July 2021 Newsletter
In this Clergy Letter Project update you’ll find the following thirteen items:
- Call for Evolution Weekend 2022 Themes;
- Astrobiology News for July 2021: Venus and Earth: A Tale of Two Planets;
- Dealing Effectively With Young Earth Creationists – And More;
- Ignorance in Religion and the Wider Culture;
- AAAS Highlights Grace Wolf-Chase;
- Floods in India: A View of Climate Change from Under the River;
- UCC Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis;
- Good News from South Carolina;
- Good News from Arizona;
- The Anglican Communion and Science;
- The Common Values that Increase Trust Between Science and Faith;
- Cosmos as Home: Evolution as Context; and
- Covalence for July/August: Science, Faith and Ethics.
1. Call for Evolution Weekend 2022 Themes
Evolution Weekend 2022 is scheduled for 11-13 February 2022 and it is time to think about a theme for the event. To remind you, for the past 10 years or so, members have selected a theme around which The Clergy Letter Project could promote and members could celebrate Evolution Weekend. While not every participating congregation structured their event with the theme in mind, many did. The overarching goal has been to create an opportunity for congregations to promote the compatibility of religion and science regardless of the form chosen.
With that in mind, this is a formal call for suggestions for a theme for Evolution Weekend 2022. Please send me (mz@theclergyletterproject.org) your suggestion(s). I’ll collect them and put them to a vote over the following months.
Thanks for your efforts to make Evolution Weekend 2022 a success.
Recent Evolution Weekend themes include:
2021: Religion and Science in a Time of Denial: Neither will be Denied
2020: How Science and Religion Can Work Together to Deal with the Problems of the Climate Crisis
2019: The Confluence of Religion and Science
2018: Our Shared Humanity
2017: A productive melding of science, religion and the humanities as exemplified in The Universe Story, originally published 25 years ago by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry
2016: Exploring Ways to Engage in Complex Discussions in a Civil Manner
2015: Science and Religion in Dialogue: Past, Present, and Future
2014: Different Ways of Knowing / Asking Different Questions
2013: Evolution in the Modern World
2012: An interfaith discussion of religion and science
2011: The Positive Relationship Between Religion and the Environment
_______ I plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2022. Please add me to the growing list of participants.
Name:
Congregation or similar group:
Location:
2. Astrobiology News for July 2021: Venus and Earth: A Tale of Two Planets
In this month’s Astrobiology News Grace Wolf-Chase, Senior Scientist and Senior Education & Communication Specialist at the Planetary Science Institute as well as a Clergy Letter Project consultant, discusses the similarities and differences between Earth and Venus. If her words cause you to worry even more about climate change here on Earth – and if you haven’t yet added your signature to our Climate Crisis Letter, please drop me a note and I’ll get you added.
Last month, NASA selected two missions for concept design development to revisit the planet Venus for the first time in over 30 years. Why the renewed interest in Venus? In a few respects, Venus and Earth are similar – they’re about the same size and mass, and Venus is the closest planet to the Earth. That’s about where the similarity ends. A day on Venus is longer than its year (Venus’s period of rotation is longer than its orbital period about the Sun), and Venus’s global average temperature is 864 F, hot enough to melt lead, and hotter than the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury. Venus’s thick carbon dioxide atmosphere is 90 times as thick as Earth’s atmosphere, amounting to a surface air pressure similar to the pressure of water a mile under the ocean!
Venus’s exceedingly high temperature and air pressure have to do with the way its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat. Planetary scientists think that in the distant past, Venus had a climate much more similar to Earth’s climate today, one that may have been able to support life. At some point in its history, it experienced a runaway greenhouse effect leading to the “hell-like” conditions that exist on Venus today. The DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions, both expected to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe, were selected to help shed light on what happened to this “Lost Habitable” world.(1)
DAVINCI+ will consist of a descent sphere that will plunge through Venus’s thick atmosphere, while VERITAS will obtain high-resolution maps of the Venusian surface from orbit. Together, these missions will shed light on Venus’s geological history and why Venus’s atmosphere is so different from Earth’s. DAVINCI+ will study the composition of Venus’s atmosphere and determine whether Venus ever had an ocean, and, if so, for how long. It will return the first high resolution pictures of the unique geological features known as “tesserae,” which may be comparable to Earth’s continents, suggesting that Venus has plate tectonics. VERITAS will use radar to create 3D reconstructions of topography over nearly the entire planet, and confirm whether processes such as plate tectonics and volcanism are still active on Venus today. Answering questions about why Venus and Earth evolved so differently may also be key to understanding what might make other rocky planets habitable.
Even as we develop missions to study other planets, satellites continuously monitor conditions on Earth. While preparing a talk on Earth’s climate crisis for an intergenerational camp led by Dr. Sharon Grant at Hood Theological Seminary,(2) I discovered a great NASA site for families called “ClimateKids.”(3) I highly recommend this site to those of you who may be looking for resources and activities to explore with your children or grandchildren. Another great resource is the free, online journal Frontiers for Young Minds(4) that connects young people (typically ages 8-15 years) to scientists and cutting-edge discoveries. You can find some terrific articles about Earth’s environment in the sections on Biodiversity and Earth and Its Resources. There are also some wonderful new climate research projects you can participate in on Zooniverse,(5) including one called NASA Globe Cloud Gaze,(6) which is particularly timely in light of the terrible wildfires in the west.
Finally, I want to thank everyone who has responded to Michael’s call for help in filling out one of the surveys associated with Engaging Faith-based Communities in Citizen Science with Zooniverse,(7) and if you haven’t responded, there’s still time! The pre-participation questionnaire is for people who have never used Zooniverse, and the post-participation questionnaire is for those who have. If you filled out the pre-participation questionnaire previously and have subsequently used Zooniverse, please consider filling out the post-participation questionnaire, too. Your responses are extremely helpful to me as I begin evaluating this project and planning new ways to bring science to everyone – please do email me if you’d like to discuss possible ways of integrating science into programs at your places of worship!
Until next month,
Grace
Grace Wolf-Chase (gwolfchase@gmail.com)
Senior Scientist & Senior Education & Communication Specialist, Planetary Science Institute (www.psi.edu/about/staffpage/gwchase)
Vice President, Center for Advanced Study in Religion and Science (CASIRAS: www.casiras.org)
1. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-2-missions-to-study-lost-habitable-world-of-venus
2. https://www.hoodseminary.edu/Initiatives/international-center-of-faith-science-and-history/events
3. https://climatekids.nasa.gov/
4. https://kids.frontiersin.org/
5. https://www.zooniverse.org/projects?discipline=climate&page=1&status=live
6. https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/nasaglobe/nasa-globe-cloud-gaze
7. http://www.theclergyletterproject.org/Resources/Zooniverse.html
3. Dealing Effectively With Young Earth Creationists – And More
Back in April, I offered a number of free copies of a new book written by Dr. Lorence Collins, a retired professor of geology and a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants. The book is entitled A Christian Geologist Explains Why the Earth Cannot be 6,000 Years Old: Let’s Heal the Divide in the Church and it generated quite a bit of interest among Clergy Letter Project members.
I’m delighted to say that the book continues to receive well-deserved attention. Indeed, the July/August issue of Skeptical Inquirer has a piece explaining the book’s premise and presenting some of its conclusions.
The book may be the perfect one for you to consider as you plan an Evolution Weekend event. It is written for a non-technical audience (although it has plenty of references for scientists interested in the issues discussed). In addition to explaining how the geological record does not support a young earth interpretation, Larry provides a clear and useful explanation of evolution, differentiating between the “record,” “process,” and “theory” of evolution. He also analyzes how great apes are related to humans. Perhaps most importantly, the book explains the process of science and makes the case that scientific knowledge does not – and cannot – conflict with religion, except when religion takes on its most fundamentalist form.
The book can be purchased directly from the publisher.
4. Ignorance in Religion and the Wider Culture
I’m delighted to say that I’m able to share another essay by The Reverend Ken Olson, a member of The Clergy Letter Project. This month he offers us a fabulous piece, entitled “Ignorance in Religion and the Wider Culture.”
When writing about ignorance it is all too easy to become condescending, preachy, insufferable, or unbelievably pessimistic. I’m happy to report that Ken avoids all of these pitfalls while discussing a serious current problem while situating that problem in a very rich historical context.
Please take a look at his writing; I’m confident that you won’t be disappointed. And to help you savor his work, I’ve created an archive page for all of his essays that have been published in our newsletter. Enjoy – and please join me in thanking Ken for sharing his work with us.
5. AAAS Highlights Grace Wolf-Chase
Readers of this newsletter are likely very familiar with Grace Wolf-Chase from her monthly Astrobiology News features. A recent piece published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) profiling Grace and her work to help demonstrate that religion and science can be compatible will bring her and her work to the attention of many more people – and it may teach those of you familiar with her even more about her background and her passions. Do take a look at the wonderful profile.
6. Floods in India: A View of Climate Change from Under the River
Our very good friends at Sinai and Synapses have just posted a podcast discussing the impact that climate change is having on rural parts of India. As the introduction to the podcast notes, “The floods in India are so extreme that hundreds of villages and thousands of farms can find themselves underwater. Rivers can dramatically shift course overnight. In the floodplain of the Himalayas, climate change collides with economy, culture, caste, and life.”
You’re not going to want to miss the discussion with Dr. Luisa Cortesi, an applied anthropologist who has lived and worked in India during some of the worst flooding. You can listen to the podcast here.
And, if you haven’t yet done so, I hope this podcast provides the necessary impetus for you to add your signature to our Climate Crisis Letter. Just drop me a note if you want to be included and I’ll take care of it.
7. UCC Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis
At its biennial meeting, held virtually this year, the United Church of Christ voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution declaring racism to be a public health crisis. The resolution which passed with 96 percent of the vote calls on its congregations to educate their members and advocate for public policies that work toward health equity. You can read more about the resolution in a news article recently published by Religion News Service.
This welcome position taken by the UCC is fully in keeping with the position articulated over the years by The Clergy Letter Project.
8. Good News from South Carolina
As you’ll see in this item and the next, our good friends at the National Center for Science Education recently shared some good news on the evolution front from both South Carolina and Arizona.
South Carolina recently adopted science standards that put the teaching of evolution back into the curriculum – after it had been removed in 2014. Read more about this good news here.
9. Good News from Arizona
Building on the information in the last item, there is also good news about the teaching of evolution in Arizona. A bill mandating that instructors present controversial issues, of which evolution was one, “from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective" died after being approved by Arizona’s senate. Had it passed, teachers falling afoul of the legislation could have been fined up to $5,000. You can read more about the situation here.
10. The Anglican Communion and Science
Every ten years the Archbishop of Canterbury calls together all of the bishops in the Anglican Communion for a meeting called the Lambeth Conference. (Last year’s meeting was postponed due to Covid and has been rescheduled for next summer.) As a recent article in The Living Church noted, “The relationship between faith and science and the Church’s response to the environmental crisis will be ‘big picture’ themes at next summer’s Lambeth Conference, which focuses on being ‘God’s Church for God’s World’.”
In preparation for the conference, a series of videos entitled “Talking About Faith and Science” has been created in which the question addressed is, “Why Should the Church Care About Science?” (Some of these videos could be used to create an exciting Evolution Weekend event!)
In the introductory video, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby celebrated the many ways that science has been “a gift to human beings.” He noted:
It is scientific advance that has lifted so many people out of poverty. It is scientific advance that has enabled the world to feed itself. It is widespread science that has enabled us to produce vaccines at a speed that even five years ago — a year ago — would have been thought unimaginable. It is science that has begun to give us a big picture of our place in the world. It is science that has driven our consciousness of the danger to the world from climate change – and what we can do about it in the future.
11. The Common Values that Increase Trust Between Science and Faith
Our good friends at WesleyNexus brought a fairly recent interview with Dr. Elaine Howard Ecklund to my attention. The interview was published in Christianity Today and was entitled “The Common Values that Increase Trust Between Science and Faith.” You can read the full interview here.
12. Cosmos as Home: Evolution as Context
In addition to the piece in the last item, our friends at WesleyNexus also brought an interesting article published by the Center for Humans and Nature to my attention. The piece was written by Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of the Environment as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She also co-directs the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.
Dr. Tucker’s essay is entitled “Cosmos as Home: Evolution as Context” and discusses the difficulties we have coming to a deep understanding of cosmic, biological, and human evolution. Her piece concludes with this powerful paragraph: “Is this not sufficient reason to respond with awe and wonder at what has emerged over 14 billion years? Is this not the time to celebrate evolution as one dynamic unfolding process? With such an understanding of the continuity of all life we can develop a more robust cosmological ethics highlighting responsibility and reciprocity for our magnificent Earth community.”
You can read her full article here.
13. Covalence for July/August: Science, Faith and Ethics
Covalence is the journal of the Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology. Not surprisingly, it often focuses on topics directly related to those at the heart of The Clergy Letter Project. The latest issue presents articles on the way we view ourselves from the perspective of faith and science, how artificial intelligence can develop its own set of ethics, and much more! You can access the issue here.
Concluding Thoughts
I trust that most, if not all, of you reading this newsletter are now vaccinated. And I hope that each of you is taking the time to discuss the importance of vaccinations with friends, colleagues, congregants and relatives who may be hesitant. You have the sort of credibility that politicians and national leaders don’t and thus your voices can make a huge difference. In this regard, the impact of clergy speaking out in favor of vaccination is much akin to their speaking out in favor of the teaching of evolution. I hope you, all those you care about, and all those with whom you interact remain safe and healthy.
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. Spread the word; change the world. Together we are making a difference.
Stay safe and healthy.
Michael
Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org