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| Registration | Biography | Conference Schedule| Former J. K. Russell Fellows
The 2009 J. K. Russell Research Fellowship in
Religion and Science
Dr. Francisco J. Ayala
Research Conference, Saturday, April 4
Fellow's Public Forum, Tuesday, April 7
The Annual J. K. Russell Research Conference
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion
Richard S. Dinner Board Room of the GTU (Hewlett Library), 2400 Ridge Rd., Berkeley
10:15 am to 5:30 pm (Coffee & Registration begins at 9:45 am)
Moderated by Ted Peters, Ph.D.
Conference Respondents:
John Braverman, Ph.D., Chris Doran, Ph.D., Joshua M. Moritz,
Oliver Putz, Ph.D. and
Robert John Russell, Ph.D.
GTU area Campus Map
This year, CTNS is offering a unique opportunity for a limited number of individuals to have time with Dr. Ayala in a small setting and help support the Campaign for the Ian G. Barbour Chair in the process. |
| On Saturday, April 4 during the conference lunch break, a limited number of individuals may participate with Professor Ayala and have a Box Lunch, where the $50 per person donation will help support the Campaign for the Ian G. Barbour Chair ($40 is tax-deductible). |
Register here on-line by using your VISA, Master Card or PayPal account, or
Print a Registration Form to fax or mail.
You may call 510-848-8152.
Conference Registration Fees:
(Registration discount for 2009 CTNS members* and students/seniors)
Lunch is on your own unless you register for the special Box Lunch with Francisco (below).
Conference Registration: CTNS Member |
$20 |
Conference Registration: CTNS Member, FT Student or
Senior (62+) |
$15 |
Conference Registration: General |
$30 |
Conference Registration: General, FT Student or Senior (62+) |
$25 |
Optional donation for Special Box Lunch with Francisco -Very limited seating. Register early. ($40 is tax-deductible) |
$50 |
|
$67 |
|
$40 |
TOTAL payment |
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Register by clicking here.
Note: Street parking is not limited on Saturdays or after 7:00 pm on weekdays.
With militant atheists claiming that evolutionary biology disproves God and with creation scientists and theorists of Intelligent Design challenging the omission of God in neo-Darwinian biology, is there a robust alternative that takes evolution seriously and places it within a credible and persuasive Christian view of the world? “Yes”, say theistic evolutionists representing a wide spectrum of Christian views: compare B. B. Warfield and Teilhard de Chardin, or Kenneth Miller and Jurgen Moltmann, or Francis Collins and Archbishop Joseph Zycinski, or Celia Deane-Drummond and John Haught. All of them agree that “evolution is how God creates the diversity of biological species in nature.” But evolutionary biology, in turn, raises new questions for theological reflection: Do humans share anything about the imago dei with non-human or pre-human life? Is human moral capacity a product of evolution that nevertheless leaves the choice of specific moral codes up to religion? What is God’s relation to “natural evil”: the suffering, disease, death, and extinction that permeate the history of life on earth? Questions like these and many others provide the basis for this year’s CTNS J. K. Russell Research Conference
Fellow's Public Forum, Tuesday, April 7, 7:00 PM
"Whence Morality: Biology or Religion?"
Hosted by The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (DSPT)
2301 Vine Street, Classroom 1, Berkeley, CA
How much about human nature is not only rooted in our evolutionary past but fully determined by purely biological processes? Our capacity for reasoning seems to be an adaptive feature that evolved as a consequence of natural selection, but what about our moral and ethical faculties? Contrary to reductionists who argue that our moral codes are merely evolutionary byproducts with no grounding in the transcendent, Dr. Ayala has made the case that while human moral capacity evolved along with rationality, the specific contents of morality --- the ethical and religious norms by which we organize society and live our lives --- are not determined by our evolutionary history but instead are up to us individually and as a culture to determine. You are invited to hear Dr. Ayala address this and related fascinating and controversial issues at the frontiers of the creative interaction between science and religion.
The Fellow's Forum is free and open to the public. Registration not required.
DSPT Campus link: www.dspt.edu/docs/about_us/campus.asp
Brief Bio:
Francisco J. Ayala is University Profess or and Donald Bren Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology in the School of Biological Sciences and Professor of Philosophy in the School of Humanities University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. He is also Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science in the School of Social Sciences. Ayala received his PH.D. from Columbia University in 1964.
From 1993-2000 he was a member of President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. He has been President and Chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Born in Madrid, Spain, he has lived in the United States since 1961, and became a U.S. citizen in 1971. He is author of more than 950 articles and 32 books. The books include Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion (2008), Human Evolution. Trails from the Past, with C.J. Cela Conde (2007), In the Light of Evolution. Volume II: Biodiversity and Extinction (eds. 2008), In the Light of Evolution. Volume I: Adaptation and Complex Design (eds. 2007), Darwin and Intelligent Design (2006), Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1995), Modern Genetics (2nd ed., 1984), Population and Evolutionary Genetics: A Primer (1982), Evolving: The Theory and Processes of Organic Evolution (1979), Evolution (1977), Molecular Evolution (1976), and Studies in the Philosophy of Biology (1974).
Ayala served as an editor on the CTNS- Vatican Observatory volume, Evolutionary and Molecular Biology (1998).
He was awarded the 2001 National Medal of Science and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the California Academy of Sciences. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fulbright Fellow (twice).
Ayala has received numerous honors and awards, including the Gold Honorary Gregor Mendel Medal from the Czech Academy of Sciences, the President's Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the AAAS, the Medal of the College of France, and the UCI Medal from the University of California. He has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Athens (Greece), Barcelona, Leon, Madrid, Vigo, and Las Islas Baleares (Spain), Vladivostok (“Far East National University”, Russia), Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), and University of Warsaw (Poland). He is a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain, the Mexican Academy of Sciences, and the Latin American Institute for Advanced Studies.
He has been President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, a member of the Council of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Advisory Council of the Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH), the National Advisory Council for the Human Genome Project, the Executive Committee of the Science Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Commission on Life Sciences, and the Board on Basic Biology (Chairman, 1985-1992) of the National Research Council. He served as expert witness in the Arkansas trial on the teaching of evolution (December 1981).
He is a frequent lecturer in universities and other institutions in the United States and elsewhere, including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia.
His research focuses on population and evolutionary genetics, including the origin of species, genetic diversity of populations, the origin of malaria, the population structure of parasitic protozoa, and the molecular clock of evolution. He also writes about the interface between religion and science, and on philosophical issues concerning epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of biology.
Some recent research of his UCI group has focused on the origin and evolution of introns, and on the evolution and functional significance of (1) pseudogenes and (2) ectopic expression. His group continues research on questions related to the molecular clock of evolution. They are investigating a number of genes and testing new models of rates of gene evolution.
J. K. Russell Research Conference Schedule
(Schedule subject to change)
Moderated by Ted Peters
| 10:00 am to 10:15 am |
Coffee and Tea |
| 10:15 am to 11:00 am |
Darwin’s Gift to Science and Religion: Dr. Francisco Ayala |
| 11:00 am to Noon |
Respondents (Oliver Putz and Joshua Moritz)
General Discussion
|
| Noon to 1:30 |
Private box lunch with Francisco for lunch pre-registrants, or
Lunch on your own (hand out of local cafes is available) |
| 1:30 to 3:30 |
Respondents (Chris Doran, John Braverman)
General Discussion |
| 3:30 – 4:00 pm |
Break |
| 4:00 – 4:30 pm |
Respondent (Robert Russell) |
| 4:30 – 5:00 pm |
Closing Remarks: Francisco Ayala |
| 5:00 – 5:15 pm |
Awarding of the Charles H. Townes Graduate Student Fellowship |
Directions and Lodging:
To review t opics from recent Fellowships, click here.
The annual J. K. Russell Research
Fellowship was created in memory of John K. Russell (1896-1958). Mr. Russell, father of CTNS Founder and Director, Robert John Russell, was born of Italian immigrants, and worked as an industrial engineer and humanitarian.
Past CTNS J.K. Russell Research Fellows
George V. Coyne -- 2008
Twenty Years After the New View from Rome:
Pope John Paul II on Science and Religion
Celia Deane-Drummond —2007
The Evolution of Sin and the Redemption of Nature
Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett — 2005
Assessing The Case(s) for Theistic Evolution
Niels Henrik Gregeren — 2004
The Complexification of Nature: Supplementing the Neo-Darwinian Paradigm
Paul Davies — 2002-2003
Multiverse and Anthropic Fine-Tuning: Philosophical and Theological Implications
Archbishop Joseph Zycinski — 2001-2002
Forum: "Metaphysical Presuppositions in Stephen Hawking's Physics of Creation"
J.K. Russell Research Conference: "Beyond Necessity and Design: God's Immanence in the Process of Evolution"
Philip Clayton — 2000-2001
The Emergence of Spirit
John Cobb, Jr. — 1999-2000
Science, Theology and Whitehead's Philosophy
Nancey Murphy — 1998-1999
Neuroscience, Mental Causation, and Freedom of the Will
Mary-Claire King — 1997-1998
Theological and Ethical Implications of Recent Research in Genetics
John Haught — 1996-1997
Science, Religion, and the Role of Metaphysics
Margaret Wertheim — 1995-1996
Women in Science, Women in Theology
George F.R. Ellis — 1994
What Does Scientific Cosmology Tell Us About God
Mary Gerhart & Allan M. Russell — 1993
Metaphoric Process as the Reformation of Worlds of Meaning in Theology and Natural Sciences
CTNS Decade Conference — 1992
Building Bridges Between Theology and Science: Beginning the Second Decade of CTNS
Holmes Rolston, III — 1991
Genes, Genesis, and God in Natural and Human History
Robert W. Jensen — 1990
Does God Have Time? The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Concept of Time in Physical Sciences
John Polkinghorne — 1990
The Church and the Environmental Crisis: Which Way Are We Heading?
God's Interaction with the World: Research Proposals by John Polkinghorne
The Challenge of Physics to World Religions
Lindon Eaves — 1989
Genes, Culture and Personality: An Empirical Approach
William R. Stoeger, S.J. — 1988
Cosmology and What It Tells Us About Physical Reality
Philosophical and Theological Implications of Contemporary Cosmology-the Philosophy and Theology of Creation
Ernan McMullin — 1987
The Viability of Natural Theology from a Roman Catholic Perspective in Light of Contemporary Science and Philosophy
Wolfhart Pannenberg — 1986
The Doctrine of Creation and Modern Science
Arthur R. Peacocke, SOSc — 1985
Critical Realism in Science and Religion
Philip Hefner — 1984
Do the Sciences Throw Light on God's Presence in the World?
Ian G. Barbour — 1983
Toward a Theology of Technology
Andrew Dufner, S.J. — 1981-1982
Science, Theology & Spirituality
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