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April 23-25, 2015 J.K. Russell Fellowship in Religion and Science with Noreen Herzfeld: More than Information: A Christian Critique of a New Dualism Thursday, April 23, 2015, 7pm CTNS Public Forum with Noreen Herzfeld, "Who is My Neighbor? A Personal Journey" Free and open to the public Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union Years ago, as a new professor in computer science, teaching artificial intelligence raised a lot of questions in my mind. Why do we want to create AI? How would we treat such a thing, should we be successful? Do we image ourselves in the computer the same...

J.K. Russell Research Conference with Noreen Herzfeld, More than Information: A Christian Critique of a New Dualism " Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union In light of quantum theory and advances in computer science many scientists have posited that information, rather than matter, forms the bedrock of the universe. Thus it follows that the essence of our selves as human beings is the information housed in the neural connections of our brain, information that, in principle, could be reproduced digitally. Such a "cybernetic immortality" forms one of the bases of a new transhumanist...

CTNS Public Forum with Greg Cootsona, "Listening to Emerging Adults and Discerning the Future State of the Dialogue of Science and Religion" Free and open to the public Hedco Room, 2nd Floor, 2465 LeConte Avenue, Berkeley Through the projects Scientists in Congregations (SinC) and Science for Students and Emerging Young Adults (SEYA) Greg Cootsona identified six key problems facing the integration of science and faith: Young adults sense that religion is against—is at war with—science (and vice versa, to some degree). They may not actually feel it themselves, but they hear it on the...

Science and Religion Hospitality Event Athens Room at the Sheraton Downtown, 165 Courtland St NE, Atlanta, GA 30303. For those attending the American Academy of Religion (AAR) 2015 Annual Meeting, please join CTNS, along with the Institute for the Bio-Cultural Study of Religion (IBCSR - www.ibcsr.org), Zygon Center for Religion and Science (ZCRS, www.zygoncenter.org) and the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS - www.iras.org) for refreshments and a brief presentation.

CTNS Public Forum with Brian Green, "What Science Can and Cannot Say about Ethics." Free and open to the public Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union What is the relationship between science and ethics? Is there any relationship at all, or is it impossible to get an "ought" from an "is"? There has been a contemporary resurgence of interest in whether we can use science to determine moral values, and this talk will consider to what extent this task may or may not be possible.

CTNS Public Forum with Oliver Putz, God’s Self-Communication in an Evolving World: Evolution, Self and Transcendental Being A fundamental assumption of traditional Judeo-Christian anthropology is that humans alone are capable of knowing and loving God as both, their whence and wither. While all of creation is intimately related to a wholly transcendent and immanent divine, only humans are aware of this relationship and can respond to it appropriately. The present paper challenges this anthropocentric view on the basis of both transcendental theological anthropology and insights from the...

UFOs: God's Chariots?: Spirituality, Ancient Aliens, And Religious Yearnings in the Age of Extraterrestrials, by Ted Peters, Book Launch UFOs: God's Chariots? uncovers and exposes the clandestine spiritual dimensions within the UFO phenomenon. UFOs vibrate with transcendence, omniscience, perfection, and redemption. Panel Discussion & Book Launch PLTS Chapel Classroom 2770 Marin Avenue Berkeley, CA 94708

CTNS Public Forum: Jesus and the Depth of Creation: The Idea of Deep Incarnation, with Niels Henrik Gregersen Tucson Room of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), 2451 Ridge Road, Berkeley (enter via the courtyard on LeConte Avenue ) There seems to be an ineradicable tension between the grand-scale story of the world of creation, cosmic in scope and pitiless in its operations, and the small-scale story of Jesus as embodying divine empathy. The idea of deep incarnation aims to overcome three pitfalls of contemporary Christology. The one is the liberal solution of seeing Jesus...

Public Forum, Braden Molhoek on "Clones, Sin and Extinction: Theological Anthropology in Light of Evolution" Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union While great strides have been made regarding the incorporation of the insights of science into our understanding of creation and humanity’s place in the universe, not enough work has been done to show how these kinds of insights affect our understanding of human nature. This forum will examine three ways in which the insights of science help inform theological anthropology. In the context of the human cloning debate, misunderstandings...