Past St. Albert Forums

October 18th, 2016

-Abstract
In the modern world, much of atheism, especially that which regards itself as scientific, is based on a philosophy called “physicalism” or “scientific materialism,” which says that all reality is reducible to matter and thus ultimately to physics.  Among many problems with physicalism is that it cannot fully account for mind, especially the human mind. In this talk, Prof. Barr will argue that the human mind, its consciousness, its capacity for abstract thought, its freedom, and its openness to truth, cannot be given purely physical or mechanical explanations. Some of these arguments go back to Plato and Aristotle, others are based on discoveries of twentieth century mathematics and physics. 

With Guest Speaker Stephen Barr
Stephen M. Barr is a theoretical particle physicist. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1978 and did postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania. After holding research faculty positions at the University of Washington and Brookhaven National Laboratory he joined the faculty of the University of Delaware in 1987, where he is Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Director of its Bartol Research Institute. His physics research centers mainly on “grand unified theories” and the cosmology of the early universe. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society “for his original contributions to grand unification, CP violation, and baryogenesis”. He writes and lectures extensively on the relation of science and religion. Many of his articles and reviews have appeared in First Things, on whose Advisory Council he serves. He has also written for The Public Interest, The Weekly Standard, National Review, Commonweal, Modern Age, The Wall Street Journal, Public Discourse, and Academic Questions. He is the author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2003), A Student’s Guide to Natural Science (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2006), Science and Religion: The myth of conflict (Catholic Truth Society, 2011), and The Believing Scientist (Eerdmans, 2016). He was elected in 2010 to the Academy of Catholic Theology. He and his wife Kathleen have five children and live in Newark, Delaware.

Graduate Students: Navigating Their Lives of Faith While Pursuing Their Academic Mission

November 18th, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Anabel Taylor Hall Chapel

Featuring Panelists From:

+Material Science and Engineering
+Astronomy
+Philosophy
+Law
+Veterinary Medicine
An Abstract
Since the Renaissance, an air of separation has remained between science and religion.  In the past a majority of the conflicts may have arisen from religious explanations for natural phenomena that science has since been able to explain.  Yet many modern theologians and scientists today agree that they indeed study two unrelated fields.  The perception of clashing understandings remains to this day, perhaps due to a point best summarized by physicist of quantum mechanics Richard Feynman’s quote “Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.”  Religion is thought to require a degree of trust in the unprovable while in science everything must be doubted and striven to be proven. 

Join us for our panel discussion with five researching graduate students in fields ranging from humanities to engineering.  The panelists will be answering questions from their personal research experiences.  They will discuss how they can advance their academics in the seeming duality of seeking scientific and empirical facts, and the exploration of their lives of faith. 

Did you miss our last St. Albert the Great Forum? Below is the recorded video of Professor Jonathan Lunine's talk on "The priest who fathered the Big Bang."

Video provided by Bez Thomas: Tech Services, Astronomy Department.

 

Tuesday October 17 7:00-8:00pm
120 Physical Science Building
Thoughts on the vocation of a a scientist from the Christian perspective
_{What does it mean to be a Scientist and a Christian? 
 Does being a believer affect the way that we conduct our scientific research and our professional work?  Modern astrophysical research has huge implications on our understanding of the place of humans in the Universe. Do these findings prompt us to look beyond to the Creator?  How do we talk to our secular colleagues about this?  Drawing on Christian teachings and personal experiences as working as a physicist, astrophysicist and cosmologist in the US, UK and Latin America, this talk presents one perspective of what it means to be a Scientist and a Christian in the secular world.  It presents a vision of the vocation of the Scientist and Christian as a lived reality in 21st century academia and addresses the challenging question about how to share our faith in the secular scientific work place.}

Speaker: Dr. Marisa March

_{-University of Pennsylvania
Department of Physics and Astronomy, David Rittenhouse Laboratory.
-Program for Research on Religion & Urban Civil Society. 
-Collegium Institute.}

+For more about Dr. March visit: _{https://foxleadership.upenn.edu/directors-and-affiliates/marisa-cristina-march}