Alister McGrath has delivered his inaugural lecture as Andreas Idreos Professorship of Science and Religion at Oxford University. The full transcript of the lecture is available online. Some highlights: Mc Grath sees science and religion as two distinct outcomes of one basic attitude: awe. Personally, McGrath felt a lack in science: it didn’t offer meaning Science gave […]
Fairness? It’s all in the brain! (and it’s maybe closely related to money)
From experience to meaning… How come we know what’s fair or not? And what makes us act fair? It’s easy to think it’s located somewhere in the brain, although we will say the person has a good heart. According to a new brain study, people appreciate fairness in much the same way as they appreciate […]
Hefner: Relocation of the God-question
I just finished reading an older article by Philip Hefner: Relocation of the God-question.: EBSCOhost, first published in Zygon, in 1970. The article is interesting because Hefner argues why theology should take (evolutionary) science into account. First, he discusses Paul Tillich‘s way of framing the God-question. Through his methodology of “the ultimate concern“, Hefner explains, Tillich was […]
New results from an UK Twin study: genes are more than an influence on intelligence
From experience to meaning… Last year I discussed a twin study on 11000 twins in the UK showing the effect genetics have an test results in school. Now there is a new study on 13000 twins in the UK published on PLOSOne. The title makes it already clear: “The high heritability of educational achievement reflects […]
Hefner on Meaning Making
What do we want to accomplish by bringing theology and science together? Lutheran theologian Philip Hefner offers us an answer in an article of just over ten years ago[1]. In this blogpost I summarize the main points of the article. Hefner argues that the significance of the interaction between science and theology lies in the meaning […]
Ratzinger Again . . . “The Creation of the Human Being”
Originally posted on Human Action and God:
Ratzinger on the humble truth of the creation of man from dust: We are told that God formed the man of dust from the ground. There is here something at once humbling and consoling. Something humbling because we are told: You are not God, you did not make yourself, you…
The Evolution of the Alphabet
A beautiful overview of the alphabet, classic example of cultural evolution. Found on Imgur, where reddit is indicated as original source. However, I think the original is this academic site, where each step is shown separately. Even more examples of human writing can be found here. You might have noticed the little buzz on social […]
Group Selection and Religion: Some Theological Remarks
One of the key lectures today, on the Schillebeeckx Centenary Conference, was delivered by Siobhán Garrigan. Her hermeneutics of the notion ‘home’ struck me as relevant for a theological reflection on evolutionary studies of religion that assume group selection to be an important factor. In short, group selection theories argue that religion supports social cohesion […]
Schillebeeckx on Religion and Science: Beyond Opposition
I presented my paper on Schillebeeckx and the perspectives he offers on the relation between evolutionary accounts of religion and theology. The audience was rather small in numbers, but I received some excellent questions and feedback. This is the presentation I used to present the paper (link) Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires […]
lifecourse of a paper
Originally posted on scatterplot:
Working on a paper and proposal that both involved life-course explanations of social phenomena, I realized that my papers have a life-course of their own. I thought I would share: Birth. This is the first glimmer of a new idea. Unfortunately, nature is cruel and mortality at this stage is very…
Weekly Gardening 