June 2019 Newsletter
In this Clergy Letter Project update, you’ll find the following seven items:
- A Free Book to Help Prepare for Evolution Weekend 2020;
- Astrobiology News for June 2019: Highlights from the American Astronomical Society Meeting;
- Engaging Faith-based Communities in Citizen Science through Zooniverse;
- Understanding Evolution - Conversations Between a Scientist and a Pastor;
- The Intersection of Zen and Science;
- When Judaism Meets Science; and
- Teaching the Bible in Public Schools.
1. A Free Book to Help Prepare for Evolution Weekend 2020
I recognize that it’s only the middle of June but I very much hope that you give some serious thought to what you might do to participate in Evolution Weekend 2020 (14-16 February 2020). As it has done for 14 years, Evolution Weekend is an opportunity for local congregations to promote the idea that religion and science can work together constructively. And, has it has done for 14 years, it demonstrates how complex ideas can be discussed both productively and civilly, something that is particularly needed in these troubled times.
In an attempt to help you reach out to the youngest members of your congregation, I’m delighted to introduce you to a new book, Where Did I Come From? A Guide for Parents on Science, Evolution, Human Origins, and the Christian Faith. The book was written by the Rev. Dr. James Bradley Miller, a good friend of The Clergy Letter Project. He describes the purpose and origin of the book better than I ever could: “It is the outcome in part of two personal dynamics: first, a deep aggravation with mainline protestant denominations that they have produced so little educational material for use in congregations that address science/religion relationships; second, the significant impact on my theological thought due to my service as co-chair of the Broader Social Impacts Committee of the Human Origins Program of the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. The book was designed for use in local church educational programs.”
Jim has generously made a number of copies available to me to distribute to Clergy Letter Project members who think the book might help them prepare for Evolution Weekend 2020. If you are one of those people, just let me know and I’ll award a free copy (you pay for postage and handling) to every fourth person who asks until all copies are claimed.
_____ Please enter me in the drawing to win a free copy of Where Did I Come From?. If selected, I agree to pay $5 for postage and handling.
______ I plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2020. Please add me to the growing list of participants.
Name of Congregation:
Location:
Your Name:
If you’re not one of the lucky ones to win a free copy of Where Did I Come From?, you can purchase one at Amazon.
Whether you enter the drawing for a free copy of the book or not, I do hope that you take this opportunity to sign up to participate in Evolution Weekend 2020.
______ I don’t need the book, but I certainly do plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2020. Please add me to the growing list of participants.
Name of Congregation:
Location:
Your Name:
2. Astrobiology News for June 2019: Highlights from the American Astronomical Society Meeting
In this month’s Astrobiology News, Clergy Letter Project consultant and Adler Planetarium astronomer Grace Wolf-Chase discusses some very exciting news stemming from the latest meeting of the American Astronomical Society – including some work of her own.
I’m just back from the 234th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in St. Louis, so I thought I’d share a few highlights related to astrobiology. Joshua Winn of Princeton University gave a wonderful talk on transiting exoplanets,(1) including discoveries from NASA’s Kepler missions and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).(2) Two unusual exoplanetary systems highlighted were Kepler-89, where one exoplanet eclipsed another during a transit, and Kepler-36, which hosts an Earth-sized exoplanet and Neptune-sized exoplanet sharing essentially the same orbit about their star! Although Kepler’s missions are now over, TESS’s survey began in July 2018, and it has already identified more than 500 exoplanet candidates, which are being confirmed through a world-wide effort with ground-based telescopes.
A particular interesting feature of AAS meetings are daily press conferences. The first of these on June 10th included Edward Schwietermann of the University of California at Riverside(3) who presented results of a study that suggest habitable environments for advanced life might be narrower than previously thought.(4) In a nutshell, the researchers used computer models to study atmospheric climate and photochemistry on different types of planets. They found that exoplanets too far from their host stars (but still in the traditional “habitable zone,” where liquid water might be present) build up too much carbon dioxide, far beyond levels known to be toxic to human and animal life on Earth. On the other hand, the type and intensity of ultraviolet radiation close to cool, dim stars like TRAPPIST-1(5) can lead to deadly concentrations of carbon monoxide.
Finally, the research my colleagues and I have been conducting, which was made possible by tens of thousands of citizen scientists who participated in the Milky Way Projecton the Zooniverse(6) platform, also attracted some media attention.(7) In short, a serendipitous discovery by citizen scientists has led to the identification of many hitherto unknown star-forming regions that may tell us a lot about environments similar to the one that gave birth to our Solar System. Please check out my press conference, Why Do Massive (and Not-So-Massive) Stars Form in the Milky Way?, which can be accessed on the AAS media archive under “Even More Sun & More Milky Way,”(8) or directly on YouTube(9) - I’m the 3rd speaker in the 11 am session on June 12th.
Until next month,
Grace Wolf-Chase, Ph.D. (gwolfchase@adlerplanetarium.org)
1. Transiting exoplanets have orbits that pass across their stars as seen from Earth. The “transit method” of detecting and characterizing exoplanets has been very prolific!
2. See http://theclergyletterproject.org/Resources/Astrobiology.html, April 2018.
3. https://aas.org/media-press/archived-aas-press-conference-webcasts
4. https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2019/06/10/new-study-dramatically-narrows-search-advanced-life-universe
5. See http://theclergyletterproject.org/Resources/Astrobiology.html, March & May 2017.
6. https://www.zooniverse.org/
7. https://daily.zooniverse.org/2019/06/17/milky-way-project-new-yellowballs-catalog/
8. https://aas.org/media-press/archived-aas-press-conference-webcasts
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W55Zst_ruGA&feature=youtu.be
3. Engaging Faith-based Communities in Citizen Science through Zooniverse
What follows is the announcement of a new grant-funded project designed to engage faith-based communities in public science. Grace Wolf-Chase is the project leader of this initiative and I’m proud to say that I’m serving on the advisory board. I hope some of you opt to participate.
I want to share some exciting news on an endeavor at the Adler Planetarium, thanks to a grant from the Sloan Foundation, which I hope may interest some of you! The goal of our new initiative is to create pathways for faith-based and inter-faith communities to engage with science through Zooniverse, the world’s largest and most popular online citizen science platform.(1) We will also support communities in building and leading their own Zooniverse projects.(2)
During the remainder of 2019, we will participate in conversations with faith-based and inter-faith organizations across the U.S. to assess needs and interests in different types of projects, and to collaboratively identify ways to engage in both existing projects and building new ones. The following year, we will put engagement strategies into place and evaluate their impact.
Those of you who have participated in Zooniverse know that research projects include the humanities as well as the sciences. We are committed to helping launch at least 3 new projects over the next 18 months. Although at least one of these must be science-oriented (in any area – from astronomy to ecology to zoology to you-name-it!), humanities projects that require, for example, people gathering information from digitized religious texts or records, are also possible. These can be relatively small projects of interest to individual places of worship, not necessarily huge initiatives such as Scribes of the Cairo Geniza.(3)
I am very excited to be leading this initiative with the Zooniverse team, and I invite your thoughts on possible projects of interest – if you want to be informed of future developments and events such as web-based workshops to use the Zooniverse project builder,(2) please email me and I’ll put your contact information on my list!
Grace (gwolfchase@adlerplanetarium.org)
1. https://www.zooniverse.org/
2. https://www.zooniverse.org/lab
3. https://www.scribesofthecairogeniza.org/
4. Understanding Evolution - Conversations Between a Scientist and a Pastor
As many of you know from reading these Newsletters, Clergy Letter Project Scientific Consultant Larry Collins maintains a website with many useful articles about creationism. He just added a new piece written by another one of our Scientific Consultants, Andrew Petto.
Larry enthused about the item by saying it is “the best short article that I have seen that gives a scientific explanation of evolution and what questions it answers and does not answer.” I suspect that you’ll feel similarly after reading it.
5. The Intersection of Zen and Science
Taiun Michael J. Elliston, a member of The Clergy Letter Project, serves as Abbot of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center. He has written a two-part article exploring the intersection of Zen and Science and I’m pleased to be able to share Part 1 with you this month. I’ll make Part 2 available next month. In his interesting analysis of Zen and Science Michael makes it clear that “Zen has no conflict with the findings of science.” As he notes in his essay, if you have any questions or comments about what he’s written, please don’t hesitate to contact him. He can be reached at taiunmelliston@gmail.com.
6. When Judaism Meets Science
In last month’s Newsletter, I provided information about When Judaism Meets Science, written by Roger Price, a good friend of The Clergy Letter Project. In addition to presenting some reviews of the book, I offered free copies and told you about the generous discount the publisher was providing to Clergy Letter Project members.
I want to take this moment to remind you that the 40 percent discount being offered by Wipf and Stock. The discount is available through the end of June and all you need to do to make use of it is purchase the book on their website and enter the code PRICE19 at checkout. You can start the process by clicking here.
Additionally, a number of those who won a free copy of the book have not yet claimed it, so I’m offering those copies to others who might want one. If you believe that this book will help you prepare for Evolution Weekend 2020, just let me know and I’ll award a free copy (you pay for postage and handling) to every fourth person who asks, until all copies are gone.
_____ Please enter me in the drawing to win a free copy of When Judaism Meets Science. If selected, I agree to pay $5 for postage and handling.
______ I plan to participate in Evolution Weekend 2020. Please add me to the growing list of participants.
Name of Congregation:
Location:
Your Name:
7. Teaching the Bible in Public Schools
In the April Newsletter I reported on a growing and troubling initiative to require or encourage the teaching of classes on the Christian Bible in public schools. A recent poll on this topic found some good news: “just 12 percent of Americans supported the idea of offering classes in Bible history that do not also teach about other religious books or atheist literature.” You can read about the details of the poll in a news story published in The Hill.
Concluding Thoughts
As you all know so very well, religion and science come to similar conclusions about many topics. At a time when discrimination in all of its insidious forms is on the rise, The Clergy Letter Project’s message of respect for difference, a message that is supported both by religion and science, is more important than ever. Please continue to do whatever you can to help stem the tide of intolerance and the violence that arises from it in any way you can. We are stronger, better and more humane together.
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.
Michael
Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org