Monthly Archive for May, 2010

Announcing the Inaugural Conference on Religion and Spirituality in Society

Published on May 31, 2010 in Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

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Common Ground is pleased to announce the beginning of a new conference, journal, book imprint, and knowledge community. that revolve around the role of religion and spirituality in society.

As you will see at the blog and in the newsletter, there are many ways to get plugged in to this new community. There are links to Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter, as well as the opportunity to subscribe to our RSS feed – all focused on the importance of having an open-forum community in which to discuss the important issues and roles of religion and spirituality, as well as their counterparts, atheism and agnosticism, in society today.

This knowledge community is brought together by a common concern for religious study and an interest to explore the relationship between religion and spirituality in society. The community interacts through an innovative, annual face-to-face conference, as well as year-round virtual relationships, peer reviewed journal, and book imprint – exploring the affordances of new digital media. Members of this knowledge community include philosophers, theologians, policymakers, and educators.

This year, the conference will take place from 15-17 February, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois, USA at the University Center in downtown Chicago.

Announcing the 2011 International Religion and Spirituality in Society Conference

Published on May 31, 2010 in Conference and Newsletter. 1 Comment

Location and Date

The 2011 Religion Conference will  be held in Chicago, USA at University Center from February 15-17. For more information, please visit www.Religion-Conference.com

Plenary Speakers

We are pleased to announce the first of many wonderful plenary speakers:

  • Dr. Robert McKim, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
  • Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun and chair of the Interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives, San Francisco
  • Dr. Wendy Doniger, University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago.

For more information, please click here.

Call for Papers

If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins with submission of a paper proposal. For information on proposals, presentation types, and other options, please click here. To submit a proposal click here and follow the online instructions. If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the conference.

Registration

Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of the proposal.  Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register at any time. For registration options, or to register for the 2010 Religion Conference, click here.

Themes

The themes for the International Religion and Spirituality in Society Conference are loosely grouped into four categories:

  • Religious Foundations
  • Religious Community and Socialization
  • Religious Commonalities and Differences
  • The Politics of Religion
More details on these themes can be seen online here. Please do note that these themes are meant to be rather broad so as to encompass a larger group of interests.

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Scope and Concerns

The Religion Conference scope and concerns is outlined here.

Contact

Please feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have. We can be reached by email at support@religioninsociety.com or by phone at +1 (217) 328-0405.

Dr. Craig Venter Shakes the Heavens with Synthetic Life

Published on May 27, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments
Image from 'Popular Science'

Image from Popular Science

By Jordan Manalastas, in Daily Bruin

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, what then are we to make of Dr. Craig Venter’s recent stab at God? La Jolla’s own mad scientist and crew might just give the Big Guy a run for his money, raising all sorts of moral crises, ethical dilemmas and plumbings of faith.

Team Venter shook the scientific world last week with its announcement of the first successfully synthesized self-replicating bacterium. The bacterium in question – a chimeric copy of Mycoplasma mycoides, genomically synthesized and injected into a recipient cell – has a new nickname (Synthia) and an even louder reputation (the first synthetic life form).

To read more…

Divine Wilderness

Published on May 25, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments
christian-van-adrichom_jervsalem-et-suburbia-eius_detail-solomon-temple_1-1497x1000By Nathan Schneider, in Triplecanopy

From Thomas Aquinas and John the Baptist to cellular automata and intelligent design: How God taught us planning, and where we went wrong…

Planning is something that people learned from God. The lesson might be said to have begun with the prescriptions God laid out for His earthly habitation among the Israelites: the Tabernacle that housed Him in the desert, and then the Temple that was His residence in Jerusalem. The dimensions of these structures were dictated by a divine blueprint. The Temple gave birth to a city, and from it emerged a civilization. We are descendants of this tradition, irrespective of such trivialities as whether one identifies as a “believer.”

To read more…

Posthumanism: A Christian Response

Published on May 17, 2010 in News. 0 Comments

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By Sørina Higgins, in Curator Magazine

In the first part of my review of Posthumanism, I began by comparing this theory to a nightmare. Although I went on to qualify that simile, saying that Cary Wolfe’s work is serious academic philosophy, I left the nightmare images intact. Indeed, a Christian’s first reaction might very well be horrified fear. Several premises of this book are terrifying: it seeks to problematize humanity’s unique existence; it calls into question universal ethics; it interrogates our assumptions about rationality; and it destabilized distinctions that are essential to religion, such as nature/culture, presence/absence, and human/nonhuman.

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Returning to Reform

Published on May 13, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

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By Jacob Neusner, in The Jewish Daily Forward

Once upon a time, there was a young man, a third-generation American who was raised in a classical Reform temple, who in the Reform manner celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah and who was confirmed in the Reform rite. He was inspired by his temple’s rabbi to himself become a Reform rabbi. He held national office in the National Federation of Temple Youth, and he was admitted to the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College.

Then, on the very day this young man was supposed to begin studies at Hebrew Union College, he instead entered the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the intellectual citadel of Conservative Judaism. He agreed to give up the lobster dinners, the veal parmigiana and the BLT sandwiches that he had loved, and even to quit smoking on the Sabbath, as admission to JTS demanded.

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Vatican’s Handling of Clergy Sex Abuse Gets Failing Grade in Survey

Published on May 11, 2010 in News. 0 Comments

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by David Gibson, in Politics Daily

American Catholics by a nearly 2-1 margin think the Vatican has done a “poor job” handling the clergy sex abuse crisis, a dim view that follows months of embarrassing revelations and reports of persistent inaction by top church officials, including then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

Yet there is some good news for Rome as perceptions of Benedict have improved markedly of late, with 43 percent of Catholics now saying they view the pontiff favorably, up from just 27 percent in March.

To read more…

What a Shoddy Piece of Work is Man

Published on May 9, 2010 in News. 0 Comments

philipballFrom Philip Ball, in Nature News

Helena: They do say that man was created by God.

Domin: So much the worse for them.

This exchange in Karel Capek’s 1921 play R.U.R., which coined the word “robot”, is abundantly vindicated by our burgeoning understanding of human biology. Harry Domin, director general of the robot-making company R.U.R., jeers that “God had no idea about modern technology”, implying that the design of human-like bodies is now something we can do better ourselves.

Whether or not that is so, the human body is certainly no masterpiece of intelligent planning. The eye’s retina, for instance, is wired back to front so that the wiring has to pass back through the screen of light receptors, imposing a blind spot.

To read more…

Marxism and Buddhism

Published on May 7, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

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By Dr. Ruwan M. Jayatunge, in Sri Lanka Guardian

Clombo, Sri Lanka — The two scholars who wrote on the comparisons between Marxism and Buddhism were Dr. Ambedkar and Dr Victor Gunasekara of Queensland University Australia. Dr. Ambedkar saw a very few similarities between Marxism and Buddhism.Dr Victor Gunasekara in his scientific article Marxism in a Buddhist Perspective states that Marx wrote extensively on religion but not on Buddhism which he did not really encounter.

Dr .Gunasekara further says , “When we leave the critique of religion and God, where Buddhism and Marxism have something in common, and consider ether aspects, the differences in the two systems begin to emerge. These differences exist and are real; but they should neither be exaggerated nor minimized. We may commence by considering to what extent the three signata discovered by the Buddha could be traced in Marx’s writings. The three fundamental laws discovered by the Buddha are that all phenomena are characterized by Impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and insubstantiality (anatta).

To read more…