July 2024 Newsletter
In this Clergy Letter Project update you’ll find the following 18 items:
- Vote for a Theme for the 20th Anniversary of Religion and Science Weekend;
- Across the Cosmos for July 2024: Habitability for Your Cosmic Future: AstroAnthropology Meets AstroEthics;
- Defending Those Who Are Religious;
- Check on Your Local Heat Risk;
- Science Texts Censored in Texas;
- Holocaust Books Banned in Texas;
- Religion in America;
- The Bible Is Coming to Oklahoma Classrooms;
- The Ten Commandments Are Coming to Louisiana;
- Biological Races Are Not Real;
- Remembering the Prophet of New Creation: Jürgen Moltmann;
- Books on Church and Public Life;
- 13th Straight Monthly Heat Record;
- Climate Change Removed from Florida Textbooks;
- Paleotempestology;
- Episcopal Presiding Bishop-Elect Seeks to Reduce Carbon Footprint;
- Vatican Convenes Astrophysicist Dream Team; and
- Wind Eclipses Coal.
1. Vote for a Theme for the 20th Anniversary of Religion and Science Weekend
It’s time to vote for a theme for the 20th anniversary of Religion and Science Weekend. Please take a look at the nominees submitted by members below and respond to these by sending me an email with your first two choices. Additionally, it’s not too late to submit a new nomination of your own! We’ll have two rounds of voting, this month and next. Additionally, if you know that you’ll be participating in Religion and Science Weekend 2025, regardless of the theme selected, please let me know now as I begin to build next year’s web page. I look forward to hearing from you.
* Religion and Science: Living in Awe
*Religion and Science: Stronger Together
*Finding Common Ground
*Twenty Years Strong: Promoting Religion and Science
*Pursuit of Truth—a Necessity in a Healthy Society
*Society Needs Respect for Both Religion and Science
*Darwinian Revival
2. Across the Cosmos for July 2024: Habitability for Your Cosmic Future: AstroAnthropology Meets AstroEthics
In this month’s essay, 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 great talks at the recent IRAS conference – and provides a link to view the talks.
Amidst the growing feelings of despair, frustration, fear, and division in the U.S. and around the world, I want to take a moment to commend the Clergy Letter Project for its efforts to bridge, rather than deepen, societal divides. Mailing costs for the monthly CLP e-newsletter are provided by the Center for Advanced Study In Religion and Science (CASIRAS), because we consider this a critical venue for communication. CASIRAS is closely related to IRAS, the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.(1) Anyone who is interested in respectful and diverse conversations on issues at the intersection of science and religion can become a member of IRAS. Together, our organizations publish the open-access Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science.(2) I encourage you to consider becoming a member of IRAS, and to check out the excellent articles available in the Zygon Journal.
IRAS has held an annual conference on beautiful Star Island, New Hampshire since its inception in 1954. This month, I’d like to give you a very small taste of this year’s exciting topics, as one who unfortunately couldn’t be physically present, but listened to the presentations that were streamed on YouTube. You can access these presentations through the link provided below.(3) This year’s conference explored the impact the discovery of extraterrestrial life (ETL), especially intelligent(4) extraterrestrial life, might have on religion,(5) as well as the impact prolonged exposure off Earth might have on human bodies and cultures.
Just a few highlights: CLP member Ted Peters discussed how theologians have thought about ETL throughout history; Seth Shostak discussed the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI); Harold Connolly talked about probing the Solar System’s origins through sample return missions from asteroids; Paul Carr explored the question of non-human animal souls; Mark Shelhamer talked about what happens to the body in space; Jennifer Wiseman gave a beautiful tour of our Universe, with reflections on the feelings evoked by nature; Andrew Davis presented an “anthropocosmic” view of the Universe, combining process theology with an evolving cosmos; ordained astrobiologist Lucas Mix cautioned about the narrative that we must evolve in a specific direction (beware of “Developmental Soteriology” masquerading as science!); Shoaib Ahmed Malik provided a very enlightening overview on Islamic thought regarding ET and evolution; and Brandon Ambrosino gave a wonderful ethics presentation from the perspective of being a gay Christian theologian.
CLP members might find the streamed presentations excellent as background material for science and religion discussion groups. I also humbly encourage you to read the Reflections piece I wrote for Covalence,(6) which presents some personal thoughts on impediments to inclusivity in enabling the next generation of thinkers in science and religion. Perhaps you might have ideas on how we can collectively enable young people who are navigating these impediments going forward. If so, as always you should feel free to email me!(6)
Until next month,
Grace
Grace Wolf-Chase (she/her/hers) (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)2. https://www.zygonjournal.org/
3. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6FXM1sr4qUqzz-7_VOcz-o7J5qW2C1Eb
4. What qualifies as “intelligent” remains vague and poorly understood.
5. This was mostly addressed in terms of Christian theology; however, scientist and theologian Shoaib Ahmed Malik delivered a fascinating talk on past and current thinking in Islamic theology.
3. Defending Those Who Are Religious
As you likely know, one of the major premises of The Clergy Letter Project is that promoting the compatibility of religion and science is good for both religion and science. Together we’ve made that case innumerable times over the years. Recently, however, this simple message has hit home in a way that it hadn’t previously. Let me explain.
The rise of Christian Nationalist in our political discourse and the seemingly blind, public embracing of Donald Trump by so many Christian fundamentalists have led to a somewhat surprising set of conversations I’ve had with liberal friends and acquaintances. It is not uncommon now for some of these people to simply and vehemently condemn all Christians, and often all who profess any religious sensibilities at all for what they view as extreme and hateful views being promulgated in the public sphere. I try to explain how wrong it is to equate the most extreme views with those held by all who are religious, how narrowminded it is to assume that you can determine what people think by linking them to others, others with whom they probably disagree, and how disrespectful it is to condemn individuals without engaging with them. These friends and colleagues of mine are making use of simplistic stereotypes to form opinions and are, in effect, guilty of some of the behaviors practiced by those they oppose the most.
The Clergy Letter Project is about engaging in respectful dialogue and learning from differences. We need to reach out to explain how those extreme religious voices do not represent the majority of religious adherents and how fundamentalists, on both the right and the left, are a danger to society. The problem is not religion – it is extremism.
4. Check on Your Local Heat Risk
As the northern hemisphere summer season progresses and as temperatures continue to rise, it is important to be aware of where dangers lurk. The National Weather Service has produced a heat risk map for the United States. The map is updated daily and shows where dangers are most severe. Do take a look at the map here. It will not only permit you to assess your local risks but it will provide an overview for the country.
5. Science Texts Censored in Texas
As this article from an ABC affiliate in Texas reports, the Cy-Fair Independent School District voted to ban chapters from science texts used in the district. Thirteen separate chapters from an array of books to be approved by the board were censored. The article reports that “Lesley Guilmart, president of the nonpartisan nonprofit Cypress Families for Public Schools, said she believes censoring science textbooks will make it more difficult for students to engage in critical thinking. ‘There's no 'both sides' to scientific data. The data is the data. ... Analysis and evaluation can enter the picture in science class when students are given the opportunity to consider whether or not rising temperatures and sea levels are a problem that should be addressed.”
6. Holocaust Books Banned in Texas
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that a school district in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas has banned 676 books, including “some seminal texts about the Holocaust and antisemitism.” The banned books included an “illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary; both volumes of Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust graphic memoir Maus; and The Fixer, Bernard Malamud’s novel about a historical instance of antisemitic blood libel.” The district's superintendent made the decision to ban the books within minutes of being asked to do so by a right-wing group.
7. Religion in America
The Washington Post recently ran a fascinating story detailing interesting facts about religion in America. The story’s subheading explains a great deal: “This week, we mine the U.S. Religious Census, a decennial count of America’s faithful, for insights into the geography of religious devotion. We also compare people’s claims on church attendance to their actual behavior.” You can read the article via a free gift link here.
8. The Bible Is Coming to Oklahoma Classrooms
Until and unless the courts step in, Oklahoma is requiring that the Bible be taught in public schools throughout Oklahoma. Although you may well already be aware of this troubling story since the edict was issued a few weeks ago, you can read how the move was originally reported by The New York Times in this free gift article here.
9. The Ten Commandments Are Coming to Louisiana
As with the last item, you are likely already familiar with the details of this one as well. Louisiana just recently moved to require that the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom in the state. Although the US Supreme Court, in 1980, struck down a Kentucky law mandating the same thing, it is unclear how the current Court will act when the case appears before it. You can read the report from The Washington Post in this free gift article here.
Ann Telnaes’s political cartoon on this issue describes the situation most clearly and succinctly. Do take a look here.
10. Biological Races Are Not Real
The Clergy Letter Project has repeatedly argued, on both religious and scientific grounds, that the concept of human races is not real. Here’s an article, written by an evolutionary biologist and a biological anthropologist, that clearly makes the case. Their opening sentence pulls no punches: We tackle “a big lie: The idea that human beings have biological races.” You can read the full article here.
11. Remembering the Prophet of New Creation: Jürgen Moltmann
Ted Peters, pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Tiburon, CA, emeritus professor of Systematic Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and a member of The Clergy Letter Project, recently published an obituary of Jürgen Moltmann, one of the greatest theologians of our time and someone who had a great deal to say about the relationship between religion and science. You can read Ted’s wonderful essay here.
12. Books on Church and Public Life
Religion Unplugged published a recent article suggesting books to read this summer on the church and public life. You can access the article here.
13. 13th Straight Monthly Heat Record
Now that June 2024 is behind us, we can report that it was the 13th month in a row that set a heat record. You can read an article outlining the situation published by the Associated Press here
14. Climate Change Removed from Florida Textbooks
According to an article in the Orlando Sentinel, “textbook authors were told last month that some references to ‘climate change’ must be removed from science books before they could be accepted for use in Florida’s public schools, according to two of those authors.” One of those authors is Ken Miller, emeritus professor of biology at Brown University and a member of The Clergy Letter Project’s list of scientific consultants. You can read the full article discussing this troubling situation here.
15. Paleotempestology
Paleotempestology is a field in which practitioners attempt to use geological and geospatial information to determine the history of storms in a region. Data based on instrumental records reach back no more than 170 years so finding ways to learn to learn more about thousands of years of weather by radiocarbon dating waves of sand in lakes near the coastline is of growing importance. Scientists are convinced that this knowledge will permit them to make better predictions about the patterns of and dangers arising from future storms. You can read more about this new field in a gift article from The Washington Post here.
16. Episcopal Presiding Bishop-Elect Seeks to Reduce Carbon Footprint
In an interesting move, the Presiding Bishop-Elect of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Sean Rowe, has decided to modify his installation ceremony in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint. You can read an article explaining the move published by Religion News Service here.
17. Vatican Convenes Astrophysicist Dream Team
The Vatican Observatory was established in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII to promote dialogue between faith and science and it has been doing so ever since. It has now convened a meeting of 40 physicists, including two Nobel Prize winners, to honor the legacy of Georges Lemaître, the priest who first theorized the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe. The group, which met at the end of June, addressed ways to reconcile quantum theory and cosmology. You can read more about this effort in an article published by Religion News Service here.
18. Wind Eclipses Coal
For the first time ever, the United States is getting more energy from wind power than from coal. You can view the 20-year trend in this graph.
Concluding Thoughts
Like last month, this month’s newsletter has a heavy dose of education and climate change issues. These are issues at the core of what The Clergy Letter Project is all about and they are increasingly playing a significant role in society. There seems to be shrinking respect and understanding about the importance of religion, science, and truth among the public and an even smaller appetite for meaningful dialogue and respect. We can help change this trajectory if we use our voices and our positions to articulate a better, broader, and healthier perspective. Thank you for all you’re doing to help bring the future we all want to fruition.
Finally, 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.
Michael
Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org