wfn.org | Science and Religion at Parliament of World's Religions

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Aug. 30, 1999
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
John Dart, 818 363 3984, jdartnews@aol.com
Mim Neal, 312 629 2990, mimneal@cpwr.org
http://www.cpwr.org

By John Dart, Media Consultant

Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions

CHICAGO - If an increasing religious diversity and interfaith
cooperation has defined the late 1900s, not far behind in century-ending
trends is the growing dialogue between mainstream science and religion.

         It is no wonder then, that four major presentations on
religion-and-science will be featured at the eight-day Parliament of the
World's Religions this December in Cape Town, South Africa. The 1999
Parliament, opening Dec. 1, will hold hundreds of concurrent seminars and
workshops for more than 6,000 expected participants, ranging from His
Holiness the Dalai Lama to scholars, spiritual teachers and lay leaders.
The colorful millennium-eve gathering in South Africa marks a
milestone for the Chicago-based Council for a Parliament of the World's
Religions (CPWR). Six years ago, the Council commemorated the historic 1893
Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago with a centenary gathering
of nearly 8,000 people.

         While stepping forward after 1993 to revitalize local interfaith
activity in the Windy City, the Council also found wide support for holding
a worldwide Parliament every five years in a major city abroad, giving the
CPWR a firm international footing. Council officials envision that the
Parliament's combined interfaith celebration and discussions of a "just,
peaceful and sustainable future" may be the right format for the burgeoning
interreligious movements setting the spiritual tenor for the next century.
The 1999 gathering, modeled after the 1993 event in Chicago, is
inviting more than 200 religious leaders, scholars and activists to the
Parliament's Assembly. The Assembly will consider the implementation of
the key Parliament document, "A Call to Our Guiding Institutions." The
Call addresses science and medicine as one of eight major fields
influencing the course of humanity at the start of a new millennium.
"I believe that by finding the convergent elements in their
respective concepts of reality," said CPWR executive director Dirk Ficca, "
the leaders of science and religion can become allies in preserving our
fragile planet."

         The religion/science symposium---open to all Parliament
registrants---features prominent interpreters of science and spirit,
including two organizers of an emerging alliance of environmentalists and
religious activists.

         Much of the science/religion dialogue in North America focuses on
issues pertinent to Christian and Jewish heritage. Befitting its multifaith
approach, however, the Parliament's symposium, titled "At Home in the
Universe," will consider views from the broad sweep of religious
traditions, said Clifford Matthews, the symposium's primary organizer and
emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The first two days of the symposium will deal with the scientific
story of the universe and religious responses. "Each religion has its own
story of origins, but all religions have to come to terms with the
ever-developing, scientific story of the universe," said Matthews,
co-editor of "Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends."

         "I used to tell my students that we are all recycled stardust,"
said Matthews, referring to the long-term process "from Big Bang to atoms
and molecules, stars and planets, and life." Today, science even has a
specialty in "recycled stardust," Matthews quipped, "usually called either
bioastronomy or astrobiology."

         Symposium speakers, besides Matthews, include two popular media
interpreters of science---George Johnson, author of "Fire in the Mind:
Science, Faith and the Search for Order" who writes frequently for the New
York Times, and science writer Margaret Wertheim of Los Angeles, who
produced "Faith and Reason," a PBS documentary. Others include John
Casti(cq) of the Santa Fe (N.M.) Institute, mathematician George Ellis of
the University of Cape Town and astronomer emeritus Eric Carlson of
Chicago's Adler Planetarium.

         The last two days of the religion-science symposium will have a
more practical emphasis. A Dec. 6 session on "The Emerging Alliance on
Religion and Ecology" is being organized by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John
Grim, both of Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. Scheduled panelists
include thinkers with Buddhist, Islamic, Jain, Hindu, Confucian and
indigenous backgrounds as well as Christian and Jewish speakers.
The newly renamed Zygon Center for Religion and Science, taking the
name of its respected journal, will hold the final presentation in the
symposium. Among seven speakers will be a Buddhist philosopher from
Thailand and a Muslim medical nutritionist from Indonesia. Others include
religious philosophers Karl Peters, a Unitarian who teaches at the
University of Hartford's Rollins College, and Ghulam-Haider Aasi of the
American College of Islam in Chicago.

         While the evolution-creationist battle intermittently rages in the
United States, most participants in the 1999 Parliament of the World's
Religions will be concerned with other matters.

         "The people who come to this conference are eager to learn about
and come to terms with science," said the Parliament's Clifford Matthews.
That doesn't translate to pedantic lectures and ho-hum discussions, he
said. Just as each religion has its own internal debates, "scientists will
be discussing the controversies and differences of opinion within their own
fields," Matthews said. "That is consistent with the nature of science,"
he said. "But some people of faith will be surprised with the large amount
of philosophical reflection that goes on in science."
               -end-

************************************************
Ms. Mim Neal
Public Relations Manager
Mr. John Dart
Media Consultant - CPWR / California
Tel. / Fax: 818-363-3984
E-mail: mailto:jdartnews@aol.com
CPWR Tel.: 312-629-2990
Fax: 312-629-2991 / 3552 / 1287
Direct Line for Mim Neal: 312-629-1120
Web site: http://www.cpwr.org
parliament General Info: mailto:99info@cpwr.org