Illustration by Steve Thomason
Impact of Moral Foundations upon Religion and Science
Kirk Weisbrod
Current events indicate that perspectives are becoming more fragmented in politics, science and religion. Recent studies in social psychology, which included over 30,000 interviews, indicate that intuition (emotions) responds first and our reasoning follows, generally in support of our intuition. We’ll explore these findings and a set of ensuing moral foundations by examining several topics addressing faith and science.
Dr. Kirk Weisbrod grew up in Southern Illinois and Texas, the Bible Belt. His theistic father, a physicist, and charismatic Christian mother attended a fundamental evangelical Methodist church. Kirk questioned everything. (Based upon his doubt, he had no question concerning what afterlife would be his next stop.) After a B.S. from U.T. Austin, Kirk earned an MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana). He worked for 10 years at industrial research centers before joining Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1992 to develop fuel cells for powering automobiles. then he designed and helped implement new processes for conversion of plutonium pits into nuclear fuel. Based upon fundamental mathematical models, systems were designed and optimized. Today, evolutionary processes, in life and the universe, continue to inspire understanding in relation to faith.
