Lecture at Spui25, Amsterdam
I have been invited to give a public lecture in the Illustre School’s lunch lecture series, “Geesteswetenschappen presenteert” (“The Humanities present…”). The topic is nothing less than “The relationship between science and religion”, which I will of course set forth in a final and authoritative manner in the exactly 18 minutes that I am given… So if you want a heavy lunch on April 12, please do come to Spui25 in the centre of Amsterdam. Seats are limited, so you need to register at Spui25’s website if you want to come (please note that registration only opens one month in advance of the lecture).
The full program can be found here, but the abstract reads as follows:
Since the Enlightenment, the relationship between science and religion has formed a topic of much debate. This debate has however usually been skewed by the vested interests of those partaking in it. During the 19th century for example, scientists attacked organised religion in the name of emancipation at the very same time that religious figures were seeking to prove the compatibility of faith and natural science. Even in more recent times, the debate surrounding religion and science continues to remain polemical, with academic research either driven by the current ‘new atheism’ vogue, or blurred by the funding of influential religious organisations. The end result of which has been a debate lacking in nuance and perspective.
In his lecture, research associate Egil Asprem will focus on such interactions within the context of the scientific change which took place during the first half of the 20th century. Asprem will hereby seek to illustrate how the phenomenon of scientific transformation and creativity is naturally steeped in religious symbolism. Key examples ranging from the ‘discovery enthusiasm’of the revolutionary scientist to the religious stakeholder’s claims of science as containing ‘spiritual truths’.
It’s set to start at 13.15, and will be introduced by Peter Forshaw.
This blog post by Egil Asprem was first published on Heterodoxology. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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