Announcement List for the Virginia Atheists & Agnostics

[Kenneth Hawes <>]

Hello everyone,

The Center for Christian Study is having a biweekly reading group on Faith, Reason, and Science, and they invite VAA members to attend. Our own Scott Newton will be attending, as well as other VAAers. The first meeting is this Friday at 4pm, and the reading is attached below.

Happy reading!

-Kenneth

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bill Wilder <>
Date: Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 11:45 AM
Subject: Faith & Science group begins Friday: reading attached
To: Bill Wilder <>

Dear Faith and Science friends:

It’s almost that time: our biweekly Faith, Reason, and Science reading groups begins again this Friday, 4-5pm here at the Center for Christian Study. Come and bring a friend, won’t you?

As for our reading, let’s begin with “Materialism as an Anti-Religious Mythology,” chapter 2 from Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, by Stephen Barr, a professor of theoretical particle physics at the Bartol Research Institute of the University of Delaware. Clearly this represents my own Christian convictions. I’ll hope to get a few suggestions from those of you coming from a different perspective so that I can also get that on the docket.

I’m thinking that we’ll start with questions of epistemology (how we know what we know) and the nature of science and then move from there through the various branches of science from the bottom up: physics, biology, psychology. Feel free to suggest other branches of science (or mathematics) and, please, send me some suggestions for reading (including one for our second meeting).

In any case, I’m looking forward to another year together. Please come, whatever your faith or science perspective, and let’s restart the conversation.

I’ll also make sure we have some snacks, of course.

Best to you,

Bill

--
William N. Wilder, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Center for Christian Study
128 Chancellor Street
Charlottesville, VA 22903

434.817.1050 (work)
434.984.9192 (voicemail)



------ Forwarded Message
From: Bill Wilder <>
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 13:49:16 -0400
Conversation: Faith & Science group beginning Sept 13: need your suggestions
Subject: Faith & Science group beginning Sept 13: need your suggestions

Dear friends in Faith, Reason, and Science:

Greetings from the Center for Christian Study. I hope that everyone had a productive and/or restful summer. We’re back at it now, aren’t we?

If you’re receiving this email, it’s because for some reason or another you were added to the Faith, Reason, and Science reading group list. As you may know, this group is dedicated to taking up any and all issues having to do with the relationship (coherence, conflict, complementing, whatever) between the historic convictions of the Christian faith and the results of modern, empirical science.

Over the past three years we’ve talked about faith and biology (esp. evolution), faith and physics (e.g., the anthropic principle), faith and psychology (mind, body, soul). We have had a wide variety of Christian views represented along with those coming from an agnostic or atheistic perspective (particularly from the Virginia Atheists and Agnostics group). Our conversations have been marked with honesty, frankness, and civility—a rare combination these days between people who disagree about things that matter most.

So here again is an invitation to join the FRS reading group at the Center for Christian Study. The plan is to cover all three of the scientific areas (biology, physics, psychology) this year rather than taking the entire year for just one of them. Also, we would like to continue our practice, begun last year, of reading an article from a Christian perspective one meeting and reading something from a non-Christian perspective the next.

**May I ask for your help then? If you have an article or essay dealing with science and faith that you would like to recommend for discussion, would you send your suggestion my way? Further, if you’re willing to facilitate one of our discussions (not a requirement if you suggest an article), let me know that too. I’ll put together a reading list schedule for this semester and we’ll go from there.

We will meet on a biweekly basis, beginning Friday, September 13, 4:00-5:00pm here at the Center for Christian Study (128 Chancellor Street). Please feel free to pass this invitation to others (or to ask me to add others to this list).

I’m already looking forward to our time together.

Best to you all,

Bill

P.S. If you have moved on or would otherwise like to be removed from this list, let me know and I’ll take care of it.

--
William N. Wilder, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Center for Christian Study
128 Chancellor Street
Charlottesville, VA 22903

434.817.1050 (work)
434.984.9192 (voicemail)



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--
Kenneth Hawes
University of Virginia 2014
BA Mathematics

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