January 2019 Newsletter
In this Clergy Letter Project update, you’ll find the following six items:
- Evolution Weekend 2019 Is Quickly Approaching: Are You Listed;
- Astrobiology News for January 2019: The Role of Citizen Scientists in New Discoveries;
- Teaching Evolution in Kentucky;
- Is Faith Like “Fake News”;
- A New Year Brings New Assaults on Evolution; and
- An Exciting, Pre-packaged Evolution Weekend Event.
1. Evolution Weekend 2019 Is Quickly Approaching: Are You Listed
Every year a surprising number of congregations participate in Evolution Weekend but never make it onto our official list of participants. While participation in and of itself is valuable, we miss an important opportunity to make a strong collective statement when our list fails to represent the full array of congregations participating. It is for that reason that I’m asking all of you who plan to participate to check our list and make certain that you’re on it. If you’re not, just let me know and I’ll add you immediately.
______ Of course I plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2019! Please add me to the growing list of participants.
Name of Congregation:
Location:
Your Name:
Remember, you may participate in any way that is most comfortable for you and your congregation and you may do so any time in the temporal vicinity of Evolution Weekend. What’s important are the discussions that take place and the insights that are gained. Help us shape a more informed, respectful and tolerant future.
2. Astrobiology News for January 2019: The Role of Citizen Scientists in New Discoveries
In this month’s Astrobiology News, Clergy Letter Project consultant and Adler Planetarium astronomer Grace Wolf-Chase asks Clergy Letter Project members for help designing scientific experiments.
Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for online citizen science.(1) Last month, I mentioned the launch of Planet Hunters TESS; this month, I want to tell you about two exciting new discoveries by citizen scientists participating in Exoplanet Explorers, which uses data from the Kepler Observatory’s Second Mission.(2) Both discoveries are described extensively in Zooniverse blogs posted on January 7th.(3)
Exoplanet K2-288b orbits in the habitable zone of the smaller of two low-mass red dwarf stars that form a binary system. Its size places it in a rare category of planets being dubbed “sub-Neptunes” – worlds thought to lie in a transition region between potentially habitable “super-Earths” and worlds more like the gas giants in our Solar System. K2-138g, just a bit smaller than Neptune, is the 6th planet discovered in the K2-138 system, which harbors a somewhat more massive “orange dwarf” star. The K2-138 system shares some similarities with the TRAPPIST-1 system, which you can read more about in the Astrobiology News posts from March and May 2017.(4)
What makes the K2-138 and TRAPPIST-1 systems similar is that the planets all orbit close to their stars, with very short periods. Five of the 6 planets in K2-138, and all 7 planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, form a so-called resonant chain, where the planet orbits are related by the ratios of small integers. The orbiting bodies in such systems exert periodic gravitational influence on each other. In most cases, interactions such as these are unstable, but under some conditions, the resonances can be stable and self-correcting. Studying planetary systems like these yields important insights into how different types of planets form, and how resonant orbits remain stable.
This is not the first time that citizen scientists have played critical roles in discovering new planets – the first Planet Hunters project, which used data from the Kepler Observatory’s original mission, resulted in 12 peer-reviewed academic publications, including the discovery of the 1st planet in a quadruple star system! With TESSdata coming in fast and furious, there will likely be many more contributions to come!(5) Those of you who have participated in Zooniverse projects also know that they span many fields of academic research – not just science. Since the free do-it-yourself Project Builder was launched in 2015,(6) researchers have been able to design their own projects, which has greatly increased the rate at which new projects can be launched on the website.
More projects mean we need more citizen scientists to join the “Zooniverse universe!” We are especially interested in helping religious and interfaith communities build and participate in projects that reflect their values and interests. For example, a science project might have the goal of alleviating suffering or protecting the environment; a humanities project might entail mining information from historical texts, art, or maps that have been acquired from organizations, museums, or sacred sites. If Clergy Letter Project members have any ideas about projects that might interest you, please let me know!
Until next month,
Grace Wolf-Chase, Ph.D. (gwolfchase@adlerplanetarium.org)
1. https://www.zooniverse.org/
2. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html
3. https://blog.zooniverse.org/
4. http://theclergyletterproject.org/Resources/Astrobiology.html
5. https://www.zooniverse.org/about/publications
6. https://www.zooniverse.org/lab
3. Teaching Evolution in Kentucky
As I ’ve done so often in the past, I’m sharing another one of Paul Braterman’s blog posts with you. In this piece, he presents the work of Jim Krupa, professor of biology at the University of Kentucky and member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants, which discusses the ways he teaches evolution to students unfamiliar with the topic. Most directly related to the goals of The Clergy Letter Project, he discusses how he debunks the claim that accepting evolution is incompatible with religion.
4. Is Faith Like “Fake News”
I’m delighted to share a sermon written by Rabbi Rachel Jackson from Agudas Israel Congregation in Hendersonville, NC with you. The piece is entitled “Is Faith Like ‘Fake News’?” and it was published by our good friends at our sister organization Sinai and Synapses.
The sermon is both enjoyable and enlightening. Indeed, how could any piece opening with a mention of an article entitled “BigFoot kept lumberjack as love slave” and another discussing a “study that found that the average American inadvertently eats eight pieces of fruit each year,” be anything other than enjoyable and enlightening? But Rabbi Jackson does present serious content, content that I suspect you’ll find worth your time!
5. A New Year Brings New Assaults on Evolution
The start of 2019 brought with it new attacks on evolution in a number of states around the country. Our good friends at the National Center for Science Education report on new bills having been introduced in Arizona, Florida, Indiana and North Dakota. Did I mention that it is only the middle of January? In each case, in addition to posing serious threats to science education, the proposed legislation privileges one narrow religious perspective over all others. Clearly our collaborative work at The Clergy Letter Project is far from over!
6. An Exciting, Pre-packaged Evolution Weekend Event
As I explained in last month’s newsletter, The Clergy Letter Project’s long-time partner WesleyNexus is again hosting an exciting Evolution Weekend event and you are all invited to join for free. The event is entitled “Human Origins: Social and Religious Impacts” and will take place on Sunday, 10 February 2019 from 3:30-5:30 EST.
WesleyNexus notes that “Featured speakers are Dr. Briana Pobiner, Research Scientist, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Constance Bertka, President, Science and Society Resources, Smithsonian Consultant. Paleoanthropological discoveries continually provide us with new insights into the six million year history of humanity. While the fundamental narrative of life’s interrelatedness through evolutionary processes remains intact, ongoing fossil and archeological discoveries and advances in genetic studies enrich our understanding of the similarities, differences, and the relationship of modern Homo sapiens to earlier human species. Religious traditions in pursuit of global understanding and reconciliation will find both challenges and opportunities in the science of our origins. The presenters will review the most recent science, highlight key points for conversation, and encourage a discussion of these points among religious leaders.”
The afternoon will be live-streamed so it will be a perfect pre-packaged Evolution Weekend event for you and your congregation. You can read more about the event, including how to sign up and to live stream it by going to the event’s web site.
_____ Oh my! This event looks perfect for my congregation. We plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2019. Please add us to the growing list of participants.
Name of Congregation:
Location:
Your Name:
Concluding Thoughts
I hope that the partial shutdown of the US federal government hasn’t impacted either those of you living in the United States or those you serve. This is obviously a very trying time for many. I also hope that we find a way to treat those immigrants searching for peace and security with the respect and dignity that they deserve. A number of months back, upon an overwhelmingly positive vote by membership, The Clergy Letter Project spoke out strongly about the policy of separating immigrant children from their parents. Unfortunately, we’re just now learning that the number who have been separated is far greater than originally reported and the policy was in place far longer than had been claimed. Our religious beliefs and our scientific understanding teach us that we can and should be better than this. But to be better we must speak out. It is up to us to stop this evil.
Finally, as always, I want to thank you for your continued support and as I do every month, I urge you to take one simple action. Please share this month’s Newsletter with a colleague or two (or post a link via any social media platform you use) and ask them to add their voices to those promoting a deep and meaningful understanding between religion and science. They can add their signatures to one of our Clergy Letters simply by dropping me a note at mz@theclergyletterproject.org. Together we are making a difference.
Best wishes for a healthy, happy and productive new year.
Michael
Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org