MOUNT VERNON — International speakers will convene at Cornell College for a symposium on “Human Nature and Contemporary Biology” on Friday and Saturday, April 14-15, in Hedges Conference Room of The Commons. Admission is free.
The symposium is funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and facilitated by Cornell’s Program in Science and Religion, directed by history professor William Carroll. This is the second annual symposium coordinated by the program; last year’s theme was “Time, Creation, and Cosmology.”
The symposium schedule is:
Friday, April 14, 8 p.m.: “Creation, Evolution, and Thomas Aquinas,” lecture by William Carroll.
Saturday, April 15
9:30 a.m.: “Human Nature in the Context of Evolutionary Thought,” lecture by Michael Ruse, professor of philosophy and zoology, University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada); comment by Michael Tkacz, associate professor of philosophy, Gonzaga University (Spokane, Wash.).
1:15 p.m.: “Human Nature and the Animal Kingdom: Is There a Difference?” lecture by Marie George, associate professor of philosophy, St. John’s University (New York).
3 p.m.: “Human Nature: Theological Reflections on Contemporary Biology,” lecture by Keith Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford. Ward, an internationally distinguished comparative theologian, is teaching a course at Cornell during term eight, NeoDarwinism, Sociobiology, and Religion.