Gerry Wood delivers an after-dinner lecture during the 2019 summer series presented by the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum. Courtesy photo

COMMUNITY NEWS

The Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum invites you to our seventh annual summer program – this year via Zooming through cyberspace.

Our lecture series will begin every Wednesday evening at 6:30 pm, starting on June 3 and running for 7 weeks, through July 15. These sessions will be available on the internet via Zoom. Registration information has already been sent to our members and previous years’ attendees. Otherwise, you can register for these sessions using this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsd-uqqDouGN3l_cSiXO8Ztgw4URhsO_Sf

This summer’s series will explore a wide range of issues at the forefront of the science-religion intersection, instead of an invited speaker and a series of lectures that is primarily centered around a common theme that has been our model in the past. We will examine the issue of hope in this uncertain age, discuss the relation of religion and ecology, return to the age-old questions of original sin and the problem of evil in light of recent scientific discoveries, look at the future of humanity both in the context of bioengineering advances and regarding ethical issues, and finally, investigate near-death experiences.

At the first session, we familiarize those signed in with the Zoom process. We will then have a short introduction to the topics that will be presented throughout the summer. Morrie Pongratz will follow with the first of our seven summer lectures. He will discuss the need for hope, both from the perspective of the individual as well as globally, drawing on the wisdom of a number of notable thinkers, from Teilhard de Chardin to Steven Pinker.

Here is the schedule of the presentations:

• June 3      Introductions to Zoom and the summer series, followed by:   “Why Have Hope?” — Morrie Pongratz

• June 10   “A Mystery of the Mind: A Concern for the Planet as Part of Faith” – Bob Dryja

• June 17    “The Problem of Evil” – Chick Keller

• June 24 “The Genes of Genesis: Original Sin and Gene-Culture Co-evolution” – Nels Hoffman

• July 1 “Transhumanism 1. Bioengineered Superhumans: Technology, Ethics, Religion” – Nels Hoffman

• July 8 “Transhumanism 2. Path Forward: Superhighway or Rocky Road?” – Dan Winske and Bob Reinovsky

• July 15 “Near Death Experiences” – Glenn Magelssen

During the past six summers, the Forum has presented programs featuring Wednesday evenings of suppers, lectures, and discussions, based on specific themes and featuring highly recognized experts in areas at the intersection of religion and science. As we all are well aware, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of our summer plans have changed drastically: large gatherings and strong social interactions are not allowed or at best highly discouraged. In response to this situation — while maintaining the desire to continue our tradition of a summer lecture series — we embrace electronic social media as our solution. We will use ‘Zoom’ to stream our summer series out to all our previous participants as well as new people interested in these topics.

Wednesday evening session from the 2019 summer series presented by the Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum. Gerry Wood is delivering the after-dinner lecture at the Unitarian Church in Los Alamos.