February 2021 Newsletter
This month’s newsletter presents a particularly large array of resources, many written by Clergy Letter Project members for you. I trust you’ll find them interesting and helpful. I also hope that you think about sharing your thoughts with all of us. Drop me a line if you have an idea for inclusion in a future newsletter.
And as long as I’ve mentioned that I’m sharing a large array of resources, let me single out one additional one: The Malvern Festival of Ideas. This annual interdisciplinary event takes place in Malvern, Worcestershire, England but this year it is being held virtually which means you can participate without leaving home. The Festival will be held on 5-7 March and includes a free set of science lectures on Saturday, 6 March. One of those free events is a lecture by our very own Grace Wolf-Chase. Check out the full festival program and be sure not to miss Grace.
I do hope that all of you, your families, friends and congregations continue to deal positively with the stresses and strains associated with Covid-19. And I hope that vaccine distribution has begun to reach an appreciable number of you.
In this Clergy Letter Project update you’ll find the following ten items:
- Evolution Weekend 2021 Recap;
- Astrobiology News for February 2021: Mars, MOXIE, and Malvern;
- Did God Punish Us With the Coronavirus Pandemic?;
- Myth and Truth;
- The War Between Science and Faith is Over: The Peace is More Demanding;
- Scientific and Spiritual Lessons in the Time of COVID;
- Another New Hymn;
- Trauma and the Environment;
- Creationism as Conspiracy Theory; and
- New Antiscience Legislation in Oklahoma.
1. Evolution Weekend 2021 Recap
A very big thank you to all who participated in Evolution Weekend 2021. I hope that all of your events went smoothly and were well received. If you participated but are not listed on our Evolution Weekend 2021 web page, please let me know and I’ll get you added.
Additionally, a number of you have already shared sermons you delivered on that day with me – and I’ve posted them on our Sermons webpage. If you have a sermon you’d like to share, please send it my way and I’ll get it posted.
As you likely know, this was our 16th Evolution Weekend and we’ve now reached well over one million people directly with our message about the compatibility of religion and science. To my eye, that’s an impressive accomplishment and you all deserve the credit for making this happen. Thank You!
2. Astrobiology News for February 2021: Mars, MOXIE, and Malvern
In this month’s Astrobiology News Grace Wolf-Chase, Senior Scientist and Senior Education & Communication Specialist at the Planetary Science Institute as well as a Clergy Letter Project consultant, discusses some exciting activities surrounding Mars among other interesting things. Additionally, I suspect you’ll be interested in this post on the Zooniverse blog which references some of Grace’s work including a new paper in the Astrophysical Journal, which was based on a discovery by citizen scientists.
February has been an eventful month for all of us, making it difficult for me to focus on a single news topic. One of this month’s highlights is (possibly “was” by the time this goes out in the CLP e-news) the landing of Perseverance on Mars. You can stay up-to-date on exciting news about this mission, both before and after landing, on NASA’s Mars website.(1) This website provides live landing commentary, news briefings, Q & A, virtual watch parties, and activities for students, as well as great information on past and future Mars missions.
Missions flown by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program over the past two decades have provided evidence that billions of years ago, Mars was not the cold, arid planet it is today and might have supported life. The search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars is a key science objective of Perseverance’s mission. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, and it will be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and sediment for later return to Earth. Perseverance will carry seven primary instruments, one of which, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (or MOXIE), will demonstrate how oxygen can be produced from Mars’s carbon-dioxide atmosphere, paving the way for a future human presence on Mars. The production of oxygen could help support the breathing air supply of humans as well as provide liquid oxygen propellant for a return trip. Many technologies developed for Perseverance and other Mars missions have also produced spinoff technologies that have improved life on planet Earth.(2)
As the new rover explores the Martian surface, this is a great time to participate in the Zooniverse project Planet Four,(3) which needs a lot of help from citizen scientists in order to accomplish its goal of understanding how the Martian climate changes over time. The images for this project come from the HiRISE instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and they provide an important complement to the work of Perseverance and other Mars rovers. During the recent online meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the folks at the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion announced the launch of a new webpage dedicated to our joint project Engaging Faith-based Communities in Citizen Science through Zooniverse.(4) This site provides some useful resources that I hope you’ll check out!
By now, many of you have probably already held Evolution Weekend events; however, if you’d like to participate in another event that has its roots in the Clergy Letter Project, check out the Malvern Festival of Ideas.(5) The theme for this year is, appropriately, Unity and Diversity. I’ll be leading a Zooniverse workshop on Saturday, March 6th, so if you’d like to learn how to use this platform, please see the website for information on registering and the event schedule.
In other news, Covalence editor Susan Barreto has written a piece on the new book Intersections of Religion and Astronomy for the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology.(6) Whether or not you’re Lutheran, the Alliance website has many great faith and science resources, as well as youth curricula that can be adapted for different traditions.
Until next month,
Grace
Grace Wolf-Chase (gwolfchase@gmail.com)
Senior Scientist and Senior Education & Communication Specialist, Planetary Science Institute (http://www.psi.edu)
Vice President, Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (CASIRAS: http://www.casiras.org)
1. https://mars.nasa.gov/
2. https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8848/nasas-perseverance-pays-off-back-home/
3. https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/mschwamb/planet-four
4. https://sciencereligiondialogue.org/projects/zooniverse/
5. http://www.malvernfestivalofideas.org.uk/
6. https://luthscitech.org/new-book-explores-the-intersection-of-religion-and-astronomy/
3. Did God Punish Us With the Coronavirus Pandemic?
Rabbi Ralph Mecklenburger, a member of The Clergy Letter Project, recently published an engaging and thoughtful essay in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The piece is entitled “Did God punish us with the coronavirus pandemic? Was the vaccine a divine miracle?” The following paragraph will give you a taste of what Ralph had to say:
In the age of science, as we learn so much about how creation works, we are better off thinking of God less as the author of the laws of nature than as the laws themselves. We will not be disappointed or disillusioned expecting miracles, the suspension of the order of being, if we realize that God is that order, including the values we find in ourselves and the world that give meaning, purpose and hope, to our lives — love, truth, beauty, compassion, morality and more.
I recommend the piece to you and remind you that Ralph recently published a book entitled Why Call it God: Theology for the Age of Science. Although all of the copies I had to distribute to Clergy Letter Project members last month have been claimed, you can purchase a copy directly from the publisher if you want.
4. Myth and Truth
The Reverend Douglas Hill, a member of The Clergy Letter Project, recently engaged me in a fascinating conversation about myth and truth – and their importance in religion, science and the current political scene. He posed the following to me: “I’d fancy your reflections on the interplay between science and myth regarding the importance and power of each as well as recognizing their limitations. I don’t believe that science creates meaning or morality. Science is about information. Meaning and morality (myth) are concerned with how we use that information.”
He went on to say more and I was convinced that many members of The Clergy Letter Project would be interested in his ideas so I encouraged him to write them for our newsletter. I’m delighted to say that he did just that in an essay he entitled “Myth and Truth.” In that essay he wrote:
My reflections have led me to the confluence of the roles of truth and myth within society. I’m defining truth here to mean factual information related to proven data and evidence. I’m defining myth as an unprovable meta-narrative or grand, over-arching story used by human beings to create identity, purpose, and meaning. In my opinion, what we’ve been experiencing within our American society is a result of both mistruth and manipulative myth telling.
You can read his full piece here. I trust you’ll find it as interesting as I did.
5. The War Between Science and Faith is Over: The Peace is More Demanding
As his contribution to Evolution Weekend 2021, the Reverend David Coleman, Environmental Chaplain with EcoCongregation Scotland, wrote a thoughtful blog post entitled “Science and Faith The War is Over. The Peace is More Demanding. For All.”
David’s essay is a compelling piece of writing. Here’s a sampling of what he had to say:
The myth of the war between science (observation) and faith (interpretation) has been so pervasive, and damaging, and the barriers between these fields so heavily fortified, that we did need a period comparable to the recognition of colonial injustices, of the rights of colour, or women, and LGBTQ+ communities, when perhaps people of faith for a while stood back, as if we only had things to learn, and listen, rather than contribute….
With the fun branding of ‘Dinosaur Sunday’, and inspired by the ‘Clergy Letter Project’ in the US, I led congregations on explorations both of scripture and science. The magic that spreads through a congregation when a genuine (and local) fossil is brought reverentially into the sacred space of worship has been wonderful to see. In these excursions , it seemed that evolution- as life’s adaption to changing circumstance through engagement with disaster – provides a hermeneutic (a mode of analysis) far more congenial to scripture than the forcible imposition of a nineteenth century model of linear progress….
Can anyone begin to engage with the state of the Earth, without accepting that disaster -or even extinction – is a possibility? Can anyone engage with Christian Scripture without a similar acknowledgment?
Take a look at the full piece. You might want to share it with your congregation and, if you haven’t yet done so, David’s thoughts might encourage you to add your signature to our Climate Crisis Letter. If you’re so moved, please drop me a line and I’ll do the rest.
6. Scientific and Spiritual Lessons in the Time of COVID
Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health and a member of The Clergy Letter Projects list of scientific consultants, recently gave a talk to the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) entitled “Scientific and Spiritual Lessons in the Time of COVID.” His title says it all and I encourage you to watch his presentation here.
7. Another New Hymn
In a recent note, I shared two new hymns (here and here) with you. The Reverend Andrew Pratt, a member of The Clergy Letter Project and editor of the Bulletin of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, has now shared a wonderful hymn that he has written. I hope you find it as moving as I did and I hope it encourages you to take environmental action with your congregations as well as to add your signature to our Climate Crisis Letter if you haven’t yet done so. You can easily take that step just by dropping me a note asking to be added.
8. Trauma and the Environment
Although I’ve mentioned the Goshen College Conference on Religion and Science previously, I’m doing so again because its web page is now fully active and registration for the conference is open.
The conference director is Dr. Carl Helrich, a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific advisors, and this year’s virtual conference is entitled “Trauma and the Environment: How Then Shall We Live?” The conference is scheduled for 12-14 March. You can view more information about the conference as well as register by clicking here.
9. Creationism as Conspiracy Theory
Over the years, I’ve shared many pieces written by Dr. Paul Braterman, a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants, and I’m happy to do so again now. The piece is entitled “Why creationism bears all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory” and opens with this provocative paragraph:
Many people around the world looked on aghast as they witnessed the harm done by conspiracy theories such as QAnon and the myth of the stolen US election that led to the attack on the US Capitol Building on January 6. Yet while these ideas will no doubt fade in time, there is arguably a much more enduring conspiracy theory that also pervades America in the form of young Earth creationism. And it’s one that we cannot ignore because it is dangerously opposed to science.
Click here to keep reading!
10. New Antiscience Legislation in Oklahoma
Our good friends at the National Center for Science Education report on legislation being introduced in Oklahoma that appear designed to limit the teaching of evolution.
Concluding Thoughts
As I said above, I hope all of you, your families, and your communities are healthy and safe. With widespread vaccine distribution comes the promise of the end of the pandemic. But we are not there yet and it is as important as it has ever been to remain vigilant, to practice good social distancing behaviors and to continue to wear masks. We’ve come this far; now is not the time to let down our guard.
Finally, as always, I want to thank you for your continued support and as I do every month, I urge you to take one simple action. Please share this month’s Newsletter with a colleague or two (or post a link via any social media platform you use) and ask them to add their voices to those promoting a deep and meaningful understanding between religion and science. They can add their signatures to one of our Clergy Letters simply by dropping me a note at mz@theclergyletterproject.org. Spread the word; change the world. Together we are making a difference.
Stay safe and healthy.
Michael
Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org