GRANADA, Spain, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading scientists from the Middle
East, Europe, and North America are set to gather and will call for peaceful
dialogue among Muslims, Jews, and Christians. The summit meeting in Granada,
Spain is a response to religiously motivated conflicts around the world,
including the September 11 attacks in the United States and the global rise
in terrorism. The scientists will meet with over one hundred scholars and
religious leaders to face two threats: erupting cultural conflicts among the
three monotheisms, and rising tensions between modern technological society
and religious fundamentalism. The Science and the Spiritual Quest Spain
Symposium will provide a public forum for debate Friday, August 23 - Sunday,
August 25, 2002 at the historic Alhambra Palace Hotel. For more information
and registration, visit http://www.ssq.net or call +1 (510) 848-2355.
"Our era cries out for a new political vision that can take care of the
spiritual and environmental crises of our time -- specifically moral void,
injustice, violence, and war," asserts Iranian physicist and Muslim scholar
Mehdi Golshani. Meanwhile Tsevi Mazeh, an Israeli astrophysicist and longtime
Orthodox Jewish peace activist, expresses hope and caution: "Objectivity and
rationalism, two of the pillars of modern science, can be used to balance the
strong trends of particularity within the three major monotheistic faiths --
but the main source of openness and respect for the 'other' should be found
within the core of each tradition."
Observers note the uniqueness of a meeting that features devout Jews,
Muslims, and Christians who are also scientists at the cutting edge of their
research disciplines. "In more settled times, the discussion of science and
religion could afford to dwell primarily on theoretical questions of theology
and philosophy," says Jim Schaal, Program Director for SSQ. "Now scientific
developments in fields like genomics and neuroscience join longstanding
concerns, such as environmental degradation and weapons of mass destruction,
to bring urgent and practical issues of ethics and politics to the forefront
of debate."
Although Christianity and Judaism have long struggled to come to terms
with the modern sciences to which they played midwife, Islam has been less
engaged in the Western scholarly dialogue with science -- despite the legacy
of high scientific accomplishments in the Muslim world during the medieval
era. This, too, is changing as both Muslims and non-Muslims recognize science
and its technological offspring as central players in religious conflicts.
The SSQ Spain Symposium is open to the public and journalists are
encouraged to attend. Science and the Spiritual Quest (http://www.ssq.net) is a
program of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley,
California. The Spain Symposium is presented in partnership with the
Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science and the CTNS Science and Religion
Course Program with support from the John Templeton Foundation.
SOURCE Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
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+1-615-244-8035, or Silas@LogicMediaGroup.com, for Center for
Theology and the Natural Sciences
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