Friday, and Saturday, April 23-24, 2010
Three Breakthroughs in STARS Research: A Two-Day Event Exploring the Frontiers of Science and Religion
Are we alone in the universe? How the search for ET can, and should be, ramped up.
How complex life evolved by interpreting its environment and how that ability offers humans an openness to its 'environment,' the transcendent.
What neuroscience can teach us about human values and their transcendent source.
"Humanity stands at the crossroads of destiny. STARS is the most exciting initiative yet on confronting the challenge of who we are and how we fit into the great cosmic scheme."
--Paul Davies
"STARS" is CTNS's new ground-breaking research program on science and transcendence. Its goal is to sponsor research by small teams of scientists and humanities scholars on the ways science, in light of philosophical and theological reflection, points towards the nature, character and meaning of ultimate reality. "STARS," shorthand for "Science and Transcendence: Advanced Research Series," builds on CTNS's three decades of cutting-edge programs in the interdisciplinary field of theology and science through local and international research, teaching and public service. Now STARS is breaking new ground, moving beyond familiar questions by funding creative and innovative interdisciplinary research.
You are invited to a special two-day event celebrating STARS research on April 23-24, 2010 in Berkeley, California. You will meet Paul Davies, internationally acclaimed physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and STARS keynote lecturer, who will tell us how the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) can succeed. You will also meet two of the outstanding STARS teams and hear the latest results of their work on virtue ethics in light of the neurosciences and on how a capacity for interpreting the environment helped enable the evolution of life and undergird human openness to transcendence. STARS is funded through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Schedule
Friday, April 23rd, 7-9pm, Paul Davies Lecture, "Are We Alone in the Universe? How the Search for ET Can, and Should Be, Ramped Up"
Saturday, April 24, 10am-12pm STARS Research Conference with Christopher Southgate and Andrew Robinson, on "Information, Evolution and Transcendence: Science, Philosophy and Theology in Creative Interaction"
Saturday, April 24, 1pm-3pm STARS Research Conference with Warren Brown and Michael Spezio, on "Virtue Ethics, Neuroscience and the Transcendent: New Insights from the Interaction between Neuroscience, Psychology, Philosophy and Theology"