Event

05

Jun

How Science Can Strengthen the Faith of Your Church

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Date and Time

Starts: June, 5 2020 8:00am

Ends: June, 5 2020 5:030pm

Location

Rice Memorial Center at Rice University,

6100 Main St.

Houston, TX 77005

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Organized by Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University

BioLogos Advisor Elaine Howard Ecklund and BioLogos Voices speaker Praveen Sethupathy will present “How Science Can Strengthen the Faith of Your Church” on Friday, June 5, 2020 at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

“The Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP) at Rice University is hosting How SCIENCE Can Strengthen the FAITH of Your CHURCH, a free conference focused on the relationship between Christianity and science—how each shapes and challenges the other. This one-day conference will include keynote headliners Elaine Howard Ecklund, RPLP director and professor of sociology at Rice University; Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; and Praveen Sethupathy, professor of biomedical sciences at Cornell University.

We invite you to join us on June 5, 2020 for a public conversation informed by cutting-edge research data and impactful stories. Come expand your understanding and be in conversation with pastors, scientists, theologians, and others.

In addition to plenary remarks on Christianity and science in today’s world, break-out sessions will provide practical information and tools for pastors and lay leaders to help them bridge divides between science and faith and scientific and faith communities. Topics to be addressed include, among others: engaging youth about science; race, social justice, and science; and human origins and human uniqueness.

The conference will be preceded by the release of Elaine Howard Ecklund’s forthcoming book, Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us beyond Fear, which will be published by Brazos Press in May 2020. The first 250 people to register here will receive a free copy of the book!“

Elaine Howard Ecklund

Featured Speaker

Elaine Howard Ecklund

Elaine Howard Ecklund is the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at Rice University, as well as founding director of the Religion and Public Life Program. Ecklund is a sociologist of religion, immigration, and science who examines how individuals bring changes to religious and scientific institutions. She is the author of four books with Oxford University Press, one book with New York University Press, and numerous research articles and op-eds. Her most recent book is Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion (Oxford University Press, 2019) with coauthors David R. Johnson, Brandon Vaidyanathan, Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Steven W. Lewis, Robert A. Thomson Jr., and Di Di. Her forthcoming book, Why Science and Faith Need Each Other: Eight Shared Values That Move Us Beyond Fear, will be published with Brazos Press, a division of Baker Books, in May 2020.  She has received grants from the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Her research has been cited thousands of times times by local, national, and international media. In 2013, she received Rice University’s Charles O. Duncan Award for Most Outstanding Academic Achievement and Teaching, and in 2018 she gave the Gifford Lecture in Scotland.
Praveen Sethupathy

Featured Speaker

Praveen Sethupathy

Praveen is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of the Center for Genomics at Cornell University, where he directs a research lab focused on genomic approaches to understand human health and disease. He received his BA degree from Cornell University and his PhD in Genomics from the University of Pennsylvania. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Francis Collins, he moved in 2011 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics. The same year he was selected by Genome Technology as one of the nation's top 25 rising young investigators in genomics. In 2017, he returned to Cornell University as an Associate Professor. Praveen has authored over 95 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals and has served as a reviewer for over 35 different journals. Recent honors include a faculty merit award for outstanding teaching and mentoring and the prestigious American Diabetes Association Pathway To Stop Diabetes Research Accelerator, which is awarded to only three people per year. Praveen has been an invited speaker for the Veritas Forum, has served on the advisory board for the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion, and serves on the Board of Directors for the BioLogos Foundation, which seeks to convey harmony between science and faith. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his wife and three children.