The nation's religion reporters are often tasked with interpreting science advances in light of religious values, but may lack the technical proficiency in science and technology to do so effectively. This project offers science enrichment opportunities to this pool of specialized journalists through two venues: science-related talks at the annual meeting of the Religion News Association (RNA) and an award contest that supports the attendance of religion reporters at the AAAS Annual Meeting.
DoSER began this unique work in 2015 with a one-day seminar at the RNA conference in Philadelphia. This exciting program highlighted a range of science and technology. It was followed in 2016 with a presentation on the cognitive and moral capacities of animals, and in 2017 with two panel discussions about the societal implications of artificial intelligence.
AWARD WINNERS
| YEAR | JOURNALIST | OUTLET |
| 2017 | Brandon Ambrosino | Freelance |
| 2017 | William Saletan | Slate |
| 2017 | Yonat Shimron | Religion News Service |
| 2017 | Peggy Fletcher Stack | The Salt Lake Tribune |
| 2016 | Lauren Markoe | Religion News Service |
| 2016 | Betsy Shirley | Sojourners |
| 2016 | Tiffany Stanley | Freelance |
| 2016 | Julie Zauzmer | The Washington Post |
| 2015 | Kelsey Dallas | Deseret News |
| 2015 | Renee Gadoua | Freelance |
| 2015 | Emma Green | The Atlantic |
| 2015 | Cathy Lynn Grossman | Religion News Service |
| 2015 | Liz Kineke | CBS |
| 2015 | Patricia Miller | Religion Dispatches |
| 2015 | Kimberly Winston | Religion News Service |
| 2015 | Catherine Woodiwiss | Sojourners |
Award Winner Articles
Journalists who have received the AAAS Science for Religion Reporters Award have produced stories* on a variety of science-related topics. Some of them are archived below.
- What would it mean for AI to have a soul?
- It's a mean world. And kindness is our only way out
- Smartphones and our memories: Don't take a picture. It'll last longer
by Brandon Ambrosino, BBC Future
- Science may one day guarantee smarter kids. Here's why many Americans think that's a problem
- This year, SXSW featured religion sessions. Here's what happened
- How religious commitment affects people's reactions to medical advancements
- Why the Catholic Church sometimes turns to science to investigate miracles
- How churches will celebrate God during the solar eclipse
- Why researchers and religious leaders in Salt Lake City are concerned about gene editing
- Doctors, pastors meet to consider 'playing God' with people's DNA
by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News
by Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune
- Syracuse summit to offer strategies for climate change
- March Calls Attention To Political Science Friction
- Mother Earthling: ESF educator Robin Kimmerer links an indigenous worldview to nature
by Renée K. Gadoua, Syracuse NewTimes
- Religion, Art, and Cultural Heritage: How cultural heritage helps us understand faith, identity and history
- Protecting the Sacred: Water, the Environment & Climate Change
by Elizabeth Kineke, CBS
- Anti-Vaxers Aren't Stupid: Doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and the government have a lot of power over children's lives. That can make parents act irrationally.
- Spirituality May Help HIV Patients Survive Longer: A new study suggests certain coping techniques are associated with longer life spans in sick patients
- When Doctors Refuse to Treat LGBT Patients: A new law in Mississippi makes it legal for physicians and therapists to opt out of care on religious grounds. What does this mean for medicine?
- Science Is Giving the Pro-Life Movement a Boost
- Making Babies, No Sex Necessary
- If Americans Can Be Transgender, Can They Be Transracial?
by Emma Green at The Atlantic
- A Buddhist psychiatrist’s advice on facing trauma, troubles and Trump: Let it go
- 6 life and death questions for ethicist Arthur Caplan
- Why some evangelicals changed their minds about evolution
by Cathy Lynn Grossman, Religion News Service
- Scientists ponder how to talk to the faithful about climate change
- 6 life and death questions for ethicist Arthur Caplan
- Why some evangelicals changed their minds about evolution
- California’s End of Life Option law: More peaceful deaths or moral quicksand?
- Bill McKibben Talks Faith on His Way to the Climate March
- Faith and the cosmos: An astrophysicist fields the big questions
by Lauren Markoe, Religion News Service
by Betsy Shirley, Sojourners
- What Politics and Religion Could Learn From Science
- Stop Talking About Race and IQ: take it from someone who did
by Will Saletan, Slate
- For Christians, the green revolution is stalling — and politics may be why
- Kenneth Miller finds good news in evolution
- Prayer may help relieve stress but fewer Americans make time for it
- Most Americans believe but not always in the God of the Bible
by Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service
- If you build it, they will pray? Constructing religious worlds with Minecraft
- Mormons in space: Sci-fi or no lie?
- The ‘Splainer: Is the star of Bethlehem for real?
- Cultivating the connection between soil and the soul with ‘FaithLands’
- No deathbed conversion for atheist Stephen Hawking
- A brief history of Stephen Hawking’s atheism
- If you build it, will they pray? Constructing religious worlds with Minecraft
- ‘Changing Our Minds’ explores psychedelic drugs and spiritual healing
Kimberly has also produced a variety of science-related "Religion Link" bibliographies for religion reporters
- Will contact with intelligent aliens change religion?
- God in the machine: Artificial intelligence and religion
- Space out: Religion and science fiction grow closer
- Darwin Day notwithstanding, evolution debate keeps, well, evolving
- Evolutionists and creationists mark Darwin Day — differently
- Science for religion reporters
by Kimberly Winston, Religion News Service
- The Era of White Anxiety Is Just Beginning
- PLAYING GO(d): AI Just Outmatched the Human Brain — 10 Years Ahead of Schedule
- Poetic Justice? The moral of the story? We're working on it.
- The World Begins Anew: To see blooms adorning a church on Ash Wednesday—instead of at Easter—scrambles the spiritual metaphor.
- The Heartbeat of Deep Space: In our science narratives, there’s a long tradition of featuring beautiful, rich white people and ignoring people of color and women.
- For Viewers, It's Virtual Reality. For Immigrants, It's Life.
by Catherine Woodiwiss, Sojourners
- Translators aim to bring Richard Dawkins’s books on atheism and evolution to a Muslim audience
- The first solar eclipse to cross America in 99 years is coming: To some, it’s an act of God
- A scientist’s new theory: Religion was key to humans’ social evolution
- Why a Yale neuroscientist decided to change careers — and is now becoming a priest
- Don’t get pregnant, shower in your clothes – Religious traditions on how to watch a solar eclipse.
- At Johns Hopkins, clergy try mind-altering drugs for scientific research
by Julie Zauzmer, The Washington Post
*The views presented in these articles do not necessarily represent those of the AAAS.