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* Next event! Lecture by Ursula Goodenough on Tues April 29
at the CCP (UA Campus)
* Check the Calendar
page for our
Spring 2008 schedule
* Jennifer Michael Hecht named
Templeton Research Fellow for Spring 2008
* National Fiction Contest winners announced! Winners
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Spring 2007 : Life in a Cosmic Setting
Research Topics:
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Evidence for cosmic fine-tuning, anthropic ideas and the multiverse ::: The likelihood of planets and biology in vastly different environments throughout the universe ::: Interstellar travel and interstellar communication ::: Reconciliation of humanity with non-biological life and artificial life ::: Cosmic chemistry, life and thermodynamics ::: Insights from poetry, art, and religious writing responding to the size and nature of the astronomical universe ::: Physical dynamics on a cosmological scale (supermassive black holes, gamma ray bursts, supernovae, quasars) in the context of prayer and divine action in a God-created universe ::: Biology as a cosmological force ::: Spirituality and morality in the context of
exo-biology :::
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April 24th, 25th, 26th 2007 | George Ellis, Professor Emeritus Applied Mathematics
2007 Templeton Research Fellow
The Quest for
Understanding and Meaning:
From Cosmic Process and
Complexity to Unity, and Beyond
A professor of applied mathematics
at the University of Capetown, a noted
cosmologist, and a former Templeton
Prize winner gives a series of lectures
on complexity, emergence and the
fundamental basis for life.
April 24, 2007: Aliens and the Universe:
Why Life, and Who Else is Out There?
After a brief summary of cosmology as a necessary background, the talk will consider if it is likely there is other life ("aliens") out there somewhere, and consider the anthropic principle (why does the universe allow any life at all to exist?). Then the talk will move to issues of ultimate causation, discussing the possible existence of a multiverse as a physical explanation of a bio-friendly universe, and consider other lines of evidence that can possibly point to the meaning of the universe.
April 25, 2007: Alien Physiology and Intelligence
The presentation will discuss the likely restrictions on alien structure and functioning at both a micro and macro level, considering such issues as: Would aliens alos be based on organic chemistry? Would they have a genetic code based in DNA? Would they eat and breathe as we do? How would they move around? What about reproduction? Would they have the same senses as we do? Would they have a brain structured like ours? Would their minds also function through a similar balance between intellect, faith, emotion, and values?
April 26, 2007: Alien Society and Values
The presentation will consider what kind of social organization might we expect in an alien culture. Would they have language, families, schools, libraries, police? What technology might they have? Will they have cars, computers, cell phones, or the internet? Above all, what values will they have? Will they be religious in any way? The case will be made that their mathematicians will understand mathematics much as we do, and that their more spiritually minded members will have discovered kenotic ethics as the deep basis for living, and that they will love music and beauty. This will close the circle to the first lecture for this is some of the evidence for the meaning of the universe. |
PREVIOUS SPRING 2007 LECTURES
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February 28, 2007 | Ted Peters, Professor of Systematic Theology
A professor of Systematic
Theology at Pacific Lutheran
Seminary addresses the spiritual
implications of life in the universe. |
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February 21, 2007 | Seth Shostak, SETI Senior Astronomer
The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe
The Senior Astronomer
at the SETI Institute talks
about the ongoing search
for extraterrestrial intelligence. |
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February 14, 2007 | Debra Fischer, Astrophysicist, Planet-Hunter
A leading astronomy researcher at San Francisco State University presents the latest on the hunt for exoplanets.
"Astrobiology is still a science without any specimens. However, ongoing research in planetary science, biology, and astronomy is informing our estimates for the probability of life elsewhere and highlighting the weakest links in our understanding. In astronomy, the discovery of more than 200 planets orbiting other stars has helped us to see our own Solar System in context. I will discuss the missing exoplanet link— potentially habitable rocky worlds— and explain how we plan to bridge that gap.” |
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February 7, 2007 | Daniel Matt, Professor of Jewish Mysticism
"God and the Big Bang:
Discovering Harmony Between Science and Spirituality"
Daniel Matt will present a lecture exploring the parallels between Kabbalah and contemporary cosmology. How does the Jewish mystical understanding of Creation compare with the current scientific theory of the origin of the universe? Is there a way to harmonize these two appoaches— the scientific and the spiritual? Book signing follows lecture. |
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March 28, 2007 | Laurie Anderson, Performance Artist, Musician
Beauty
Visionary performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson in a conversation about aesthetics, story-telling and ways of seeing the universe, as illuminated by her time as NASA's first artist-in-residence.
Laurie Anderson will be giving a presentation rather than a musical performance.
As of Feb 7th, all tickets for the CCP venue have been taken. Please go here for information on tickets to the Laurie Anderson lecture and read our FAQs including information for the overflow location (live video feed). Tickets will be needed for the CCP venue while the overflow location will be first-come first-served seating.
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April 4, 2007 | Bill Stoeger, Cosmologist, Theologian
The Quest for Understanding
and Meaning: From Cosmic
Process and Complexity
to Unity, and Beyond
A leading cosmologist and Jesuit
priest gives a brief overview of the
evolutionary history of the cosmos
and nature, the key features they
exhibit, and then focuses on how
our quest for understanding and
meaning always leads us to deeper
questions— in science, philosophy
and theology. |
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April 11, 2007 | Tom Lindell, Scientist & Theologian *
Can Science Inform Theology?
The talk will focus on how an understanding of cosmology and particularly biological evolution can inform a way of theological thinking. To appreciate the perspective from science, theology must abandon all of the unhelpful stereotypes that speak of a God of power and might, to re-envision a God that does not intervene in the creation to privilege life. This theology offers a way to view the theodicy problem (Justifying God in light of evil and suffering) without placing humans in the position of being either a supplicant or a victim of an omnipotent God.
*Previously scheduled as Marty Hewlett, who will unfortunately be unable to make the engagement. |
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April 18, 2007 | Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy
Why Are We So Lonely?
As humans, we face the
tension of being insignificant
players in a vast and impersonal
cosmos while feeling that
sentience and technology makes
us special. In this lecture, a
University Distinguished Professor
of Astronomy explores what
current research in astrobiology
implies about our relationship to
the universe. |
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