joy, and that includes our fulfillment as the biological creatures we are. We must figure out what pleasures achieve the fulfillment of our nature and lead to joy. Pleasure is a grace; it can be a very good thing so long as the pleasure is ordered to our true human nature, our integral human fulfillment, what Christ calls us to. Is there a sense in which the Catechism of the Catholic Church is like an “owner’s manual” for the human being in living out a human life? Fr. Austriaco explained that the Gospel is a love letter from God, inviting us into friendship. The Catechism shows us the expectations that come with accepting that friendship. It’s not about what we “have to do” but what we want to do because the friendship is offering the relationship with Christ that brings us fulfillment. An “owner’s manual” concept suggests rules to follow to avoid car malfunctions, but our pursuit is more of a proactive response to God’s invitation of love and happiness. A mechanistic approach like an “owner’s manual” still suggests “I’m in charge” as an individual with a checklist—a deeply American interpretation, as Fr. Austriaco pointed out. Shortly after speaking at the annual conference of the Society of Catholic Scientists, Fr. Austriaco also spoke at the Vita Institute, sponsored annually by the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame as an intensive overview of Catholic pro-life principles. You can see Fr. Austriaco’s talk to the Society’s 2019 conference on YouTube. You’ll also find there a video of Fr. Austriaco’s 2017 lecture, “Defending Adam after Darwin.” 16:00 dogs and chocolate; biology gives us a specific perspective on what is good and bad for us. 18:00 pleasure and its purpose as well as how it leads us astray 20:00 Bill and the "owner's manual" perspective 22:00 rules secondary to relationships
For background on Fr. Machia and Dr. Vanden Berk and this interview, see the show notes for Episode 68. In Episode 69, we mentioned approvingly one of the many books about Galileo, who was central to Fr. Machia’s talk at the conference. The book is Galileo’s Daughter. Contrary to a still-commonplace assumption in popular culture and the average person’s understanding of history, Galileo did not see his life as one centered on conflict with the Catholic Church. People’s instincts to see a huge conflict between science and religion in our own time deserve to be taken seriously. Co-host Paul points out that, even in his youth, he was interested in the polemic potential between his faith and his interest in geology. This was crystallized (no pun intended) by his reading of Great Geological Controversies, published in 1983 by Oxford University Press. It identified challenges—among scientists themselves—which were raised to previous understandings in geology. How can scientists of faith, such as the members of the Society of Catholic Scientists, play a role in addressing the conflict between science and religion as it exists today? They can act as witnesses to the compatibility of the two fields of knowledge in their own lives, said Dr. Vanden Berk. Fr. Machia pointed out that, as expressed by Saint John Paul II, one key to the compatibility is that one discipline does not pretend to do what the other does. Don’t read the Bible as a science text, he said, since science is not what the Bible is about; it spends a relatively tiny amount of time on subjects that might be construed to be science-focused. The two fields of knowledge have their own distinct competencies. Saint John Paul II wrote about the compatibility of science and religion. Here’s an essay by noted bioethicist Father Tad Pacholczyk on the subject, drawing from John Paul’s insights. As Fr. Machia points out with reference to the insights of Pope John Paul, one area of relationship between the disciplines of science and religion is the subject of ethics. After all, what’s the point of doing anything, like scientific research, if you’re not thinking about why you’re doing it? In the case of science, humans confront issues of power over creation—and how to exercise that power. That answer is informed by how we see our humanity, and that question was exactly the topic of the SCS conference at which we held this podcast discussion. Galileo himself wrote about the compatibility of these fields of knowledge in his letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine in 1615. Here’s an essay discussing that letter. Times continue from the Episode 68 listing. 28:00 Galileo's Daughter 30:00 Biblical minimalism 32:00 Geological arguments about the Flood 34:00 Conflict thesis persistence; Daniel another who never saw the conflict 36:00 Need to teach the contemporary theory, wherever our religious theories place us 37:00 Contributions of Catholic scientists to the future of science: need to respect the "volume argument" 38:00 Galileo on the Bible as not an astronomy textbook 40:00 Past, present and future of science 42:00 Wrapup
Father Lawrence Machia, OSB, is a Benedictine monk at St. Vincent College and Archabbey in Latrobe, PA. The public can view his 2019 Society of Catholic Scientists presentation on You Tube. Father Machia’s talk made reference to Galileo’s letter to Benedetto Castelli. Dr. Daniel Vanden Berk is an associate professor of physics at St. Vincent College. Fr. Machia and Dr. Vanden Berk, both very interested in astronomy, have worked together on designing planetarium shows on the St. Vincent campus. They have always seen the complementarity of science and religion, faith and reason, in contrast to many people’s rejection of religion based on supposed conflicts with scientific, rational, experiential learning. Dr. Vanden Berk was intrigued at an early age by the “Cosmos”- series presented on PBS by Carl Sagan, but the program posited a conflict between science and faith. Among Dr. Vanden Berk’s astronomical adventures: working on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. He has worked with the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, processing data captured by the Digital Sky Survey. Episode timeline: 3:00 Machia's time in college, science to theology 5:00 Machia's beginning to discern a religious vocation 8:00 St. Vincent College and the archabbey 10:00 Pre-novitiate and novitiate 12:00 Vows 15:00 Why TSSM, following on from Lawrence's plans to finish and continue his physics education 16:00 Begin vanden Berk 18:00 Sci-fi influences 20:00 He and his wife's discernment process 22:00 Daniel's early career, the early Hubble mission 24:00 Sky surveys 26:00 Texas sky survey
In this episode of I Thought You'd Like to Know, guest interviewer Dr. Stephen Barr, founder and president of the Society of Catholic Scientists (https://www.catholicscientists.org/) engages Dr. Tom Sheahen, executive director of the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (https://www.faithscience.org) on the subject of a recent presentation given at Notre Dame entitled "Everywhen: Examining Omnipresence on the Limited Human Perception of Space and Time" (July 12, 2019)
In this episode of I Thought You'd Like to Know, guest interviewer Dr. Stephen Barr, founder and president of the Society of Catholic Scientists (https://www.catholicscientists.org/) engages Dr. Tom Sheahen, executive director of the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (https://www.faithscience.org) on the subject of a recent presentation given at Notre Dame entitled "Everywhen: Examining Omnipresence on the Limited Human Perception of Space and Time" (July 12, 2019)
In this episode of I Thought You'd Like to Know, guest interviewer Dr. Stephen Barr, founder and president of the Society of Catholic Scientists (https://www.catholicscientists.org/) engages Dr. Tom Sheahen, executive director of the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (https://www.faithscience.org) on the subject of a recent presentation given at Notre Dame entitled "Everywhen: Examining Omnipresence on the Limited Human Perception of Space and Time" (July 12, 2019)
On today's show, we're going to talk about genetic engineering, pursuing truth in a post-Christian culture and the search for Adam. Our guest is Father Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., is Professor in the Department of Biology of Providence College. He received his Ph.D. in biology from MIT and does research in experimental molecular biology. He is a Dominican priest and holds a doctorate in theology from the Univ. of Fribourg in Switzerland. Among other distinctions he is an investigator in the NIH-Rhode Island Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Program. He is the author of Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics (CUA Press, 2011) and co-author of Thomistic Evolution: a Catholic approach to understanding evolution in the light of faith (Cluny Media, 2016). Fr. Nicanor is on the Board of the Society of Catholic Scientists. ------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud
University of Utah’s information page for Dr. Maureen Condic. She is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, with an adjunct appointment in Pediatrics. Her research focuses on the role of stem cells in development and regeneration. She has taught human embryology in the University’s Medical School for 20 years. See Dr. Condic’s biographical summary in the list of speakers at the Society of Catholic Scientists 2019 conference titled, “What Does It Mean to Be Human?” At the conference, this embryologist and specialist in developmental neurobiology delivered the St. Albert Award Lecture: “Human Beings are Defined by Organization.” Dr. Condic is the 2019 recipient of the St. Albert Award, named for Saint Albert the Great, the Catholic Church’s patron saint of natural scientists. The award is given annually to a Catholic scientist whose life and work give witness to the harmony that exists between the vocation of scientist and the life of faith. See more details about the award, including its previous recipients. Dr. Condic’s previous awards include the Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award, created in 1973 and presented by the March of Dimes to support a young scientist’s promising new research. The March of Dimes was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, initially to fight polio. Today, the foundation focuses on health problems in babies, especially premature birth, birth defects, and low birth weight. Find context for the program of research support here. Dr. Condic also has been the recipient of a Scholar Award for research from the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience. In 2018, she was appointed to the National Science Board. The NSB establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation and serves as advisor to Congress and the President. She is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is dedicated to promoting the Catholic Church’s consistent life ethic and supporting research in bioethics and moral theology. When confronted with alternative views and occasionally accused of being “brainwashed” with a pro-life stance, Dr. Condic says one must ask, what view actually makes more sense of the world? A quote from the episode: “What vision of the world actually accounts for most of the data? In my experience, it’s a Christian vision of the world, and particularly a Catholic vision of the world, that very much endorses precisely the kind of questioning mind that promotes scientific investigation….” Another key thought from the episode: The information generated in scientific disciplines is so huge, it forces many scientists to make their own fields of specialized inquiry “narrower and narrower.” Also, “they have no time” to give deep consideration to many big questions about life, the world, and the origin of the universe. “Particularly in biology, there’s such an intoxication with success.” Individuals who are indeed brilliant and making remarkable progress for people may become confident that they can answer all the important questions. Starting at about the 22-minute mark in this episode, Dr. Condic tells the story of an event that changed her life and produced her commitment to public advocacy and public education.“ She saw a need to combat ignorance or oversimplification about scientific advancements and to be “an advocate for patients and knowledge and factual information.” Dr. Condic also provides a valuable, clear update on parts of the debate about disease treatments using embryonic stem cells as opposed to adult stem cells, with research on the latter having resulted in a huge number of clinical trials and prospects for various treatments. A major new phase of the research has moved on to the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, which do not raise the same ethical issues as embryonic cells. In presenting the St. Albert Award during the Society of Catholic Scientists conference, president Stephen Barr, Ph.D., pointed out Dr. Condic’s “courageous public defense, on scientific and philosophical grounds, on the human status of human embryos.”
Pat is joined by two Catholic Scientists -- Dr. Michael Behe and Dr. Stacy Trascancos -- to discuss and debate the theory of intelligent design. In this conversation: What does Intelligent Design (ID) actually say about the theory of evolution? Is ID an argument from ignorance, or an inference to the best explanation? At what level is design obvious in nature? Is ID too narrow, or telling of something much greater? Can you settle the matter of design (or no design) apart from evolution? How do we best explain the irreducibly complex structures and genetic codes we've discovered in life? Can Neo-Darwinian processes account for this? What does "random" or "unguided" mean with respect to natural selection? Show Notes and Resources: ==> https://www.chroniclesofstrength.com/two-catholic-scientists-debate-intelligent-design/ Related Episodes https://www.chroniclesofstrength.com/ep-235-god-and-science-near-death-experiences-and-how-to-suffer-well/ https://www.chroniclesofstrength.com/sunday-school-the-believing-scientist-a-particle-physicist-talks-about-god/ https://www.chroniclesofstrength.com/michael-behe-on-irreducible-complexity-and-the-new-science-of-dna/ The Pat Flynn Show If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to me if you could subscribe to, and leave a review for, The Pat Flynn show on iTunes HERE or Stitcher HERE. Reading your reviews and hearing your feedback is what keeps me fired up to make The Pat Flynn Show happen. Thank you!
In this episode of Sunday School, Catholic apologist Pat Flynn is joined by two Catholic Scientists — Dr. Michael Behe and Dr. Stacy Trascancos — to discuss and debate the theory of intelligent design. In this conversation: What does Intelligent Design (ID) actually say about the theory of evolution? Is ID an argument from ignorance, or an inference to the best explanation? At what level is design obvious in nature? Is ID too narrow, or telling of something much greater? Can you settle the matter of design (or no design) apart from evolution?How do we best explain the complex structures and genetic codes we’ve discovered in life? Can Neo-Darwinian processes account for this? What does “random” or “unguided” mean with respect to natural selection? Can “brute forces and matter” account for the structures and complexity we see in nature?
Welcome to Church Life Today, a production of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. I'm your host, Leonard DeLorenzo. Do you want to know when human life begins? And how to explain that to other people? That's what I'm going to ask our guest today, Dr. Maureen Condic, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah Medical School. In 2015, Dr. Condic was appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a distinguished group of physicians, scientists, and theologians from the international community whose mission it is to study questions and issues regarding the promotion and defense of human life from an interdisciplinary perspective. Three years later, in 2018, Dr. Condic received a Presidential appointment to the National Board of Science, the oversight body for the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on the development and regeneration of the nervous system, spinal cord repair and regeneration, and embryonic development, while she cultivates a strong commitment to public education and science literacy. In June 2019, she delivered the St. Albert Award Lecture at the annual convention of the Society of Catholic Scientists. ------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud
We had more insane audio problems on this episode; Paul's audio from Zencastr was unusable. I had to record a new introduction and first question, then splice in our backup recording from Zoom. Jonathan Lunine is a prominent planetary scientist. He teaches at Cornell and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences; he has won a Urey award and holds a number of other academic distinctions. He worked with the radar and other instruments on the Cassini mission to Saturn and is co-investigator on the Juno mission now in orbit at Jupiter as well as on the MISE instrument for the Europa Clipper mission. He is on the science team for the James Webb Space Telescope, focusing on characterization of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt objects. I opened the interview by asking his side of the story of the beginning of the Society of Catholic Scientists. We discuss its growth so far and how it is reaching the point where hopefully more members will become involved in planning and carrying out activities. We discussed the overall trajectory of conference themes so far. (Remember, kids, two points may suffice to draw a straight line, but not to define a trend!) The first SCS conference topic was Origins (mostly of the physical universe). The second focused on the Human Mind and Physicalism. This third one zooms out somewhat again and covers humanity more broadly, and touches on two hot-button points: - If we have all these distinctively human features (consciousness, free will, etc.), is there any way of knowing when in absolute, archeological/geological time those came into existence? - Given all our biological and electronic capabilities, we can change our own bodies and brains in radical ways, and these capabilities are only going to grow. Where should we stop? What channels should these abilities be directed into, and where do the dikes belong? Jonathan hopes that the diversity of speakers, not just from different sciences but across the science-facing pieces of the humanities, will become a hallmark of the SCS conferences: a place where badly needed interdisciplinary conversations are fostered. We discuss the difficulties inherent in our siloing, not just of academic disciplines, but of journalism, too. Once again, SCS conference will happen June 7-9 at the University of Notre Dame. We will be providing bonus episodes during the conference as we discuss the topics and speakers with conference attendees, and will have breakdowns of the conference and speaker interviews rolling out over the ensuing weeks. Also be sure to check the SCS website for videos of the actual talks!
Today we continue our conversation with Stephen Barr about this year’s Society of Catholic Scientists conference, which will feature great speakers discussing the nature of humanity and its bounds in terms of time and technology. You can see a full list of speakers here and the program for the conference here.
We welcome Stephen Barr back to the show. We are humbled and delighted to be your podcast hosts for the Society of Catholic Scientists Conference 2019 and hopefully beyond. In that context, today we interview Dr. Barr about his experience as a writer and speaker on the relationship between Catholic faith and science that led up to an eventful conversation between himself and Jonathan Lunine. He discusses the formation of the Society of Catholic Scientists in 2016 and the conferences they immediately began holding in 2017. Credit should be given to First Things for giving him a platform to become known to the wider community, and the Lumen Christi Institute for being instrumental in putting together the logistics for the first SCS conference in Chicago. If you are a Catholic scientist, whether a student or a graduate, there is still time to register for the Society and the conference coming up June 7-9 at Notre Dame. The deadline for registration is May 15.
This talk was offered at UC Berkeley on April 8th, 2019. For more information on upcoming TI events, visit: https://thomisticinstitute.org/events/the-search-for-life-beyond-earth Speak Bio: Jonathan I. Lunine is The David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, His research focuses on astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. In addition to his responsibilities in the classroom, he serves as Interdisciplinary Scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project and is a coinvestigator on the Juno mission currently in orbit around Jupiter. Lunine is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the 2014 recipient of the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal of the European Geosciences Union. He is the author of Astrobiology: A Multidisciplinary Approach and Earth: Evolution of a Habitable World. Lunine obtained a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Rochester (1980), an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1985) in planetary science from the California Institute of Technology. He lives in Ithaca New York, where he is a member of St. Catherine of Siena parish. In 2016 Lunine helped to found the Society of Catholic Scientists and currently serves as its vice president.
Apologies for the sound quality today; Zencastr wasn’t working, so we recorded on Zoom, and even then there were problems with the audio especially in the latter half of the podcast. The question we take up at the beginning of the Easter season is this: Why has Western society gone to such pains to throw away the best thing going, intellectually and otherwise? In his ongoing podcast research, Paul has come across the Pat Flynn Show, and listened to some really good interviews with Fr. Robert Spitzer (a TSSM interviewee) and Ed Feser (whose talk at the 2018 Society of Catholic Scientists conference was the topic of one of our most popular episodes). Bob Spitzer’s interviews in particular were some of the most inspiring things I’ve encountered recently and really led me to propose this series of conversations with Bill about how Catholic Christianity is the best way of looking at the world. Of course, Western society has drifted hard away from its roots in classical Greek and Jewish/Christian heritage. Ireland is the most recent example of a society, one of the last to retain a semi-traditional cozy relationship between the Church and the state, now deciding to punish the Church for the crimes of the hypocritical members of its clergy by trying to erase its very history. Progressivism in general replaces traditional dogmas with dogmas-of-the-day, and the record up to this point has been pretty dismal. We spend some time discussing the roots of what the contemporary West seems to consider its greatest achievement, modern science, in the critical tradition of Scholasticism (knowledge of which was practically the first thing to go after the Reformation began the process of intellectually punishing the Church). We would do better to have a broader memory of the Scholastic tradition even among us Catholics...to recall that it was a movement in which Thomas Aquinas was embedded, rather than remembering only him. In our time as well we don’t need single hero figures, we need a community. The scientific community knows this very well. We go on to consider what this fraught term “dogma” really means. The Christian dogmas are really testimony, and they can’t change without repudiating the unrepeatable testimony of the events of salvation history. This is the context of the warnings at the end of the Apocalypse of John, “cursed be he who adds or takes away from the words of this book.” As Chesterton and many others have pointed out, these dogmas are not a straightjacket but a foundation and structural members that allow us to build both intellectual structures and actual human lives that don’t sink into the morass of changing human inventions. Admittedly there are many Christians, Catholics included, who seem to take comfort in the false idea that the Bible, or Tradition, provides us all the answers we could possibly want to know and there is no need or use in further growth. That is not the teaching of Jesus when he commented that the Spirit would [future] lead us to all truth. The high Middle Ages confronted the question of harmonizing Aristotle with Jesus Christ. This was both a creative and a logical process that led to great works of criticism and synthesis… excellent practice for the scientific process as we now know it. A reminder that the Society of Catholic Scientists Conference is approaching June 7-9. Registration is open through May 15.
Today I sit down with theoretical particle physicist, Stephen Barr to discuss God, the Big Bang, and the Multiverse. Enjoy the show? Please consider supporting Pints With Aquinas here. Check out the Society of Catholic Scientists here. Get Dr. Barr's book, Modern Physics and Ancient Faith here. Learn more at Pints With Aquinas here.
~0:00 Question: advice for students1:00 Don't be afraid to be a religious scientist2:00 Particular issues3:00 Keep awake to the wonder of the world4:00 Bill: ignorance of the common man about both science and religion5:00 Modern Physics and Ancient Faith6:00 Christopher Baglow: science and faith textbook7:00 Church beginning (at long last?) to address the need to catechize & educate about this Phone ringing can't be excised without gutting Bill's question!8:00 Media's portrayal of religion as boring and science as exciting9:00 Science explores the world as it is, but there must be issues beyond: "why" issues10:00 Intellectual freedom necessary for science to make any sense11:00 No reason for Catholics to fear science uncovering fatal problems for faith12:00 20th century overturn of 19th century mechanistic, unfree universe13:00 Advent of the big bang theory, verification through microwave radiation14:00 Bill: "free will on steroids" in uneasy coexistence with materialism15:00 Barr: inherent conflict there16:00 Pernicious recurring feature of intellectual history: excuses not to be free17:00 Bill: does faith make one a better scientist?18:00 Wonder: "ears to hear and eyes to see"19:00 Summation: join Society of Catholic Scientists!20:00 Sign off
Minute Comment 0:00 Paul introduces 1:00 Bill: Lemaitre announcement 2:00 Lemaitre: faith & science not opposed 3:00 Barr: Lemaitre announcement 4:00 Ignorance of Lemaitre 5:00 Ignorance of the Christian, Catholic origin of science & famous Catholic scientists 6:00 Barr: late 19th century critical period for the forging of the myth of Church as anti-science 7:00 Science only professionalized in the late 19th century, looking for influence 8:00 More famous Catholic scientists 9:00 Mission of the Society of Catholic Scientists; religious people looking askance at scientists, 10:00 Scientists timid about showing their faith in the presence of a few loud atheists 11:00 Catholic scientists joining SCS & finding others like themselves 12:00 Witness to the world 13:00 Conferences, past and future: next June at Notre Dame 14:00 2017: origin of universe, life; 2018: mind and matter 15:00 2019 conference: what is it (and has it been) to be human; speakers from outside the faith 16:00 Past non-Catholic conference speakers 17:00 Peter Koellner's talk at 2018 conference 18:00 Koellner and Godel's theorem 19:00 Neaderthals, language, reason 20:00 Godel's beliefs about mind and mathematical truths 21:00 Mathematical truth and religious truth 22:00 Depth & sophistication of the law that governs the universe
A lot of people think the Church is ascientific—but it’s actually quite the opposite. Tune in to this episode to hear all the scientific achievements and contributions The Catholic Church has made to science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode we discuss the life and times of one Blessed Niels Stensen (Latinized as Nicolaus Steno), a Dane who laid down the basic principles that undergird the whole science of geology, from paleontology to stratigraphy to mineralogy and crystallography. Our discussion in the podcast is indebted to The Seashell on the Mountaintop by Alan Cutler. To better understand the impact of Steno's times on his thought and vice versa, we have to discuss extensively the intellectual world of the seventeenth century. If the thirteenth century saw a grand synthesis of Christian teachings with the best that ancient Greek philosophy had to offer, the seventeeth century was a time of vicious bickering over the Bible and between people just beginning the arduous task of observing the natural world and coming up with theories to interpret how it worked that were actually consistent with the observations. It was a time where we see the very beginnings of ideas that now are bedrock (pardon the pun) parts of our understanding of the world adrift in a sea of other ideas that now sound outright insane. Steno bequeathed several principles of interpretation. Three (or so...depending on how one names and numbers them) have to do with rocks and fossils (at that time, "fossil" could mean almost any notable object embedded in a rock, whether the remnant of a living thing or a crystal or what we would now call a sedimentary structure, such as a raindrop cast or a ripple mark) and the order in which they formed; the fourth has to do with crystals, and allows one to distinguish crystals of different minerals. They are the laws of superposition, inclusion and/or cross-cutting relationships, original horizontality, and constant interfacial angles. If you're interested in hearing another take on this brilliant and enigmatic man, you can now watch Andrew Sicree's talk from the Society of Catholic Scientists conference (discussed in last month's episode).
Today was just one of those days where I needed a script to get through a three minute intro. I summarize the interview afterward. Paul: "Welcome to Episode 20 of That's So Second Millennium."I'm Paul Giesting, a geologist, researcher, consultant, writer, and your co-host on this journey through the beautiful frontier country between science, philosophy, and religion as they stand here at the beginning of the third millennium. My opposite number is Bill Schmitt, a journalist, radio personality, and dab hand with the accordion."This week Bill managed to snag an interview with Father Robert Spitzer, who runs the Magis Center out on the West Coast and is the host of Father Spitzer's Universe on EWTN. He's published a number of books, which tend to have provocative titles; the one that I've read is called New Proofs for the Existence of God. That's an exciting read for anyone interested in the subject matter of this podcast, and travels through scientific and philsophical and mathematical arguments like the debate over fine tuning--whether Someone had to deliberately create the universe as it is, given how tightly constrained many physical constants seem to have had to be in order for any of the complex structures of atoms, planets, and stars to form and allow the appearance of life--and the question of whether it really makes any sense to speak of a "reverse infinity" and a universe that has always existed. Indian thinkers, Plato and Aristotle, and even Thomas Aquinas either thought that the universe has always existed or at the very least that there is no logical contradiction in saying that it could have always existed in time, even while Aristotle and Thomas asserted that the universe could not have an infinite chain of causes and needed a Prime Mover. Spitzer, in New Proofs, brings forward arguments from the philosophy of mathematics that perhaps this idea of a reverse infinity is not really logically coherent at all...a topic for one or more future podcasts."For today, Bill talked to Father Spitzer about the state of culture and the demographics of young people leaving the practice and even the identification of faith and citing as one reason the perceived contradiction between science and faith, initiatives to fight that, and the real absurdity of this perceived contradiction. With that I'll let Bill take it away." Bill: Introduces our podcast and the motivations: value to filling holes in the culture, addressing the young.Spitzer: Most recent Pew survey in 2016 comments on the high fraction of young people not just leaving the Church for a while, not just leaving a Church, but leaving faith altogether and becoming agnostic or atheistic. 49% of those leaving cite the perceived contradiction between science and religion as a key reason.Bill: Proposes two reasons why that might be: was this gap "percolating" for a long time and just not being addressed, or is there a recent development pushing this.Spitzer: It's both. The gap has been there for a long time [below the surface]. There are a lot of internet resources, social media outlets devoted to pushing an atheistic worldview. This feeds back into schools. Science teachers and professors that publicly espouse atheism meet audiences that are already primed that direction and certainly have no answers to contradict what they're being told.One of his initiatives is crediblecatholic.com, where there is a bundle of resource modules presenting core arguments for the consistency of the Catholic faith and science and even arguments that discoveries in science point toward faith, not unbelief, in a Creator as the more sensible interpretation of reality. Pushing to get this curriculum into every diocese and every confirmation class and Catholic school curriculum.Example topics: the Shroud of Turin, evidence for an intelligent Creator, near death experiences, evidence for a transphysical soul, 20th and 21st century accounts of miracles that have been thoroughly investigated with scientific methods.Bill: The New Atheism is almost built on being shallow, on an attitude of mockery rather than on a serious analysis of evidence. This approach is the opposite: really multi-faceted.Spitzer: Cardinal Newman talked about the "informal inference" to faith. It's not one argument; it's about twenty lines of reasoning. In our day we have if anything more of these, all the way from philosophical to scientific arguments to faith on the large scale to countless examples of miracles that have withstood thorough scrutiny by skeptical researchers. This is what the Credible Catholic approach is trying to convey.We've tested the curriculum on beta groups of students in Austin, New York, Los Angeles and gotten remarkably high marks from these groups (97% positive / very positive, rated anonymously).Bill: Pope Benedict foundation awards for "expanded reason" and the problems with positivism, scientism.Spitzer: The logical contradiction at the very foundation of Vienna Circle positivism: it makes the self-contradictory claim that "the only valid knowledge is scientifically verifiable knowledge"...good luck checking that statement by scientific methods. That's a school of thought from the turn of the 20th century; we in the Church have been wrestling with it for a long time.Reminiscence about a debate on Larry King Live with Stephen Hawking (et al.) and the claim that science had replaced philosophy...this is likewise straightforwardly impossible; science and philosophy do fundamentally different things. For that matter, so do science and mathematics.Bill: A contradiction that I see more than ever: our culture and educational system is arguing for atheism and at the same time dumbing down our understanding of basically everything, while there is a growing s(S)ociety of Catholic Scientists...[a quick back and forth]Spitzer: Artificial intelligence's potential is overrated when it is claimed that it can become creative in anything like a human fashion. It can't find new truths; they don't love [or will] or have any of the transcendentals. Computers are marvellous tools that, *in tandem with us*, can take us to new places we could not get without this kind of effort multiplier...Studies on religious and non-religious affiliated groups, with the latter having much higher rates of maladaptions: suicide, substance abuse, impulsivity, depression, etc. Augustine's comment about our hearts being restless until we rest in God seems to be empirically corroborated.Closing: CredibleCatholic.com, Notre Dame initiatives to educate high school science teachers on the interrelations between faith and science. "So there we have it. I also want to thank Father Spitzer for taking the time to give this interview. We hope to present many more interviews as That's So Second Millennium matures and gets going. The point of the podcast has always been to get conversations started about these core issues, whether and how to be a logically coherent believer in the modern age. It's started with these conversations between Bill and I, but the point is to move outward and engage with more of you. The time is rapidly coming to expand this outreach another step or two, through social media and ordinary human interactions. Right now you can check out the Facebook page for That's So Second Millennium, and you can leave ratings and reviews on one or more of our podcast servers, Apple, Google Play, Stitcher, or Podbean."
We continue our conversation with Dr. Karin Öberg, professor of Astronomy at Harvard University, and head of the Oberg Astrochemistry group. A member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists, Dr. Öberg has been a featured presenter at the McGrath Institute annual science and religion summer seminar. where we bring together teachers of science with teachers of theology from Catholic High Schools across the country. In the same spirit as that seminar, we are running a short series on Church Life Today to reexamine the perceived conflict between science and religion. In our last episode, Dr. Öberg shared with us some of the fruits of her research, especially in relationship to exoplanets and the chemical composition and physical requirements of what we would deem, habitable planets. She makes complex ideas accessible to non-experts. in this episode we focus a bit more on her journey as a person of faith, one who is a practicing Catholic, not in spite of, or removed from her work as one of the world’s leading scientist, but indeed as ultimately integrated with her professional life. ------ Resources: Part 1 with Dr. Öberg - https://soundcloud.com/user-178289668/2018-august-4 The Oberg Astronomy Group: www.cfa.harvard.edu/~koberg/Home.html ------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud
These days when most of us look at the night sky, we don't see very much. Sure, there may be a few hundred visible if we are outside the reach of the light pollution of cities, we see more. Even the faint white band of the Milky Ways billions of stars. We may pick out a constellation or two, while those who study a bit of astronomy see patterns all over the place. Now and again you may look up there and wonder if there is any life out there, in all that vast space. Around one of those faint white lights doting the sky. When Dr. Karin Öberg looks up at the sky, she sees more than just about anyone else on Earth. When she asks the question about the possibility of life somewhere out there, she knows what to look for and how to look for it. Dr. Öberg is a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University, where her research focuses on astrochemistry, and the processes of star and planet formation. Her expertise gives her a unique view of the composition of habitable planets. Ones in which it would be at least possible for life as we know it to exist. Of course, all her work, looking way out there, also bears tremendously on our understanding of what it means for us to have life here, on this planet. While Host Leonard DeLorenzo is sure it doesn't surprise anyone, that in Dr. Öberg, Harvard boasts of the leading scholars in her field, what may surprise you is that she is a practicing Catholic, who serves on the board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists. Today's episode will be the first part of a two-part episode with Dr. Öberg, as part of the short series we are running on the relationship between science and religion, and our conversation will move between her work, some questions that many of us have of someone with her expertise, and the story of her own faith journey of coming into the Catholic Church during her formative young adult year, while already deeply engaged in serious scientific pursuits. ------ Resources: The Oberg Astronomy Group: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~koberg/Home.html ------ Live: www.redeemerradio.com Follow Redeemer Radio on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @RedeemerRadio Follow McGrath Institute for Church Life on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @McGrathND Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud
On today's show, we explore the word ‘science'… what does the word science mean? Is there one kind of science? Where did it come from? These are just a few of the questions we touch on and we can get pretty deep at times, but this is a fun episode where we share our thoughts about science, it's meaning, and how it's affected Indigenous communities in the past, present, and future. In an age troubled by things like fake news, climate change denial, and a general mistrust of science and government, people are more skeptical of scientists than ever. And this is totally understandable, most scientists aren't trained to communicate with people outside of an academic setting. We are also classically introverted and often get into this line of work because we like to be in nature or in the lab working with everything but other people. This isn't how it used to be though, and it can't stay this way. We need to come together as a community. We need to respect each other for our differences as well as our similarities. We need a scientific revolution that honors multiple ways of knowing, the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples, and the inherent rights of Mother Earth. ~ Some of the main ideas we talk about are: - Western Science Definitions - Indigenous Science Definitions - A Brief Introduction to the History of Science - Science and Religion - Science and Research in Indigenous Communities - Paradigm Shifts and Scientific Revolutions ~ Links and Resources: [NDNs on the Airwaves](http://ndnsontheairwaves.wordpress.com) [Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence](http://tribalcollegejournal.org/native-science-natural-laws-interdependence/) [Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/evolution-creationism-and-other-modern-myths-vine-deloria-jr/1122749669) [Society of Catholic Scientists](http://www.catholicscientists.org/about/mission) [Lamarckianism vs Darwinism](http://necsi.edu/projects/evolution/lamarck/intro./lamarck_intro.html) [The Structure of Scientific Revolutions](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/19/thomas-kuhn-structure-scientific-revolutions) ~ [Like this show? Leave us a review here](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ndn-science-show/id1377936061?mt=2)... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also [Support the Show on PayPal](https://www.paypal.me/ndnscienceshow) [NDN Science Show Wordpress Page](http://www.ndnscienceshow.wordpress.com) ~
Dr. Scarani opened the talk by noting a paper he placed on arxiv.org about Aquinas and the sense that the universe would not be perfect without randomness.He moved on to discuss randomness in two senses: Process Randomness, which implies that there is an observer unable to predict the output of the process; and Product Randomness, the lack of structure of a product, which turns out to equate with the need for a very long algorithm to replicate the product. Products are tested for randomness by a battery of statistical tests. He gave an equation embodying a mathematical definition of [product] randomness. Not being an information theorist, I had not seen it before.He went on to note the difference between the randomness of classical physics, which is always about a lack of complete information about a system. If one had that information, the system under the classical assumption would be perfectly defined, and as we have noted a number of times, Einstein among others desperately wanted to get back to that deterministic paradigm. "The Old One doesn't throw dice."The core of the talk was what Scarani called a "high school level" presentation of Bell's theorem. I would like to meet the high school student who could follow it at the speed at which he gave the talk, but probably could have unpacked it given a couple of hours to do so even at that age. Bell's theorem is one of those cunning little mathematical gems that seems to prove the unprovable, namely, to make a prediction about something going on in a process one by definition cannot see into. Bell sets up a statistic that, if there are hidden rules governing physics below the scale at which the uncertainty principle lets us see, must nevertheless in real experiments end up being less than 2. Since the 1980s a series of ever more careful experiments have been done, and the answers in the papers Scarani reviewed had answers between 2.4 and 2.7; the answer is never below 2. According to Bell's theorem, this means that there is a really random process going on down there, and not just random products.At the end, as we discuss in the audio, Scarani ran down the list of remaining possibilities for understanding the quantum foundations of the universe:- There is real randomness.- "Superdeterminism." This depends on breaking an assumption of the Bell theorem, which is that the quantum process is being fed input that itself is not really random from the perspective of that process, which would seem to imply some sort of physics puppet master controlling the experimenter.- The many worlds hypothesis, again something we have mentioned a number of times. I am still not buying that stock.- The only allowable sort of hidden variables (the name Bohm is attached to the most commonly discussed of these) would require particles communicating with each other at infinite speed, "deliberately" trying to wreck the experiment, and with the interaction hidden in a way workers in the field have called "conspiratorially hidden." I.e., we would be living in a universe run by a sort of Cartesian evil deity.On that theme, note that I blundered off into talking in a sort of Cartesian dualist fashion about the relationship between soul and body there after the 14 or 15 minute mark.
In today's episode we discuss Stephen Barr's talk at the SCS conference on June 9. His topic was the observer question in quantum mechanics. The observer problem is closely tied to the issue of probability and wavefunctions. We spend quite a while discussing what this problem is and how the question arises in the context of experiments like the famous two-slit experiment. The example of "Schrodinger's Cat" is an attempt to make this problem more understandable to the non-quantum mechanic. The cat is in some uncertain state, neither alive nor dead, until the observer opens the box and "collapses the wavefunction" to either a live cat or a dead one. In a two-slit experiment, a particle exists in some distribution of possible positions until an observer collapses the wavefunction and "forces" it to one tight range of locations (and for that matter momenta...). This is very weird. Barr cited a long list of quantum theorists (von Neumann, London, Bauer, Wigner, Peierls, and others) who considered the problem and whether mind as such is crucial to whatever it is that does the measuring and observing to collapse quantum systems. Wavefunctions, with their consequent probability distributions, evolve according to Schrodinger's [or Dirac's?...a question I've had in the back of my mind many times...] equation with no internal mechanism to cause this collapse. Clearly two very unlike things interact to form quantum mechanics as we know it, as von Neumann stated explicitly (calling the observer / collapse phenomenon "process 1" and the wavefunction evolution "process 2"). It is clear that we can shift our mathematical formalism to incorporate any physical measurment device into the "system" and thus recognize it to be in the realm of wavefunction behavior. There is the "Wigner's friend" thought problem where even a human observer of an experimental setup can be placed in the "box" from the point of view of another human observer. When we consider the observer problem from the point of view of a descriptive science (geology, astronomy, zoology, etc.) there is the immediate and rather alarming philosophical question: What was happening to, say, this star or tectonic plate or ancestral population of invertebrates before there was an observer to collapse the wavefunctions? Someone raised this question with Dr. Barr in the question and answer session after the talk. There is a phenomenon called "decoherence" (warning: that link is informative in places but far from the clearest read) which occurs for systems that are very open, interacting with their surroundings. Broadly speaking, the observable in question can trade uncertainty with its surrounding and settles down into a tighter range of possible states, simulating to some extent the effect of an observer collapsing the wavefunction. However, the two phenomena are not the same.
In this episode we begin a series of recaps and discussions of the issues brought up by individual lecturers at the Society of Catholic Scientists conference on June 9 and 10. We start with Ed Feser's keynote, "The Immateriality of the Mind." Feser's objective was to highlight how our ability to be rational, and in particular for our thoughts to mean something unambiguous - even in the face of our inability to express ourselves in a completely unambiguous way in our spoken or written words - makes it difficult to maintain a purely materialist / physicalist view of human minds and therefore of the universe they inhabit. At the outset he noted that rationality tends to occupy less attention in philosophy of mind and matter than two other properties, consciousness and intentionality, which seem widely taken as more difficult to explain by our contemporaries. For ancient and medieval philosophers, however, rationality was probably the clearest indication that the human mind is not some sort of solely physical mechanism. Feser presents an argument via James Ross (Thought and the World) to try to bring this older consensus into the mainstream. It can be presented thus: Formal thought processes can have an exact, unambiguous content. Material signs and processes never have unambiguous content. Formal thought processes must employ an element not dependent on materials signs and processes. We discuss Feser's points and a few of our own in favor of the two premises: our inability to be sure of the content of arithmetical symbols used outside our own range of experience, the ambiguity of translating ancient languages like Linear A, and the absurdity of believing I can't ultimately know what I'm thinking about.
IntroOverview of the conference - scheduleTalksEdward Feser & connections to Bishop BarronTheme: Human Mind & PhysicalismDevelopment of the problem and the amazing change in intellectual climate since the 19th century Laplace and absolute determinism - 19th century consensus Quantum mechanics demolished this intellectual basis for determinism, although it is clung to fiercely down to the present day, including the profoundly horrifying "many worlds" hypothesis Bell inequality and the talk by Valerio Scarani about the closing of the loopholes that would allow a "hidden variables" interpretation of quantum mechanics (which would also save determinism, in a much saner way than the "many worlds" hypothesis) Materialism and "spiritualism" (if you will) are on an equal logical footing, even if cultural issues continue to propel many scientists and intellectual citizens of the contemporary world away from belief in extramaterial beingsSociety of Catholic Scientists as a place of refuge from this social pressure toward materialism The gap between spiritual and material in ancient thought versus modern thought The problem of qualia, choice, and consciousness and the lack of an actual materialist model for these, as opposed to evasive and reductionist language On the other hand, the reality of a physical manifestation of all (or nearly all) mental phenomena, the dignity of matter in this detailed participation, and the absolute need for human souls to have bodies in order to be complete human beings (in contrast to Manichean, Platonic, or Cartesian dualism) The scholastic notion of the human soul as form of the body The Aristotelian soul / souls Are vegetative (and animal) souls the forms of those bodies...are those essentially their genetic structure? This ties back to our existing discussions about "hylomorphism for the third millennium" (so to speak)The need for a new metaphysics and philosophy in general to rise up and deal with the strange new world that modern science has brought to our attention. The scholastics, Aquinas of course being the one we remember, had a philosophy that was capable of being constructive...Chesterton's comment that modern philosophers ask us to accept some crazy thing in order to found their system, while Aquinas' starting point was common sense. The difficulty of thinking and doing interdisciplinary scholarship in the modern world, despite decades of recognizing that we need to do it, due to the volume of human knowledge today and also the whole economic and sociological apparatus that depends on measuring scholars' output somehow...which is tremendously easier for single-focus scholars to maximize. There is a unique joy that we can have as scientists of faith...both in our subject matter and in our fellowship with each other. Our next few episodes will look at the subject matter of specific talks at the conference.
Not to be confused with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, although one would understand the mistake. Bill interviews Paul about his experience and observations at the Society of Catholic Scientists conference that took place June 8-10 at the campus of Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The SCS is a very young organization. Its first president is Stephen Barr, a physicist at the University of Delaware. Its first conference was in April 2017 in Chicago. The theme of the 2018 conference was "The Human Mind and Physicalism"--physicalism being a somewhat more precisely defined term than its synonym, materialism. (Believe it or not, some folks at the meeting thought those two elements in the title were probably incompatible.) Paul discusses the meeting and the variety of scientists he saw and met there, including Barr, Juan Martin Maldacena (a prominent string theorist), Aaron Schurger (a neuroscientist), and more. Bill and Paul do a little digging and comment on motivations for the group, including the desire for fellowship (like the existing group, Catholic Association of Scientists and Engineers) but also to band together against the folly of the existing culture and its tired, hugely outdated idea that science and faith (certainly the Catholic faith) are logically incompatible. GK Chesterton was quite right when he commented that the quarrel between science and religion was properly left to prematurely arrogant scientists and sola scriptura fundamentalists back in the NINETEENTH century. It's the twenty-first, now, and we should get ourselves to the business of putting this to bed. Paul elaborates on this final fact at some length, discussing the parallels between the current day and the scholastic synthesis of the thirteenth century. Odd, is it not, that in the broad sweep of history, Aristotle and his universe existing indefinitely backward in time lost out to the stories of a bunch of Hebrew peasants who thought the Prime Mover had actually created the world at a specific point...
What is a Gold Mass? Who are the Society of Catholic Scientists? Join us for an encouraging and fun talk with Catholic Physicist Prof. Stephen Barr, PhD that took place on November 15, 2017, which was the same day as the Feast of St. Albert the Great who is the Patron Saint of Scientists. We also discussed the brand new “Gold Mass” tradition that also takes place on November 15 that he and some colleagues started to honor Catholic Scientists. We also discussed many fascinating physics theories that Prof. Barr is hard at work on. Dr. Barr is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Delaware and Director of its Bartol Research Institute. He does research in theoretical particle physics, especially grand unified theories, theories of CP violation, neutrino oscillations, and particle cosmology. He also has a PhD. in Physics from Princeton University and he is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Dr. Barr and his work has appeared in First Things, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, EWTN and many other news outlets. He is one of the co-founders who started a great new group that encourages and brings together Catholic scientists: https://www.catholicscientists.org/ Dr. Barr has a great book that explores the intersections of faith and science, which we highly recommend... Modern Physics and Ancient Faith: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Physics-Ancient-Faith-Stephen/dp/0268034710/ We also discuss his thoughts on miracles and the things we might do to encourage more Christians to pray for a calling in science. Dr. Barr’s Biography: http://web.physics.udel.edu/about/directory/faculty/stephen-barr View the full interview transcript: http://www.purposenation.org/stephen-barr-phd-podcast-transcript Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and find our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud or your favorite podcasting application: http://www.purposenation.org/podcast/ Visit our website for more information or to make a tax-deductible donation to our non-profit 501(c)3 Christian ministry: http://www.purposenation.org/
From Galileo's run-in with the Catholic Church in the 17th century to more recent controversies over the teaching of creationism in public schools, the relationship between science and religion has been the subject of ongoing debate. Host Rick Pantaleo speaks with Jerry Coyne, the author of "Faith vs. Fact" and Stephen Barr, President of the Society of Catholic Scientists about whether science and religion are compatible or mutually exclusive.
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