AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion

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Cosmic Questions
14-16 April 1999
National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC

 

Intro | About | Program | Speakers | Resources

Program

Day 1: Did the Universe Have a Beginning?
Wednesday, April 14

(Moderator: Joel Primack, Professor of Physics, University of California-Santa Cruz)

Morning

8:00 - Registration/coffee

9:00 - Welcome

9:10 - Introduction to the conference: Joel Primack

Session I: The cultural and scientific background

9:45 - "Athens and/or Jerusalem: Cosmology and/or creation"
Jaraslav Pelikan, Professor Emeritus of the History of Religion, Yale University

10:20 - "Scientific cosmology meets western theology: a historical perspective"
Owen Gingerich, Professor of Astronomy and the History of Science, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

10:55 - "Standard big bang cosmology: the big bang really happened"
Sandra Faber, University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California-Santa Cruz

11:30 - Audience questions and answers

12:00 - Break

Afternoon

Session II: Before the beginning

Did time begin?

1:30 - "Eternal inflation"
Alan Guth, Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2:05 - "Inflation and the beginning of the universe"
Neil Turok, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University

2:40 - Speaker discussion

3:00 - Break

Does it matter religiously?

3:15 - "The idea of a 'beginningless' world-process: hindu perspectives"
Anindita Balslev, Department of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

3:50 - "Is the universe the creation of god?"
Robert John Russell, Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley

4:25 - Panel discussion on "beginnings" with morning and afternoon speakers.

5:20 - Recess

Evening program

A talk by Rocky Kolb, Fermi National Laboratory, will be followed by a showing of the imax film Cosmic Voyage in a new theater at the National Museum of Natural History.

7:00 - Rocky kolb, "A recipe for primordial soup."

7:30 - Cosmic Voyage

8:00 - Reception

9:00 - Recess

Day 2: Was the universe designed?
Thursday, April 15

(Moderator: Owen Gingerich)

Morning

8:30 - Coffee

Session III: Cosmic evolution and design

9:00 - "The meaning of design"
John Leslie, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Guelph

9:35 - "Cosmology, life, and the anthropic principle"
John D. Barrow, Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, Cambridge University

10:10 - "The argument from design: what is at stake theologically?"
Anna Case-WInters, Professor of Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary

10:45 - Audience questions and answers

11:45 - Break

Afternoon

Session IV - Is the universe designed?

1:15 - "No"
Steven Weinberg, Jack S. Josey-Welch Foundation Chair in Science and Regental Professor of Physics, University of Texas-Austin

1:50 - "Understanding the universe"
John Polkinghorne, former President, Queens College, Cambridge, England

2:25 - Speaker discussion

2:45 - Break

Religious reflections:

3:00 - "Is the universe designed? Yes and no"
David Griffin, Director, Center for Process Studies, Claremont, California

3:35 - "Cosmic design from a Buddhist perspective"
Trinh Xuan Thuan, Professor of Astronomy, University of Virginia

4:10 - "What did the mystic say to the hotdog vendor? or Nothing by design: a neo-kabbalistic perspective"
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Congregation Beth El, Sudbury, Massachusetts

4:45 - Panel discussion on "Design" by morning and afternoon speakers.

5:50 - Recess

day 3: Are we alone?
Friday, April 16

(Moderator: Audrey Chapman)

Morning

8:30 - Coffee

Session V: Life in the universe

9:00 - "The origin and evolution of life on earth"
Sara Via, Professor of Biology and Entomology at the University of Maryland, College Park

9:35 - "Searching for life in the universe: lessons from earth"
Kenneth Nealson, Professor, California Institute of Technology, and Senior Researcher in Astrobiology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

10:10 - "Homes for extraterrestrial life: extra-solar planets"
David Latham, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

10:45 - Audience questions and answers

11:45 - Break

Session VI: Intelligent life in the universe

1:15 - "What is SETI?"
Jill C. Tarter, Senior Program Scientist and Director, Project Phoenix, The SETI Institute

Debate on the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligent life:

1:50 - "Not likely"
Irven DeVore, Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Departments of Anthropology and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

2:25 - "The outlook for cosmic company"
Seth Shostak, Public Progams Scientist, The Seti Institute

3:00 - Speaker discussion

3:20 - Break

3:35 - Theological reflection
John Haught, Professor of Theology, Georgetown University

4:10 - Closing panel

Jim Miller
Joel Primack
Owen Gingerich
Audrey Chapman
Others to be announced

4:55 - Final words

5:00 - Adjourn