October 2018 Newsletter


In this Clergy Letter Project update, you’ll find the following six items:

  1. Evolution Weekend and a Free Book Offer;
  2. Astrobiology News for October 2018:  Astro-Biology and -Ethics and -Theology, Oh My!;
  3. Opposing Creationism in Arizona;
  4. Easing the Tensions between Religion and Science;
  5. An Update on Our Growing Membership Numbers; and
  6. Religion and the Scientific Method.

1.   Evolution Weekend and a Free Book Offer


If you haven’t yet added your congregation (or school group) to our list of participants for Evolution Weekend 2019 (8-10 February 2019), now would be a perfect time to do so.  Simply drop me a note with the information below and I’ll get you listed. 

Can there be a more important time to demonstrate the compatibility of religion and science?  We need to engage in meaningful conversations showing that both religion and science have central roles in modern society, roles that can benefit all of us.  Religion and science can both lead us to treating our fellow human beings fairly, to a more robust understanding of the importance of the natural environment, and to an honest search for truth in a complicated world.  Participating in Evolution Weekend 2019 is a wonderful way to accomplish all of this.

_____ Yes, I plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2019 (8-10 February 2019).  Please add me to the growing list of participants.

Name of Congregation (or other group):
Location: 
Your name:

As I’ve said so often, participation can take place any time in the temporal vicinity of that weekend if you have a conflict and participation can take any form you deem appropriate.  Raise the quality of the discussion about the compatibility of religion and science, whether through a sermon, an adult education class, a note in your bulletin, or any other creative activity you can imagine, and your congregation should be listed.  What’s more important than any specific activity or timing is that we continue to reach out to educate members of our communities about this issue – and all of its ramifications.

To help some of you prepare for Evolution Weekend, I’m offering a number of free copies of a book Grace Wolf-Chase mentions in the item below.  I first offered Interactive World, Interactive God to members for free a number of months ago and I’m happy to now offer some additional copies.

Interactive World, Interactive God is a collection of essays by scientists and theologians that explores and reflects upon 21st century developments in science.  Clergy Letter Project member Rev. Dr. Robert John Russell, Director of the Francisco J. Ayala Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, enthused about the book as follows:  “This remarkable text explores the fruits of science from fundamental physics through the origins of living things, from the human brain to society, gleaning their importance to religion where we are called to choose to live a life of love for God and for others.  It brings the wealth of contemporary scholarly conversations about theology and science by many of its leading authors to a wider readership.  I highly recommend it!”

If you think this book will help you prepare for Evolution Weekend 2019, let me know and I’ll award a free copy (you pay for postage) to every fourth person who asks until all copies are claimed.

_____  Please enter me in the drawing to win a free copy of Interactive World, Interactive God.  If selected, I agree to pay $5 for postage and handling.

       ______ I plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2019.  Please add me to the growing list of participants.

Name of Congregation:
Location:
Your Name:

Please sign up to participate!

.


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2.  Astrobiology News for October 2018:  Astro-Biology and -Ethics and -Theology, Oh My!


In this month’s Astrobiology News, Clergy Letter Project consultant and Adler Planetarium astronomer Grace Wolf-Chase discusses a fascinating new book and a host of interesting activities in which she’s involved.  If this month’s column, or Grace’s monthly writing, stimulates you to think about inviting her to speak with your congregation or school, you can contact the good folks at Ovation Agency to make arrangements.  If you mention that you’re affiliated with The Clergy Letter Project, you’ll receive a discount!

This month’s news calls attention to some upcoming events that bear on Astrobiology and related topics.  You may recall that the Clergy Letter Project announced the launch of the book Interactive World, Interactive God about this time last year.(1)  This book has attracted some attention and has set the theme for the upcoming meeting of the American Theological Society at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago on October 26th.  Several of the book’s contributors, myself included, will highlight how interaction lies at the heart of current scientific and theological thinking about the nature of reality.  Perhaps nowhere is the importance of interaction more prominent than in Astrobiology, considering the delicate web of interactions that sustain life on our own planet!

On October 29th, I head to the Berkeley Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS)(2) for the launch of an exciting new book, Astrotheology:  Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life, edited by CLP signatories Ted Peters and Robert John Russell.(3)  This book inspired an article I wrote for the CTNS journal, Theology and Science, which was published online on October 1st.(4)  Astrotheology is a tour de force of theological and ethical reflections on recent discoveries in Astrobiology and their implications for the search and possible discovery of life beyond Earth.  The topics addressed in this book are particularly timely in light of the many current discussions on whether and how we should proceed to establish a human presence in space, particularly on Mars.  Lucianne Walkowicz’s TED talk “Let’s not use Mars as a backup planet” is a few years old, but it remains a well-spent six minutes.(5)

After Berkeley, I’m headed to the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which is being held in Toronto from 1-7 November.(6)  In preparation, I completed an online course in interfaith leadership through Dominican University this summer, which utilized tools prepared by Interfaith Youth Core founder and president, Eboo Patel.(7)  I ’ll be one of a number of speakers drawn from the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS).(8)  The IRAS sessions are part of the Science and Religion track,(9) and were organized by CLP signatory Maynard Moore.  They will be spread over the course of the week, but unfortunately, I can only attend the day of my session on November 2nd.  I’ll speak on Understanding Scientific Discovery through Participation, highlighting the engagement of faith-based and interfaith communities in the online platform Zooniverse,(10) a project I’m pursuing with the Adler Planetarium’s Vice President for Citizen Science.  I hope to share details of this project in coming months!

Until next month,

Grace Wolf-Chase, Ph.D. (gwolfchase@adlerplanetarium.org)

1.  C. R. Albright, J. R. Albright, & M. Turk, eds., Interactive World, Interactive God: The Basic Reality of Creative Interaction (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2017).
2.  http://www.ctns.org/
3.  Ted Peters, ed., with M. Hewlett, J. M. Moritz, and R. J. Russell, Astrotheology:  Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Life (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2018).
4.  Grace A. Wolf-Chase, “New Worlds, New Civilizations? From Science Fiction to Science Fact,” in Theology and Science (October 1, 2018):
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9M4fgGA5rJMdTt4GSiQP/full
5.  www.ted.com/talks/lucianne_walkowicz_let_s_not_use_mars_as_a_backup_planet
6.  https://www.parliamentofreligions.org/parliament/2018-toronto
7.  https://www.ifyc.org/eboo
8.  www.iras.org
9.  See https://event.crowdcompass.com/2018parliament/, then “Sessions” and “Schedule by Track.”
10.  www.zooniverse.org

   

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3.  Opposing Creationism in Arizona


What follows is a powerful, open letter to Diane Douglas, State Superintendent of Public Instruction for Arizona from Clergy Letter Project member Reverend David Felten.  David is Pastor at The Fountains, a United Methodist Church, in Fountain Hills, AZ.

Dear Superintendent Douglas,

At the end of the September Board of Education meeting, you claimed that you were being persecuted “because you have a Christian worldview” – this despite my opposing remarks on Christian grounds during the public comment period. Clearly, you must have missed my statement, so here it is again: I am an ordained United Methodist pastor who opposes your scheme to make room for Creationism in the Science Standards not because you’re a Christian, but because you’re a fundamentalist -- and fundamentalists of all stripes are among the biggest challenges the world faces in moving humanity toward a peaceful, collaborative, and vital reality-based future. Fundamentalist teachings have no place in our classrooms – especially our science classrooms.

Your recommendation to tamper with the Science Standards or ignore the work of Arizona educators to introduce a turn-key fundamentalist Christian curriculum in our schools not only violates the separation of church and state, it also propagates a profound misinterpretation of the Bible itself. Only the most extremist and regressive institutions advocate a young earth and a literal six-day creation. The vast majority of biblical scholars in both secular and religious institutions see the creation stories of Genesis as mythological origin stories told to the ancestors of the Jewish people in order to claim a sense of identity. Anyone applying the most basic critical thinking skills in reading these texts can see that they were never intended to explain the “how” of creation, but were intended to explain the “why” of creation – an undeniably subjective and unscientific motive. This is not science versus religion. This is bad religion trying to impose itself on objective reality.

I am a Christian who on Christian grounds disagrees wholeheartedly with your scheme to tamper with the Arizona Science Standards. As a pastor, a parent of two Middle School students, an advocate of church-state separation, and person committed to evidence-based reality, I affirm evolution and oppose your efforts to introduce creation science and intelligent design in our public schools.

Bad theology does not good science make.

Rev. David M. Felten, Pastor
The Fountains, a United Methodist Church
15300 N. Fountain Hills Blvd
Fountain Hills, AZ 85268

 

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4.  Easing the Tensions between Religion and Science


As I’ve done before, I take great pleasure in sharing a blog post from our sister organization, Sinai and Synapses.  This offering consists of an interesting discussion between Sinai and Synapses fellow Isaac Alderman and University of Edinburgh professor Dr. Chris Cotter.  They compare what’s happening on the religion and science front in the UK and Ireland with what’s been going on in the United States in an attempt to see what can be gleaned from our similarities and our differences.

    

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5.  An Update on Our Growing Membership Numbers


Our numbers have been growing so nicely in recent months that I thought it would be informative to share that growth with you.  As of the time of my writing, here are the numbers of clergy members who have signed each of our Clergy Letters along with the percentage increase we’ve seen for each Letter over the last four months:

The Christian Clergy Letter:  14,981 signatures, an increase of 1.8 percent
The Rabbi Letter:  712 signatures, an increase of 35.9 percent
The Unitarian Universalist Clergy Letter:  568 signatures, an increase of 8.4 percent
The Buddhist Clergy Letter:  52 signatures, an increase of 50 percent

With your help, we can continue and expand this growth.  I know that many of you serve in congregations where a colleague hasn’t yet signed on.  I know that many of you participate in interfaith groups where some colleagues haven’t yet heard of us.  I know that some of you even have spouses who are clergy members and who haven’t yet added their names.  Please reach out and help us grow.  As I’ve said so often in the past, our impact is a direct function of the number of clergy members who have signed one of our Clergy Letters.  A moment of your time can make a significant difference.

     

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6.  Religion and the Scientific Method


A recent essay was just published on Medium entitled “Religion and the Scientific Method:  How I Learned to Drop Assumptions & Investigate the World,” that I think you’ll find interesting.  The author, Jon Headley, explains how he migrated from believing that religion was about describing the parameters of the natural world to believing it was about something else while the scientific method offered a far more reliable way to conduct meaningful investigations.

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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.  Together we are making a difference.

.

                                                                        Michael

Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org