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Ecumenical Dialog

So far most of those in the science/religion field have been working within a Christian context, but there is growing concern to bring into the dialog people from other faith traditions. Recently a major conference, called "Science and the Spiritual Quest", was hosted by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the University of California, at Berkeley. This conference brought together three dozen scientists from around the world, representing all three monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Participants came from four major scientific areas - physics, cosmology, biology, and computer sciences - and spoke publicly about how they saw their lives as scientists and their lives of faith working together.

Many agreed with cancer researcher Carl Feit from Yeshiva University in New York, who noted that "I don’t think that by studying science you will be forced to conclude that there must be a God. But if you have already found God, then you can say, from understanding science, ‘Ah, I see what God has done in the world." Feit, also a Talmudic scholar, is one example of the long and noble tradition of great Jewish scientists. Similarly, Bruno Guiderdoni, another participant at the conference, is a research physics at the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris, and also a practicing Moslem with a serious interest in Sufi mysticism. According to Guiderdoni, Islam views the entire universe as "God’s self-disclosure to himself" - thus, he says, for Moslems there should not be any contradiction between religion and the results of science. Mark Richardson, organizer of the Berkeley conference, says that its ecumenical nature was one of the crucial features and he hopes to see more such interfaith conferences in the future.

Email link | Feedback | Contributed by: Margaret Wertheim

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Topic Index
History
The Birth of Modern Cosmology
Galileo
Separation of Science and Religion
Evolution
Vatican Conferences
Creationism
Genetics
Genes and Sin
Cloning
Cosmology
The Big Bang
Stephen Hawking's God
God and Time
Purpose
A Theory of Everything
A Cosmic Designer?
Technology
Genetic Screening
The Future
Ongoing Dialog

Related Topics:
Genetics
Evolution
Physics and Cosmology
History
Ethics
Theology
The Relation of Science & Religion
Purpose and Design
Controversy
Science and Religion in Conflict?
Books on Science and Religion - General
Galileo
Copernicus
Sir Isaac Newton
Charles Darwin
Dolly the Cloned Sheep
Egg Manipulation
Chromosome
DNA Double-Helix
Castel Gandolfo
Pontifical Academy
Kitt Peak Telescope
Galaxies and Nebulae