Links to

Celebration of Evolution

What and why "evolution"

Scientific story of evolution

Religious perspectives on the scientific story

A particular religious perspective

Schedule

Directions to Wege Auditorium and parking

As an example of
why and how to celebrate the natural world
from a religious perspective

we offer this description of a five part mini-course,
A Celebration of Evolution from a Religious Perspective. The course took place in the Wege Auditorium within the Unified Science Center at Williams College on five successive Sunday afternoons beginning February 10, 2008, the Sunday on which the nation celebrated Evolution Weekend in 2008.The mini-course was free and open to the general public, including the Williams College community, members of area churches and synagogues, and other residents of Williamstown and nearby communities.

The program emphasized religious perspectives on the natural world as we now understand it - rather than the details of the current scientific understanding of just how it may have happened. This approach followed the lead of (Episcopal Priest) Barbara Brown Taylor's approach in her book, The Luminous Web, and the point of view expressed by Rabbi Arthur Green in his book, Seek My Face, Speak My Name.

While Taylor is "intrigued by the many holes in evolutionary theory" that interest anti-evolutionists, she is "much more interested in the questions science and religion raise for one another," and so are we. Green's approach might be best summed up by "The way to God is through the world, not around it." Course participants could, if they wished, profit from the parallel points of view of these two authors by consulting their books during the course.

Their books and other optional reading materials were available on the NBCRS Book Table, and excerpts from both books were available on our documents web site.

For more information about the mini-course, we invite you to explore What and why "evolution is something to celebrate from a religious perspective, the aspects of the Scientific story of evolution that seem to us relevant to religious questions, some brief Religious perspectives on the scientific story, and A particular religious perspective as understood by one of our co-directors.