AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion

About the Program Mission Statement The Dialogue Program Activities Advisory Committee Support Statement

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom. ALBERT EINSTEIN

Mission Statement

AAAS established the Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) in 1995 to facilitate communication between scientific and religious communities. The Dialogue builds on AAAS's long-standing commitment to relate scientific knowledge and technological development to the purposes and concerns of society at large.

The objectives of the Dialogue are to:

• Contribute to the level of scientific understanding in religious communities.
• Promote multidisciplinary education and scholarship of the ethical and religious implications of advancements in science and technology.

The Dialogue

The AAAS has sought both to advance science itself and to relate scientific knowledge and technological development to the purposes and concerns of society at large for over 150 years. Issues of value and ethics are raised by the appearance of technologies not even imagined by earlier generations.

Questions of meaning and religion emerge from our deepening understanding of the natural order. Issues of value and meaning are grounded in the disciplines of ethics and religion. The scientific community needs to be in dialogue with both fields in order to understand the cultural context within which science operates and to respond to the societal issues opened up by scientific discovery and technological development. AAAS provides a uniquely credible forum for that engagement because of its disciplinary breadth.

To fulfill its mission, DoSER engages in a variety of activities that seek to:

• Encourage an appreciation among scientists, religious leaders and religion scholars of the ethical, religious and theological implications of scientific discoveries and technological innovations.
• Promote and facilitate scholarship on the ethical, religious and theological implications of contemporary scientific discoveries and technological innovations.
• Improve the level of scientific understanding in religious communities.
• Increase the engagement of scientific communities in the dialogue on science, ethics, and religion.
• Facilitate collaboration among scientists, ethicists, and religion scholars and leaders to address critical multidisciplinary issues related to science, ethics and religion.
• Further public understanding of the dialogue on science, ethics, and religion.

Program Activities

The activities of the Program have a variety of forms from national conferences and public fora to working groups and research seminars. One example of these activities is the DoSER Lectures held in the AAAS Auditorium.

DoSER organized conferences including:

• Population, Consumption and Sustainability with the Boston Theological Institute. A volume based on the papers presented in this conference has been published by Island Press.
• Epic of Evolution which was organized at the Field Museum in Chicago. The papers from that conference are being published by Prentice Hall and an eight-part video series related to the conference is also being produced.
• Cosmic Questions conference which addressed itself to the questions: Did the universe have a beginning? Was the universe designed? Are we alone? It was held at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. The papers from that conference have been published by the New York Academy of Sciences and an accompanying CD was by the Counterbalance Foundation.

Significant contributions to public policy discussions in the area of bioethics have been made by reports from working groups organized by the Program on gene patenting, genetic discrimination, stem cell research and inheritable genetic modifications.

• The report of the stem cell working group was published by AAAS as Stem Cell Research and Applications: Monitoring the Frontiers of Biomedical Research and is available on-line.
• The inheritable genetics modification report, Human Inheritable Genetic Modification: Assessing Scientific, Ethical, Religious, and Policy Issues, is also available on-line.
• The papers developed by this latter working group were published by Johns Hopkins Press as Human Genetic Modifications Across Generations.

Each of these working groups has involved an interdisciplinary membership including research scientists, biotechnologists, ethicists, philosophers and theologians. The program is currently engaged with the Hastings Center on an NIH supported project on behavioral genetics.

Issues related to the religious implications of evolutionary biology and the other historical sciences have stimulated another set of initiatives by the Program. The Program has developed an online Evolution Resources page and has published a reader, An Evolving Dialogue: Scientific, Historical, Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on Evolution. The Program also was a cosponsor of the Kansas Teach-In on "Science, Teaching and the Search for Origins" at the University of Kansas in April 2000 on the teaching of evolution in the public schools. In a related initiative the Program organized a series of conversations with local religious leaders in Kansas to discern the concerns of local religious communities related to the teaching of evolution in the public schools.

Because much of the public controversies in the areas of bioethics and evolution are related to the public understanding of science in the religious communities, the Program has developed initiatives related to professional theological education. With the Washington National Cathedral and the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), the Program organized a consultation on "Science, Technology and Professional Theological Education."

What is it to be human? To explore the character and evolution of human nature, the Program is engaged in a series of multidisciplinary research seminars on "Primatology and Human Nature." Particular seminars are focusing on such topics as the evolution of sociality, consciousness and morality. The Program also organized a national conference in partnership with the Field Museum on "Becoming Human ... and Beyond" in November 2001.

"Exploring the Origin, Extent and Future of Life" is a new project initiative in 2003. This project will begin to identify and address the philosophical, theological, and ethical issues associated with origin of life studies, the search for extraterrestrial life, and space exploration that may transport life beyond Earth, or have an impact on extraterrestrial life. These issues have implications for humanity's view of itself and its place in the universe. The Program is developing a series of multidisciplinary workshops around this topic that will engage researchers from such varied fields as planetary science, astrobiology, and the history and philosophy of science, as well as theologians and ethicists.

Advisory Committee

• Sally G. Kohlstedt, Ph.D.,--DoSER CHAIR--Professor, History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota
• Martin Blume, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief for the American Physical Society; Senior Physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory
• Bratton, Susan P, Ph.D.. Chair, Department of Environmental Studies, Baylor University
• Mildred Cho, Ph.D., Senior Research Scholar, Center for Biomedical Ethics, Stanford University
• Cynthia Crysdale, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religion and Religious Education, Catholic University of America.
• Ilia Delio Ph.D., Associate Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Washington Theological Union
• Elliot Dorff, Ph.D., Rector, Sol & Anne Dorff Professor of Philosophy, and Chair of Bioethics, University of Judaism
• Kevin FitzGerald, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor, Department of Oncology, School of Medicine, Georgetown University
• Bruce Jakosky, Ph.D., Professor of Geological Sciences, Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Melanie Leitner, Ph.D., Program Officer, JG Perpich
• Kenneth R. Miller, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, Brown University
• Mustansir Mir, Ph.D., University Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Youngstown State University
• Ebrahim Moosa, Ph.D., Associate Research Professor of Religion and Co-director of the Center for Study of Muslim Networks, Duke University
• Priyamvada Natarajan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Astronomy, Yale University
• Richard Potts, Ph.D., Director, Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
• Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
• Holmes Rolston III, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University
• Robert Sussman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology, Washington University - St. Louis
• John R. Staver, Ph.D., Center for Science Education
• Beth Stevens, Ph.D., Vice President, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Animal Programs
• Mary Evelyn Tucker Ph.D., Research Associate, Harvard-Yenching Institute

Support Statement

The AAAS DoSER Program is an initiative of AAAS Science and Policy Programs. Its activities are guided by the goals and principles of the Association under the oversight of an advisory committee appointed by the AAAS Board of Directors. General and specific project support has come from a variety of sources. These include the John Templeton Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust, the John and Esther Klingenstein Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, the Institute for Civil Society, the National Institutes of Health/ELSI, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Counterbalance Foundation, the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, the Center for Research in Science of Azusa Pacific University, the Smithsonian Institution, Science & Spirit Magazine and a number of individuals.