Re: [asa] AAAS Questions of Truth

Oh, I'm terribly sorry. that should have been www.questionsoftruth.org

Sorry, Randy

P.S. At the AAAS meeting and the launch of the book, Beale and Polkinghorne had a title slide that included this URL. And they had a typo in it. One of the Q&A was why doesn' t the URL work!
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: David Opderbeck
  To: Randy Isaac
  Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 9:50 AM
  Subject: Re: [asa] AAAS Questions of Truth

  That link doesn't work.

  David W. Opderbeck
  Associate Professor of Law
  Seton Hall University Law School
  Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology

  On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 9:17 PM, Randy Isaac <randyisaac@comcast.net> wrote:

    As we have done in the past, ASA joined with several other organizations, such as CTNS and PASTB to purchase a booth. This year we had the privilege of being located immediately adjacent to a booth by John Polkinghorne and Nicholas Beale. They launched their new book, Questions of Truth, at this conference. See www.questionsoftruth.com. I bought the book but haven't read it yet. Ted Davis will be writing a more formal review. It's 94 pages of responses to 51 questions drawn from queries that Polkinghorne has received on his website over the years. Plus there are three appendices on anthropic fine-tuning, brain and mind, and evolution. It looks like a relatively moderate level book that could be widely and effectively used in lay audiences. Most of us would probably seek deeper discussion of many of the issues and they do have references for further reading.

    It was a great opportunity to be able to chat with John Polkinghorne as well. Their book was launched at a special symposium this afternoon that was chaired by none other than Jim McCarthy, this year's president of AAAS. John and Nicholas each made short comments and the floor was open for discussion. About 60 some people were there including about half a dozen ASA members. Most of the questions came from faith positions well outside those of ASA. In particular, one vocal atheist used the opportunity to wax eloquent on his own views, getting under John's skin a bit. Most other comments were positive.

    The other session at AAAS of note was the session on AAAS Coalition of affiliates on science and religion. That discussion was intended to explore the beginning of this coalition. Unfortunately it didn't fare too well. There were some good comments by Gil Omenn, 2006 president of AAAS, that were supportive. Lea Schweitz of Zygon gave a good talk as well. But in the end, the proposal didn't have many specifics, and it wasn't sold very well. There are too many religions and too many perspectives for them to handle adequately. But the session was well attended.

    So much for this year's AAAS reports. I hope you don't mind my using this forum to share the experience. The pilot tells us we're about to land back in Boston so if you get this, you know we landed safely.

    Randy

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Received on Mon Feb 16 21:06:10 2009