Published in Theology and Science (Ahead of Print, 2023)

Published in Theology and Science (Ahead of Print, 2023)

ABSTRACT Settlement of the Outer Planets of the Solar System will take humans far away from the Sun, its warmth, and the light on which humans depend. Most settlements will be small mining enclaves or research stations until well into the future. Lengthy travel times will satisfy the human needs for hope, patience, acceptance, self-study, and contemplation of God's role in the universe. The authors

ABSTRACT In this article, I argue that given the possibility and prospect of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), panentheism, as a form of theism with a stronger emphasis on the immanence of God, parallels the anti-anthropocentrism implied by AGI. I discuss some general issues related to the categorization of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Next, both anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism will be

ABSTRACT To gain traction with the sciences, kenotic theologies tend to construe divine and creaturely causation in univocal, and so competitive, terms. Insofar as they share this framework with theories of divine design, or “contrivance,” I argue that they can inadvertently sustain their polemical foil. To move beyond such a stalled dialectic, this essay presents an account of non-contrastive transcendence

ABSTRACT In this article, I show why the Christian faith, which is, among other things, a response to the need for life’s meaning and an anticipation of eternal life, will not become superfluous in case digital immortality is achieved. I also deepen a view that emerges from this debate, which is the view of both Christian religion and transhumanism as promises of happiness. I argue that they differ

ABSTRACT The present article focuses on the explanation and theoretical exploration of the foundations and reasoning of three Muslim thinkers in contemporary Iran (Seyyed Hossain Nasr, Morteza Motahhari, and Mehdi Bazargan), according to the Ten Models of Ted Peters, regarding the relationship between religion and science. The study results indicate that there are commonalities among Christian and

ABSTRACT Several contributors to the collected volume, Interactive World, Interactive God, by Carol Albright, et al., examine emergence as a type of interaction from scientific and theological perspectives. In reviewing, two extensions are proposed. Systems theory can organize those investigations, and the phenomena they study, into a multilevel architecture built upon distinctions between weak emergence

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 21, No. 1, 2023)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 21, No. 1, 2023)

ABSTRACT The authors analyze the biblical roots of human responsibility for the earthly environment, and the forms of moral despoilment in the Bible that are later applied to environmental destruction. They then take the reader on an ecotheological journey of the Inner Planets Earth’s Moon and Mars. For each location, authors explore (1) the planetary science, (2) human adaptation to those conditions

ABSTRACT Despite various criticisms and alternative proposals, Barbour’s fourfold taxonomy has continued to serve as an intuitive introduction to Science-Religion relations. I offer a new fourfold taxonomy—called the Four “C”s Taxonomy: Conflict, Compartmentalization, Conversation, and Convergence—which improves upon the pedagogical advantages of Barbour’s taxonomy, and which avoids the weaknesses

ABSTRACT Although there is no consensus on how placebos actually work, their association with the concept of faith is considered to play a key role. In modern medicine, the traditional use of placebos raises bioethical concerns, despite the fact that it has shown extremely positive results over time. Orthodox Christian moral theology has not yet divulged its views on the matter, although several of

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 21, No. 1, 2023)

ABSTRACT Cosmologists and philosophers have not limited themselves to discussing the multiverse hypothesis within the confines of their own fields; they have, instead, extended their reflections to the realm of Christian religion and theology. This move equates to a belief in the superiority of the secular knowledge even in religious matters. I redesign the spheres of competence between secular knowledge

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 21, No. 1, 2023)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 21, No. 1, 2023)

ABSTRACT Attempts to establish a dialogue between the natural sciences and theology were made in the 20th century along with, among other things, the arrival of new groundbreaking theories in physics, but these attempts met with many content-related and methodological challenges. Philosophy, which plays an essential role as an intermediary in this relationship, has often proven to be a significant

ABSTRACT Quantum Mechanics and its philosophical interpretation have proved fertile ground for theological reflection, particularly regarding divine action. Pioneer in this field, Robert John Russell, proposes a Non-Interventionist Objective Divine Action (NIODA) in which God acts in and through the quantum process to actualise events as a form of objective special providence. This paper brings into

ABSTRACT This paper reflects upon some modern theologians’ stance on the idea of “Deep Incarnation” offering its Eastern Orthodox theological, philosophical and scientific assessment. The main problems and corresponding questions to this idea are: (1) Because of the vast and causally disconnected structure of the universe, humanity at best is consubstantial to the 4% of matter in the visible universe

ABSTRACT John Templeton's philanthropic organisations provide funding for research at the frontiers of the natural and human sciences. That funding is consistent with Templeton's longstanding personal interest in science. This article examines why Templeton, a world-renowned investor, was so interested in science. Templeton's writings indicate that science mattered primarily because of its profound

ABSTRACT The history of life on Earth is a story with a great deal of pain, death and extinction of species. Australian theologian Denis Edwards thought about how Theology can approach the problem of evil, specifically in evolution. Edwards reflected on the role of the Holy Spirit in the world’s creation and evolution, proposing that the Holy Spirit is present in love to each creature. Edwards explores

ABSTRACT The design and use of humanlike robots such as Sophia and Mindar present numerous theological challenges. Some of these issues have received theological attention since the early days of artificial intelligence and pertain to what I categorize as dimensions of (1) anthropology and (2) eschatology. However, the proliferation of robots into social domains in the past decade introduces further

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between the human soul as a substantial form and the transcendental principle of beauty in forms. This relationship is explored through the lens of aesthetics as applied to visual forms, empirical science, and mathematics. I propose that aesthetics and the principle of beauty is intrinsic and influential to the human experience. I have considered the thought

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 21, No. 1, 2023)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 4, 2022)

ABSTRACT The essential idea of Leibniz's Theodicy has become one of the organizing themes of modern mathematics. Many phenomena are possible locally but for purely mathematical reasons impossible globally. For example, it is possible to build a spiral staircase that is rising at any given point, but not one that is rising at all points and comes back to where it started. The necessity is mathematically

ABSTRACT A significant problem for a theology of animal heaven is that God has, using evolution, made animals to be predators and prey. This is the core identity of animals to be fulfilled in their redemption. Predation is a serious option for animal afterlife. Using a modified Process model of God, is there a bio-mechanism to move from the “fall up” of predation to a peaceful afterlife? Play. Play

ABSTRACT In Vol. 3, No. 1 of the journal Theology and Science, a discussion took place between Mehdi Golshani and Mikael Stenmark on the concept of “Theistic Science.” Although both have much in common, their core disagreement revolves around the possibility of value-free science. Stenmark argues that as far as the epistemic validation of fundamental scientific theories is concerned, that such validation

ABSTRACT Cognitive science of religion is sometimes portrayed as having no bearing on the theological doctrines of particular religious traditions, such as Christianity. In this paper, I argue that the naturalistic account of the etiology of religious beliefs offered by the cognitive science of religion undermines the important Christian doctrine of the grace of faith, which teaches that the special

ABSTRACT An examination of biology through the lens of thermodynamics affirms Aristotelian and Thomistic emphases on the centrality of volitional action in the good life. Life is characterized by far-from-equilibrium homeostasis that requires and enables work. Entropy leads to genetic disorders, senescence, cancers, and emerging pathogens, yet also drives the generation of novelty and freedom, and

ABSTRACT St. George Jackson Mivart is mostly remembered as a cautionary tale. If Mivart is mentioned at all in modern debates, it is to offer an example of how not to do biology and theology. However, in this paper I argue that, ongoing developments in evolutionary biology have produced genuine alternatives to strict neo-Darwinism that not only seek to downplay the role of natural selection, but do

ABSTRACT Experience plays an important role in contemporary theology, but the meaning of the term is often unclear. This article presents six different meanings of the term “experience” and how they are related, inspired by the grounded cognition model of the mind. This is then used to show how the four so-called theological sources (Scripture, tradition, experience and reason) are related in systematic

ABSTRACT Science is a socially conditioned enterprise that strives for maximum rationality and objectivity in its explanation of the world. However, since the relativity of its social conditioning opposes its drive for objectivity, there is a philosophical tension at the very heart of science. Given this tension, why does science even work? More precisely, why does science converge to the truth rather

ABSTRACT In March 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and there was a worldwide race to find an effective drug and/or vaccine. I present the Jewish ethical approach to two quandaries facing researchers: What is the acceptable degree of risk to the sick and to the healthy volunteers who participate in tests of an experimental vaccine? Is it permissible for a healthy person to volunteer for clinical

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

ABSTRACT In 1967 a well-known geology Professor at Tehran University, Dr Yadollah Sahabi, published a book entitled The Creation of Man. The main argument of his book was that the Qur’anic view of the creation of human beings is not incompatible with the modern understanding of the evolution of living organisms. Almost a year later, the most prominent Shi‘a exegete of the Qur’an in the twentieth century

ABSTRACT The notion of creation is apparently up for debate again in the science and theology dialogue, after having been one of the major topics of agreement. At least since the Divine Action Project, the common consensus has been that general divine action, that is, divine creation and conservation, is relatively uncontroversial and broadly agreed upon, whereas special divine action, to wit, divine

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

ABSTRACT Modern theologians are interested in scientific approaches for conceptualizing God and divine action. Emergentist monism is one such attempt, but those models, Clayton and Yong as representative, have been critiqued for appealing to a science that cannot sustain their theological commitments. A different kind of emergentism is required. A comprehensive accounting of spirit maps onto scientific

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

ABSTRACT This essay is a response to Adam Pryor's Russell Family Fellowship Paper from the 2020 RFF Conference at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences of the Graduate Theological Union. It engages with Pyror's argument, critiquing his view of planetarity as too large. Planetarity is also too small to be limited to a planet, because a planet or a moon that can sustain life, at least life

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

ABSTRACT Theological progress occurs when explanations are contested, revised, and upgraded. But what are explanations? According to the physicist David Deutsch, an explanation involves the application of knowledge to a problem. The essay will present three models for the operation of explanations within the discipline of theology: the perspectivist, aesthetical, and teleological. Importantly, each

Published in Theology and Science (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2022)

(2022). Theology and Science News. Theology and Science: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 137-137.

(2022). Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind. Theology and Science: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 263-264.

ABSTRACT Several recent authors have suggested that much of the discussion on divine action is flawed since it presupposes that divine and human agency compete. Such authors advocate a re-appropriation of the Scholastic distinction between primary and secondary causation which, it is suggested, solves many problems in the theology of divine action. This article critiques defences of the primary/secondary

ABSTRACT In her 2016 article “Spirituality in Christian Transhumanism: Commentary on Cole-Turner, Green, and Cannon,” Sandra A. Ham misunderstood my 2015 article “Transhumanism and Catholicism: Imagined and Real Tensions.” Here I respond to her criticisms and encourage more people to pursue matters concerning ethics, theology, and technology.

ABSTRACT The traditional view of hell as eternal conscious torment is challenged by proponents of universalism and conditional immortality. However, they need to explain why the church has been misled in adopting the traditional view. This paper draws from cognitive and evolutionary science of religion to provide an “error theory” of why eternal hell became the dominant view. Early Christianity grew

ABSTRACT In this paper, we claim that Jesus’ command “Love your enemies” is compatible with the fact that (1) for a group of Cooperators and Defectors repeatedly playing the Prisoner’s Dilemma game with each other, Defection will be the dominant strategy, and (2) the Tit-For-Tat strategy, a variant of the Eye-For-Eye principle that Jesus refuted in his Sermon on the Mount, had won Robert Axelrod’s

(2022). Islam and Evolution: Al-Ghazālī and the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm. Theology and Science: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 267-268.

(2022). The evolution of religion, religiosity and theology: a multilevel and multidisciplinary approach. Theology and Science: Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 265-266.

ABSTRACT This article suggests three important conclusions through examining dialogical methods of religion and science as well as religious contexts: Islam and Korean Christianity. Firstly, Ted Peters'hypothetical consonance as well as Zainal Bagir's philosophical and theological appreciation of science could be the appropriate models for a dialogue between science and non-Christian religions. Secondly

ABSTRACT An enlarged purview for amplification of religious doctrine can become necessary for a spacefaring species. Settlement of distant planetary bodies involves both technological and theological issues. The authors apply this notion to environmental preservation of the Earth, Earth's Moon, and cislunar space between Earth and Moon, as a unit. In expanding environmental protection beyond Earth