Presentation Archives
Summer 2023
God and the New Cosmology
In 2023, The Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum invites you to our summer of celebration by continuing to examine issues at the interface of faith and science. Our tenth season will run from May 30 to August 8th. It will begin with our invited guest speaker – Prof. John Haught, Distinguished Research Professor at Georgetown University. He will present and expand upon the writings of Teilhard de Chardin through the review of his latest two books, God after Einstein and The Cosmic Vision of Teilhard de Chardin. These books present a vision of a hopeful future as we move beyond the apparently conflicting views of literal interpretations of the Bible and modern science.
Presentations will move on to a multifaceted exploration and discussion, from both faith and scientific perspectives, of such varied topics as biblical archeology, Islamic bioethics, extraterrestrial visitors, Maimonides-the great Jewish philosopher and scientist, nuclear weapon ethics, consciousness, artificial intelligence, and Mormon belief authenticity.
A light dinner will be provided at 6 pm for all forums. The presentations will start at 6:30 pm and be followed by table discussions. The location is the SALA Event Center, 2551 Central Avenue, Los Alamos, NM.
Summer 2022
God and Cosmos: On the Journey of truth, faith, and reason
In 2022, The Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum invited you to a summer of celebration of being together again and continued examination of issues at the interface of faith and science:
–extending the discussion on human origins and evolution,
–expanding the boundaries of faith and embedded truth,
–exploring the nature of God’s interaction with humankind.
This, our ninth season of Wednesday events ran from June 1 to August 3. Our season started with our invited external speaker – Prof. Martinez Hewlett, professor emeritus of cellular biology from U. Arizona. He now lives in Taos and teaches at UNM. He reviewed and compared models for human evolution. Later talks in Summer 2022 on evolution considered experiments on the origin of life, presented by Patrick Berg, MD, and the importance of bacteria and viruses in the evolutionary process by Glenn Magelssen, PhD. In addition, we expanded the boundaries of faith with presentations related to religion and science, including two talks related to Eastern Orthodox Christianity by Dr. Victoria Erhart (UNM-LA) and Father Jesse Robinson (Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, Santa Fe). There also was a talk on the science of Buddhism by John Ambrosiano, PhD, and a discussion on the image of God by Eric Ferm, PhD. The deep issues of truth in faith and God’s role in the discovery process were addressed in talks by Gary Stradling, PhD., Nelson Hoffman, PhD and Chick Keller, PhD.
Summer 2021- Why Do Faith and Reason Interact?
In 2021, the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum invited the public to our eighth annual summer program entitled “Why Do Faith and Reason Interact?” – again via Zoom. The Summer 2021 series explored a wide range of issues at the forefront of the science-religion intersection. At the first session, we reminded our audience about the mechanics of Zoom. Bob Reinovsky then presented an introduction to, and relationships among, the topics that were presented throughout the summer. The summer series included two talks on the foundations of modern science, two talks dealing with ethics related to science and religion, three talks related to Adam and Eve, and a final lecture on the very timely issue of vaccines.
Summer 2020- Hope, Nature, Sin, and Transhumanism
In Summer 2020, the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum examined
· the issue of hope in this uncertain age
· the relation of religion and ecology
· the age-old question of original sin
· the problem of evil in light of recent scientific discoveries
· the future of humanity in the context of bioengineering advances
· near-death experiences
All lectures took place on-line using Zoom.
Summer 2019- Are You a Robot? Brain, Mind, Soul
In the summer of 2019, the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum asked:
Are You a Robot?
If you use the internet at all, you may have been asked whether you are a robot. Many web sites do this, trying to protect against spurious account creation. On one level, it’s an easy question to answer — no, you’re not a robot, you’re a flesh-and-blood human.
But on another level, it’s more difficult. Can we be sure our behavior is not programmed by our genes, life experiences, instincts, and habits — to say nothing of our addictions and psychoses? How free are we, really?
Summer 2018- Purposeful Evolution
The theme for the 2018 weekly seminar series was “Purposeful Evolution.” Our intention in these seminars was to explore recent ideas in evolutionary theory that broaden the mechanisms of evolution well beyond the limits of NeoDarwinism or the Modern Synthesis, and which are sometimes referred to under the rubric of the “Extended Evolutionary Synthesis”, or EES. The choice of this theme emerged from numerous discussions and meetings of the Forum’s board members, originally motivated by their study of the book Science and Religion: Beyond Warfare and Toward Understanding (Anselm Academic, 2016), by Joshua Moritz, and by articles in Nature and The Atlantic describing the EES.
Summer 2017- Hope: Science, Religion and the Future
In the Summer of 2017, the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum presented a series of talks by local speakers during June and July, beginning May 31. The theme of the summer was “Hope: Science, Religion and the Future”. The meetings followed our usual format: light supper at 6 pm, talk at 6:30, followed by questions for the speaker and then table discussions. In a change from the past two years these talks were in the Fellowship Hall of the Unitarian Church.
Also, as part of the summer program, the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum invited distinguished theologian John Haught of Georgetown University to visit Los Alamos and present two lectures, which he did on Thursday June 22 and Friday June 23. His lectures were titled “Science, Religion, and Cosmic Purpose” and “Evolution and Faith: What Is at Stake”.
Summer 2016- What Makes Us Human
The Los Alamos Faith & Science Forum announced our third summer series starting on June 1, continuing on the topic “What Makes Us Human?”. Members of the forum led the discussion each week in June and July at Kelly Hall at Trinity on the Hill. On July 13-14, Prof. Justin L. Barrett, Thrive Professor of Developmental Science in the School of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, founding editor of the Journal of Cognition and Culture, and author of numerous articles and chapters concerning the cognitive science of religion, visited and gave two keynote lectures, and had a chance to meet with members of the community. These lectures and discussions were interesting and accessible to all members of the community interested in faith and science, no matter what religion or scientific background. They commenced at Church of Christ at 7pm.
Summer 2015
The Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum conducted our second summer discussion series in 2015. We used the book Origins: Christian Perspectives on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design, by Deborah Haarsma and Loren Haarsma as a starting point for our discussions – the origin of the universe, of life, and of humanity. Members of the forum led the discussions each week in June and July at Kelly Hall at Trinity on the Hill. On August 4-6, Deborah Haarsma and Loren Haarsma visited and gave three keynote lectures at Church of Christ, and had a chance to meet with members of the community. Our hope was that these lectures and discussions were interesting and accessible to all members of the community interested in faith and science, no matter what religion or scientific background. Talks were aimed at a general audience. Dinner was provided at 6 pm, with a presentation at 6:30 and discussion at 7pm, ending around 8 pm. All were welcome.
Summer 2014
In 2014, we ran a 10-week lecture series with dinner and discussion. Topics included the Big Bang, complexity and its origins, the nature of evil, Christianity and the scientific revolution, chaos theory and the role of the Creator, and evolution. Lecturers included scientists and clergy from the community. Each week began with dinner, followed by a 30-minute lecture on the topic for that week, which segued into discussions at the different dinner tables.