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Metaviews 058. 2000.07.28. Approximately 2915 words Below are a number of response to the exchange between Michael Ruse and Billy Grassie on the thread about Human Creativity. The firstresponse is from Steve Petermann, who addresses the question ofChristian Theology and Darwinism. The second response is from Enezio E. de Almeida Filho in Brazil, who address…
Responding to Michael Ruse’s thoughtful response to my essays on “Human Creativity: Accelerating Complexity and Evolutionary Discontinuity” and his more colorful criticism at the recent Haverford Conference on “Genetics, Bioethics, and Religion.”
In May of this year Billy Grassie published a three-part series on the subject of “Human Creativity: Expanding Complexity and Evolutionary Discontinuities.” He gave a version of this paper at the beginning of June of this year at a Templeton-sponsored workshop at Haverford College in Philadelphia, and by his invitation I was the respondent. Again,…
Metaviews 054. 2000.06.02. Approximately 3113 words. Below is a recent talk by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti from the PontificalUniversity in Rome on The Book of Nature and the God of Scientists.Tanzella-Nitti discusses John Paul II’s Encyclical Fides et Ratio andits implications for science and religion. The talk was presented inVatican City at the Jubilee for Men and…
Metaviews 051. 2000.05.19. Approximately 2172 words. Below is a book review of “The Alphabet versus the Goddess” by Leonard Shlain. The review is written by Alfred Kracher, a geologistat Iowa State University. The book deals with the invention ofwriting and its effect on religious culture. Kracher’s review iscritical but open-ended, noting that “surely the invention…
Acceptance speech upon receipt of the 2000 Templeton Prize.
I am always torn when it comes to criticism of my thinking. On the one hand, my inclination is to let it pass in silence. I have had my say, and now it is the turn of others. I am never quite sure that anyone gains if one spends time with charge and counter charge. …
As we enter a new century likely to dominated by sweeping scientific and technological developments, the need for spiritual guidance will be stronger than ever. Science alone cannot adequately cater for our spiritual needs, but any religion that refuses to embrace scientific discovery is unlikely to survive to the 22nd century. Religion faces extraordinary challenges…
On the Role of the Enlightenment in Science-Religion Dialogues 1. In most confrontations between science and religion, differing and/or opposing contentions on specific issues have related to the explanations of (i) natural phenomena; (ii) the origin of the world; (iii) the origin of the human family/species and its related cultural attributes (language, art, belief-systems, etc.)….
A crisis of knowledge of immense proportions overwhelms the contemporary Muslim civilization: The erstwhile “Civilization of the Book” is humbled today under the intellectual thatch of the West. This is an indictment made, paradoxically, in good faith! Faith, and not science, was the quintessence of the nascent Muslim civilization. The inspiration for the grand synthesis…