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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
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